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Guest
Then why do some historians try to rewrite history books for the the classrom, omitting important facts or events? I say, history is in the eye of the writer.
Historians do not rewrite history books for the classroom…a board of editors does. Published historical book series used for the classroom are lucky to have an historian on the board. Usually, they have ‘(name removed by moderator)ut’ from various individuals from universities who get paid for their services. Classroom history books are quite bland, for the most part. Editorial boards make the decision on what to eliminate or omit in those books, whether or not the writer(s) included the material.
To agree with some your statement, some “true”, apparently meaning honest and objective, historians might give an unbiased and factual account, but certainly not all- therefore, in looking at Columbus, did he really “discover” America? It is that purported discovery that has led to a National holiday and belief system for millions of people… But, rhetorically speaking, (I don’t want to get into the nuance that he is the discoverer within his specific point in history or for the peoples he represents) is that statement a totally historically accurate one?
The proper point of the above is: did Columbus ‘discover’ the New World, not America per se? For all intents and purposes historically he was the first one to give us written documentation of the New World. Do you think we are the only ones who celebrate this event? Do you know that it is known as Dia de la Raza in many Latin American countries? In Costa Rica it is called Dia de las Culturas, *Discovery Day *in the Bahamas, *Dia de la Hispanidad *in Spain, *Discoverer’s Day *in Hawaii, and *Dia de la Resistencia Indigena *in Venezuela. They all celebrate the same event. The first Columbus Day celebration in America took place in New York City in 1792 to celebrate the 300th Anniversary of Columbus’s landing in the New World. It was celebrated by Italian immigrants in California as early as 1869. It was an unofficial holiday since 1892 in most Italian communities throughout the country (and gained popularity the next year particularly in Chicago because of the New World Exposition), but became official in 1971 when Congress placed it on the 2nd Monday of October.
I appreciate your defense of the credibility of historians, but you can’t tell me that within the imperfect inclination of human beings that historical writings are 100% factual and infallible.
If there was only one or two historians throughout most of written history interpreting the information, I would say that it would not be as accurate. However, you have literally thousands of historians who glean over records of events and cross-index their information so that we have a pretty good idea as to what occurred in certain historical periods. And that’s all that can be asked of anyone.
Certainly, that is why hundreds if not thousands of mythical and philosophical concepts and ideas were disregarded from history. The ancient Gnostics were famous for drastically distorting the Faith for their point of views, yet they would insist that their historical collection of beliefs was “true” and accurate.
But we know better.
I agree wholeheartedly. But mostly, because the Church recieves its authority directly from God.
Amen!
