History Discussion
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2024 12:22 pm
I noticed we talk a lot about The American Civil War here on the channel, especially since a lot of ghost stories revolve around the civil war and that era. I've also been studying for the English praxis. My study delves into different eras of literary time periods such as the colonial, revolutionary, romanticism, realism which encompasses part of the civil war and transcendentalism, going into the modern and post modern or contemporary eras. I also managed to find a copy of the American literature anthology online, because as it would have it I got rid of a lot of my college books not thinking I'd need them again. What a foolish decision in hindsight, but it's not like I knew I was going to need them. I was looking at some of the maps and thought how impressive Virginia was back in those days as it appears to have spanned a good portion of the West. I'm aware West Virginia used to be part of Virginia, but this territory is insane to look at from a modern day perspective.
So then I thought, what fun it might be to simply have a light hearted discussion about history! Living in Virginia has cultivated a love of history, and studying these classic authors are a fight way to give insight into how they lived and thought back in those days.
My boyfriend and I have also visited the Jamestown Settlement back in 2018 and had a grand ol' time. I was especially impressed with the native American dwellings and how warm they were inside. I never would have imagined they would seem so cozy! It was also good fun seeing the little village replicas of the log houses and how simple life was back then.
But it was also difficult for sure, so many died of disease and starvation was brought upon by droughts and famines. The Native Americans knew how to survive here, but we were completely new to this land and didn't have a good idea of what it took to work the land and survive. Hundreds of years later, here we are having cultivated it with modern farming techniques and corn plantations going on for miles. It's really fascinating to me how far things have come. But at a great price, for certain. Wars, conflicts of all kinds, and disease made these things challenging. I can only imagine how much more difficult it will be, despite having more advanced technology, to colonize other worlds like the moon and Mars. Unless there's really friendly aliens there, we aren't going to get the same kind of help. We're on our own figuring out how to get plants to survive there so we can grow food and building enclosures to protect us from the elements.
And yet it's fun to look into the simpler lives and how people lived back then. I especially enjoy things like armor and canons from those areas.
Of course, many hauntings have historical significance as well so I think that can be relevant to a history discussion as well. Authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickenson both came from the romantic era and often wrote about themes of death. Yet the tone of Poe versus Dickenson is vastly different. Poe's works seem to invoke feelings of dread, sorrow and fear and dare the imagination to explore darker places. Dickenson by contract, welcomes death in her poem "I could not stop for death" as a friend and something to be accepted as part of life.
So there you have it, what are your thoughts about history? Is there a time period you enjoy more than others?
And this doesn't have to be limited to American history either. I find Ancient history of the Egyptians and Sumerians quite fascinating as well. Sometimes it's fun to even go beyond and explore history in the East and gain a different perspective that contrasts with our Western points of view. It's a lot of fun! And there's so much lore, I can't help but compare and contrast it. (Just look at how dragons are viewed in the East versus the West, and how vastly different they are portrayed!)
And now a quote that I think rings true today...
“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!”
—Winston Churchill or perhaps it was George Santayana who first said this quote. I'm not entirely sure, but I definitely think history is important either way!
So then I thought, what fun it might be to simply have a light hearted discussion about history! Living in Virginia has cultivated a love of history, and studying these classic authors are a fight way to give insight into how they lived and thought back in those days.
My boyfriend and I have also visited the Jamestown Settlement back in 2018 and had a grand ol' time. I was especially impressed with the native American dwellings and how warm they were inside. I never would have imagined they would seem so cozy! It was also good fun seeing the little village replicas of the log houses and how simple life was back then.
But it was also difficult for sure, so many died of disease and starvation was brought upon by droughts and famines. The Native Americans knew how to survive here, but we were completely new to this land and didn't have a good idea of what it took to work the land and survive. Hundreds of years later, here we are having cultivated it with modern farming techniques and corn plantations going on for miles. It's really fascinating to me how far things have come. But at a great price, for certain. Wars, conflicts of all kinds, and disease made these things challenging. I can only imagine how much more difficult it will be, despite having more advanced technology, to colonize other worlds like the moon and Mars. Unless there's really friendly aliens there, we aren't going to get the same kind of help. We're on our own figuring out how to get plants to survive there so we can grow food and building enclosures to protect us from the elements.
And yet it's fun to look into the simpler lives and how people lived back then. I especially enjoy things like armor and canons from those areas.
Of course, many hauntings have historical significance as well so I think that can be relevant to a history discussion as well. Authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickenson both came from the romantic era and often wrote about themes of death. Yet the tone of Poe versus Dickenson is vastly different. Poe's works seem to invoke feelings of dread, sorrow and fear and dare the imagination to explore darker places. Dickenson by contract, welcomes death in her poem "I could not stop for death" as a friend and something to be accepted as part of life.
So there you have it, what are your thoughts about history? Is there a time period you enjoy more than others?
And this doesn't have to be limited to American history either. I find Ancient history of the Egyptians and Sumerians quite fascinating as well. Sometimes it's fun to even go beyond and explore history in the East and gain a different perspective that contrasts with our Western points of view. It's a lot of fun! And there's so much lore, I can't help but compare and contrast it. (Just look at how dragons are viewed in the East versus the West, and how vastly different they are portrayed!)
And now a quote that I think rings true today...
“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!”
—Winston Churchill or perhaps it was George Santayana who first said this quote. I'm not entirely sure, but I definitely think history is important either way!