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This idea that politics or partisanship is something new to the modern world is fascinating. I see it constantly among people that have little exposure to actu
by manachar 10y ago
This idea that politics or partisanship is something new to the modern world is fascinating.
I see it constantly among people that have little exposure to actual historical documents.
I suspect its origin is a bit of nostalgia for the "simpler times" of the past and the often horrendously bad methods many people learn history.
Often history is presented as a cleaned up and certain narrative - At simplest, a history of events that happen on dates. They often leave out the machinations, plotting, betrayals, and intrigue that was almost always present.
We strip the messy humanity from history as we build simplistic narratives.
Looking back it may seem to be obvious that Nazis should not have been appeased, but at the time there were many intelligent and informed people who thought otherwise. Same with the US getting involved in the War.
Politics have been a thing as far back as we have written records.
- Brakenshire 10y agoWould be interesting to focus on one particular event by first looking at the publicly available information at the time, then looking at the primary documents released later to see what was going on internally, then reading a general history book to see how all the complexities and inconsistencies are tidied up.
- manachar 10y agoThat would be a fantastic way to learn history! Only thing I'd add is that the written historical record only tells part of the story and can often get amazing insights from other sources such as the material record (i.e. archaeology).
- hetman 10y agoYes, a quick look at the late Roman Republic period makes our modern politics look down right polite and restrained. Certainly all the same themes as we see in modern politics, but turned up several levels in intensity.
- Spooky23 10y agoI dual majored in history, and I always chuckle whenever I hear people complaining about partisan media. US Revolutionary war papers make current day talk radio seem balanced!
- mattbettinson 10y agoYou seem to know your stuff. Do you have any history book recommendations?
- slededit 10y agoNot a book (and I'm not the OP) but I was listening to a lot of Robert Murrow broadcasts on the internet archive, and the interesting part about it is his opinion is almost always made obvious. Most people refer to his time period as the golden age of news, and I don't think many people realize that reporters of that era took politicized stands. He was actively against McCarthy for example. One thing that is different is he was always fair. Ensuring he gave adequate time to the other side - and taking people of substance from that side. In the case of McCarthy he gave him an entire episode (which McCarthy wasted).