Perhaps the problem here is that I know very, very little of actual political terms. But isn't everything you you say about the "modern historian" you describe liberal? The whole idea of pluralism, and multiple perspectives seems to me to be very liberal. Aren't liberal arts colleges pretty liberal in general? The definition of liberal according to the free dictionary is "Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry" I go to a liberal arts college too, this seems to describe it education curriculum very well. I wasn't agreeing with Fidosim's statistics, I know very little about those. All i said was "You do have a point. We look back at, say, the 1920s shunning the racism and sexism of the time but what are we doing today that people are going to shun our generation for? Correct does seem to be relative." I seem to agree with the people I'm arguing with... I'm obviously not communicating very well today >_>[QUOTE="Meinhard_X"][QUOTE="MattUD1"] Ok... I had to take a class on what it means to be an historian. It was a terrible class, only because it was taught by a very intelligent professor but one whose voice makes you fall asleep. One of our first assignments was to read two articles, one of an early historian and one of a more modern historian dealing with the Columbian Voyages and the ensuing Columbian exchanges. The more modern historian drew from histories regarding the native Americans and not just the European explorers. It also took into account vast other knowledges which are found within a liberal arts education, which by its definition is that of a broad knowledge of a multitude of subjects in order to make the individual student more knowledgable... Fidosim posted that history is 20% facts, 80% interpretation is right... but wrong for the vast majority of historical work. MattUD1
I don't understand why people need to use terms that are used politically in describing something that should fall outside of political division. It's why I feel that phrase "History has a liberal bias." or "Life has a liberal bias." inaccurate. What I described about the modern history is certainly counter to the older historians (notably those before the 20th Century, and even into the 20th Century) yet I hesitate to use "liberal" in describing it.
I looked up liberal arts on AskOxford.com and it defined it as as pertaining to History and Literature. I then looked at liberal in regards to education and a liberal education is relating to distribution of a broad or general knowledge of a multitude of topics to an individual. I die a little inside when people say "Liberal education is teaching people to become liberals" which politicizes the entire affair. Now that phrase can also be applied to the definition and that interpretation of the phrase I quoted is one I find to be more accurate. Regarding fidosim's "statistics" that is exactly where revisionist history finds a foothold within the populace.
SubZero mentioned that History is the Science of Liberal Arts with lots of evidence gathering and some interpretation of the data when data is missing or incomplete. The total of data is then presented and discussed among historians who specialize in whichever area is being discussed and should the consensus be approving then that information is circulated into the public sphere. If anything comes up during conferencing that sheds doubt on the authenticity or methods used to research or the conclusions reached it is discussed. Revisionist history is, in my mind, equivalent to Creationisms relation to Evolution and modern biology.
Perhaps in the future historians will look upon the treatment of homosexuals with regards to differing rights in marriage. I can't speak that far into the future.
I see what you're saying about how liberal / conservative have multiple meanings and can sometimes be messy, vague terms. I'll try to be careful of that in the future. Good post... thanks for clarifying what Subzero was saying too. I didn't understand how it reltated to what fidosim was saying but now it makes sense :)
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