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Old 17-06-2011, 08:56 PM
Prokopton
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SerpentQueen
I admit I have an awful time memorizing dates and details of what I learn, though. My brain doesn't work that way. It's better at absorbing the patterns and making the connections and over-arching themes.

Ah, well if it comes to that, me too! I sucked at academic history and it wasn't until I read Spengler's dizzyingly brilliant Decline of the West, which shows a huge pattern underlying history in a truly comprehensive manner and even has a spiritual element thrown in (although it's not new age!) that I found a way of reading history that mattered to me.

Even then I'm not great on the dates thing. I see the whole sweep first, and then if (for some strange reason!) I need to remember dates I can go back and fill some in. However knowing the general order and time things happened in is fascinating, because it does give that overall sweep. I'm reading two books right now: one about some late ancient spiritual philosophy (descendents of Plato), and another about the historical King Arthur. The fact that they occurred at the same time does add a dimension, especially when you consider the rampant cultural decline Rome experienced is something we are experiencing now. :)

All that said, the point about history in this thread is much simpler -- it does exist as a body of knowledge, constantly revised and conjectured over, yes, but it does. We can, broadly, say some things are true or false, or (so often!) that we don't know, and this does include the questions of which culture knew what and when, which can be very very interesting ones in my opinion...
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