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> The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels like a fictional world. One idea for teaching history is to emphasize that which y
by mncharity 7y ago
> The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels like a fictional world.
One idea for teaching history is to emphasize that which you, as a time traveler, would find startlingly strange ("wait, WAT?!?").
A 1700's British officer, traveling with American militia, is utterly boggled... the American officer, he is talking with his men, asking them what they think!?! A WWII American officer, with not-unfamiliar clothes, familiar language, many familiar ideas, and culture... and then he shares his commonplace views on negroes. A familiar city in the 1950's, with familiar still-there office buildings, in the summer... without any AC (so people sit by open windows to catch a breeze). Making arrangements to meet at highly specific locations and times (at noon under the clock at Grand Central)... because without cell phones, mobile incremental rendezvous is hard. The Sun goes down, so you stop working, because you can't see in the dark - it's been suggested that the greatest US technological triumph of the entire 20th Century was... rural electrification. Small-village farmers in Egypt, part of the Ottoman empire, using strikes and slowdowns to discipline local elites, who fear the attention of "what's wrong here and how do I fix it" imperial officials. Sales guy, eventually to head IBM, is said to have gone into stores with competitors' cash registers... and smashed them with a baseball bat. Fights and drawn knives on the floor of the US Senate. The opulence of Versailles... human excrement is cleaned off hallway floors not once, but twice a day! And so on, and on...
- Stratoscope 7y agoYou have described many strange and fantastical worlds. And yet you claim these have actually existed? Surely, you must provide some proof!
- russfink 7y agoHint - they are the only one that avoids every annual time traveler convention / "landing spot." :-)
- arethuza 7y agoOne of my favourites: at the height of the British Empire, a private rises on merit to become Chief of the Imperial General Staff - rising from the lowest rank to the very highest. The equivalent is impossible today. Edit: Correction.
- Ntrails 7y ago> The equivalent is impossible today. I am not convinced that is true. In many ways the barriers to being an officer are far less pronounced today than they were in the days of the Empire.
- arethuza 7y agoIt was actually Richard Holmes who made that point I repeated in one of his books - unfortunately I can't remember which one! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holmes_(military_historian) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holmes_(military_histo... NB The chap in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Robertson,_1st_Baronet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Robertson,_1st_Bar...
- mrslave 7y agoI heard a recent McDonald's CEO started at the fryer. No idea as to the accuracy.
- dorchadas 7y agoNot sure about CEO, but I do know the owner of the one in my hometown (and a few others) started that way. He worked in one and was frugal and was eventually able to buy his own franchise.
- ValentineC 7y agoI did a quick search, and that sounds like either Fred Turner [1], Michael Quinlan [2], or Charlie Bell [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_L._Turner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_L._Turner [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Quinlan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Quinlan [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Bell_(businessman) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Bell_(businessman)
- ubermonkey 7y agoWhy do you think that's impossible today? Enlisted personnel are often tapped to become officers. Once in the officer ranks, they've got the same shot at 4 stars as any other 2L, no? Quick googling turns up the career of John Shalikashvili, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997. Shalikashvili was drafted into the Army as a private in 1958, eventually applied to Officer Candidate School, and ended up literally in charge of all US forces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shalikashvili https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shalikashvili
- baud147258 7y ago> The opulence of Versailles... human excrement is cleaned off hallway floors not once, but twice a day I'm pretty sure they had developed latrines by that time period
- Numberwang 7y agonope. shitting on hallway floor was common practice.