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a reference. It can be appallingly inaccurate, particularly on any
subject around which there is controversy.
-- Stephan
Stephan A. Schwartz
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On 22 Oct 2008, at 09:55, John Philip Adams wrote:
> Presentism (literary and historical analysis) From Wikipedia, the free
> encyclopedia
> Jump to: navigation, search
>
> Presentism is a mode of historical analysis in which present-day
> ideas and
> perspectives are anachronistically introduced into depictions or
> interpretations of the past. Some modern historians seek to avoid
> presentism
> in their work because they believe it creates a distorted
> understanding of
> their subject matter.
>
> The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first citation for
> presentism in its
> historiographical sense from 1916, and the word may have been in
> use in this
> meaning as early as the 1870s. Historian David Hackett Fischer
> identifies
> presentism as a logical fallacy also known as the "fallacy of nunc pro
> tunc". He has written that the "classic example" of presentism was the
> so-called "Whig history", in which certain eighteenth- and
> nineteenth-century British historians wrote history in a way that
> used the
> past to validate their own political beliefs. This interpretation was
> presentist because it did not depict the past in objective historical
> context, but instead viewed history only through the lens of
> contemporary
> Whig beliefs. In this kind of approach, which emphasizes the
> relevance of
> history to the present, things which do not seem relevant receive
> little
> attention, resulting in a misleading portrayal of the past. "Whig
> history"
> or "whiggishness" are often used as synonyms for presentism,
> particularly
> when the historical depiction in question is teleological or
> triumphalist.
>
> Have any of you teachers thought about going back to colleges and
> universities and getting some more degrees in education?
> John Philip Adams
> Texas
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne Pemberton
> Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:41 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: History as TRUTH
>
> James,
>
> Not sure if it is mentioned in 1491, but in the earlier book, "The
> Invasion
> of America" by Francis Jennings, it is mentioned that archeologists
> have
> found evidence that the Chinese visited the west coast of South and
> perhaps
> Central America. There are suggestions that they ventured as far
> north as
> San Francisco.
>
> Columbus was a map-maker who wanted to get very rich by discovering
> the
> shortest route to the Spice Islands for whatever country would
> finance his
> adventure.
>
> Bear in mind that those who were going west to fish the various
> banks of
> North America were taking on the same perils in just as small, or
> smaller,
> or craft than Columbus did. It's a matter of whether one is a
> seafaring man
> or not.
>
> If Columbus was such a "worthy man of his times" why was his
> governorship of
> an island withdrawn for unsavory practices with the Natives?
>
> It not a matter of presentism, its a matter of debunking childhood
> myths.
>
> Anne
>
> Anne Pemberton
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.erols.com/apembert
> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
>
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