Final Draft

Directions:
★ Copy and paste all of your paragraphs in order:
○ Introduction
○ Body Paragraph 1
○ Body Paragraph 2
○ Body Paragraph 3
○ Conclusion
★ Record yourself reading this essay (see
assignment directions)
★ Submit to the dropbox:
○ Your RECORDING
○ THIS DOCUMENT in PDF format
 Copy and Paste Your Essay Here:
While yes, learning about certain aspects of history may not be exciting or interesting, history
is important and we shouldn't overlook the information we're given that gives us insight to
where we evolved from because if we didn't have history, we wouldn't know why the world
exists, we wouldn't know about the dinosaurs and we wouldn't know about our presidents,
for example, the only reason we've evolved from being cavemen or having a hierarchy
system is because of historians and ancient scriptures, and history is the entire reason we
know anything about the past. We all share a mutual understanding of how we as homo
sapiens came to be and that is entirely because of historians digging to find that very
information out.
History, in simple terms, is just a shared knowledge of the past. We all remember the event
of the Holocaust, World War Two and 9/11, those are historic events that have left an
undeniable impact on the world and our society as a whole. We remember these events
because some have personally experienced them first hand, they live to tell the story of how
much of an impact it’s had on them and the people they knew. Humans or homo sapiens are
the only species that have such a way of communicating past events and memories and
turning them into stories that may be remembered for centuries.
The impact history has on our society is important, tales of the past and the way humans
interacted and the systems they had years ago allows us to evolve based on new
information we are able to learn. For example, in ‘How We Have Turned Memories and
Stories into Histories’ Christian states, “Today, all professional historians understand that
their first task is to get the history right. That means checking all the details against hard
evidence, and preferably against written documents. The great nineteenth-century German
historian Leopold von Ranke pioneered the modern art of writing history on the basis of
detailed archival records. And these days, history based on written documents remains the
primary form of historical scholarship.”
This paragraph shows how Ranke created a whole new method and improved upon the work
of others, he knew that a method in which simply remembering stories from the past wasn’t
reliable enough, he made history. He pioneered a method of remembrance and we’ve only
improved on that method. Because of his impact on our society we are now able to trust the
sources we have, we are now able to remember events that have happened before we could
ever have been conceived, this is why history is important. We can improve and move
forward while still remembering where we came from, we are able to remember our cultural
backgrounds and not wonder so much if the stories have been altered because of bias.

Keeping track of historical records, things like stories and events have changed dramatically
over time. It used to be leagues different from simply writing down your findings from a
computer, the first archive was created by the Sumerians and they used cuneiform writing on
clay tablets to record property ownership and commercial activity. Compared to modern day,
the fact we’ve evolved that much is impressive.
And there used to be a time where we wouldn’t even write down the stories we were told, a
time where our ancestors couldn’t write or read at all. Humanity used to rely on the memory
to remember and retell stories of the past, events and gods that we believe existed at one
point and the impacts they have on us now.
The cultural activities and rituals we did were because of the scriptures we’d memorize and
soon pass onto our children. For example, The Roman philosopher Augustine of Hippo had a
friend who could recite backward the works of the poet Virgil and in the Muslim world it was
common to memorize the entire Qur'an.
Remember when we weren’t able to identify fingerprints or when it was completely unheard
of to track down where the material of C4 came from just from a tiny piece? We’ve evolved
to the point where you can’t steal something from your local Target simply because the
cameras are so advanced.

In better terms, our methods of recalling historical events and scriptures has evolved past
the need to recite them out loud. On an unrelated but mentionable note, some say that we
have lost instead of having gained, such as when the Egyptian king Thoth, whom is believed
to have invented writing bragged about such a thing. Because of this, Egyptian god Thamus
replied to this, stating, “For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those
who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing,
produced by external characters which are not part of themselves, will discourage the use of
their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory but of reminding;
and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read
many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are
for the most part ignorant...since they are not wise, but only appear wise.”

Now, there are pros and cons to everything, the same goes for history and studying it. The
challenges of following a profession in studying history are things such as problems with
finding and trusting sources, as well as interpreting what you do end up finding and
interpreting it successfully. If someone is just beginning to study history, there’s a chance
they could be led to believe the words of someone who’s misleading others for profit or
because they may be biased. In better words we should take a look at ‘Spot fake news by
learning how to search online information’, in which Levin states, “The way many news
websites make money is by maximizing visits to the articles they publish. Authors who create
fake news play to readers' worst fears in hopes that more people will click on the stories and
read them, and they will, in turn, make more money. Because the fake news appears to be
so similar to true, factual news, unsuspecting visitors can't tell the difference between the
two, and the trick works.” Another better example is when there was once a rumor being
spread about homosexuality being a sin according to the bible. This rumor was being spread
by people whom I didn’t know, people you wouldn’t trust to tell the truth. The reason for this
is because this rumor ended up being disproved, these people spread this information with
no real evidence, and the evidence they did have was completely false. The injunction that
“man must not lie with man” (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13) is more than likely about the sexual
exploitation of young men by older men, a practice called pederasty rather than relating to
any argument about homosexuality, which if I may add wasn’t a term until the 19th century.
My point is, it is so very easy to overlook the little inconsistencies in the information someone
gives you, and with so many prejudices and biases in the world along with the wrongly
interpreted histories we have to work with, it’s difficult to trust those sources we do have, and
it’s even harder to find evidence that we can trust. Luckily we have improved on finding
evidence but it is still a big issue.
In my humble conclusion, history is a shared knowledge of the past. The impact history has
had on our society has allowed us to evolve in our systems, politically, spiritually, mentally,
etc. We used to only rely on our ability of remembrance to retell stories and scriptures.
Although due to the endless amounts of information at our tiny fingertips now due to modern
technological advances, we may struggle with misinformation and being mislead by people
who couldn't care less about the holy truth we are able to continue to discover amazing
details about our past life and ancestors, and we should take history like this seriously. This
is where we came from, this is where we evolved from. Learning about this may be boring
and it may not ever affect you, but it's amazing how far we've come and that fact should give
you hope in this negative world.