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I think it’s important, when teaching history, to make events relatable to your students. History is a conversation not a statement.
This is one time, 20y ago, when I couldn’t make the past relatable. I could today. Anyone could. And that’s the tragedy of the Great Recession. https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1096810304984543233
This is one time, 20y ago, when I couldn’t make the past relatable. I could today. Anyone could. And that’s the tragedy of the Great Recession. https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1096810304984543233
I was lucky enough to train both as a scientist & a historian. The key thing with training is you learn context, you gather facts, you interpret neutrally, you cite what others believe & you gather up the details to chart what, in your honest & fact-based view, happened.
If history is dry & boring you’re telling it wrong. After all, it’s about people’s lives & we can all relate to that. The amazing thing about history today is we are learning more about the past all the time. Whether it’s incest amongst primeval Irish kings...
...a distinct style of Irish Viking art or the history of emancipation for women, LGBTQI, Mincéirí (Travellers) or the rediscovery of an extinct Irish tree. The whole far right trope of minorities destroying history is factually wrong. What’s happening is...
...history is expanding to represent all of us. In the past, Irish history was nationalism v unionism & English history - class v authoritarianism. But the past isn’t just about Padraig Pearse, the Ulster Covenant, the Tolpuddle Martyrs or Queen Victoria...
...It’s about ordinary people like us as well as extraordinary people like us too. It’s about understanding how the Black Death saved Gaelic culture or gave English tenants greater rights. It’s how the introduction of coffee shops led to political & sexual agency...
...or the research of one woman revealing the inhumanity of an entire religious order. How the study of an ignored suffragist demonstrated that LGBTQI rights were, in part, an (abandoned) aim of the fight for Irish Independence.
History is not boring. Historians often are. History is not being erased - the past is being expanded. Here’s an example of that: https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1278402569509969921
History is alive. I cite it to show the dangers of the far right & call out their evil. That’s why they keep trolling me & sending me threats. History should tell them I don’t take threats well: https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1284566443011473416
Finally if you don’t believe me that history can we well written, fascinating & a page turner, borrow one of these from your library. In parts you’ll gasp, laugh out loud & be moved & you’ll keep reading.
