Category: pragmatic historian

history pragmatic historian

Using History – Sloths, History Flat, & the Job of Being President

By Mary | by Mary

History is in use all around us for a variety of purposes. The Pragmatic Historian’s “Using History” series is meant to highlight some of these uses by presenting a few articles and other online resources each week. [Reuters] Giant sloth vs. ancient man: fossil footprints track prehistoric hunt – By using 3D modeling, scientists have been able to analyze the footprints of giant sloths and ancient humans to see how sloths were hunted. Not only…

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history pragmatic historian time

History Is Like Air

By Mary | by Mary

A major, current conversation within the history community is how to show people the relevance of history to their lives. There’s even a History Relevance campaign with an associated website. It is my belief that people don’t recognize history’s relevance because history is too much like air. It surrounds us and is embedded in our lives so deeply that we simply don’t notice it. History is the succession of events on earth. (Well, the succession…

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history pragmatic historian

The Deep Worry of Historians

By Mary | by Mary

Here’s a little secret . . . something historians talk about amongst ourselves, out of earshot of museums goers and the general public. We worry over the lack of appreciation for history. History is the Rodney Dangerfield of culture. It gets no respect in American society. We’ve heard all the aspersions against history. It’s boring. It’s hard to teach. There’s too much to know and, as high schoolers say about higher algebra, it doesn’t seem…

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