Special Edition Spring 2023: Perspective and History: What is the Connection?
By Jade Fehlen
In the book “After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection,” James West Davidson makes the claim that perspective is critical in history. He explains that more scrutiny should go into historical accounts like those of John Smith. Because Smith tells the story of Jamestown from the perspective of a 17th-century white middle class Englishman, everything he observes passes through the lenses, attitudes and understandings of his positionality as a 17th-century white middle class Englishman.
A clear example of these attitudes influencing his observations is his description of the Chesapeake tribe’s baseball game. Smith recorded his account of what the tribe were wearing and their traditions in a confusing, judgmental and clueless manner. Because he knew nothing about Indigenous culture and was influenced by European colonial attitudes, his account does not describe the baseball game with any degree of accuracy.
“Perspective is key, but it requires thinking about what we mean as history,” says Dr. Rachel Neiwert, associate professor of history here at St. Kate’s. “The way I think about it is the difference between studying the past and studying history. When we study the past, that is a list of facts. [However,] when we’re talking about history, we’re talking about interpretation. There’s a lot more history than there is past.”
Neiwert explains that historians commonly use sources of a certain type. “Often primary sources are written by folks that had higher status or more influence. There are many records that reflect what the King of England was doing and the kinds of proclamations being made in court, but there are fewer records of what a regular person in the year 1300s London was doing to make their life. For a long time, the study of history was really about, in the West at least, white men who did stuff.”
However, Neiwert argues that movements such as unionization in the working classes, the Civil Rights movement and the Second Wave Feminist Movement created a shift in how history was viewed. “History became thought of as something that everybody is helping to make, not just folks in traditional positions of power.”
Neiwert believes history curriculums need work, “particularly in K-12 education at representing the experiences of women and BIPOC individuals in history. And not just, for example, a history of individuals who were enslaved. Though the history of slavery is really critical in the United States, we do not want to reduce experience to trauma. We should also learn about the joys. We want to balance those things.”
Will Tolliver, Jr., PBS collaborator and author of the article “The Boundlessness of Black Joy: Reshaping the Narrative,” agrees, arguing learning about Black joy reminds Americans the Black experience is not a monolith. As Tolliver states, “Traditionally, especially during Black History Month, we hear a silhouetted story of slavery, the civil rights era/Jim Crow, and countless advocates and allies that work tirelessly in the fight for racial equity. We hear this in the media, classrooms and everyday conversations… These stories are undoubtedly important [and] should be taught and play a great role in the voice and history of Black America but these stories often highlight the trauma, struggles and battles that Black Americans endured, and still endure today.”
Tolliver continues, “Shaping a new narrative is important to me; one that can be told in classrooms alongside the history. A narrative that highlights the love, success, power, and flourishing lives of Black Americans today. One that showcases to our emerging leaders and learners that they have boundless opportunities to make change, create, and exist. A narrative of Black innovation, Black excellence and Black joy because our world does not move without it.”
Tolliver also details what it was like growing up in a small, Southwestern Pennsylvanian town as one of the only students of color. “I remember hearing these traditional stories and what it felt like being the only Black person in the room. The eyes and turning of heads when the teacher would ask what we thought Black people would feel or whomever the main character would feel in their story. I can remember there always being some trauma tied to the story… The stories were rarely about love, or joy, excellence or innovation.”
Tolliver explains that this limited view almost affected the whole of his life: “It was by example that I could see Black boundlessness. Through icons in the media, through my family and the teachers in my life, I came to understand that the story of Black America was more than history, it was also the future. A future in which Black scientists, caretakers, leaders, creators, artists and families make the world go round.
“I call upon you, fellow educators, to continue changing the narrative. Especially this month, highlight more Black leaders, innovators, Black joy, successes and light. I also encourage you to integrate Black stories and excellence all year long – not just in one month. Our history is beautiful, powerful and vast and I promise you it is not one solely based on pain.”
Similarly, Native Hope, a nonprofit working to dismantle barriers and inspire hope for unheard Indigenous voices, states, “The story of the North American Indigenous peoples is a story of loss, hardship, violence, betrayal and misappropriation. It is also a story of community, spirituality, diversity, honor, and resilience.” Native Hope further explains that “[f]ew history books capture the beauty and complexity of Indigenous life” and past. “None of them can adequately trace the life, religious practices, and customs of the more than 600 unique tribes that lived above the Rio Grande Valley before the 15th century.”
For history recorded after the 15th century, Native Hope says, “Most history books settle for accounts of the encounters between European settlers and Native tribes as told from the perspective of the settlers… [N]o historian has been or ever will be able to properly capture the nuanced detail of Native American culture from the perspective of Native peoples from antiquity up until the present day.”
The National Park Service argues LGBTQ+ histories should be in curriculums, too. “[T]he rich histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans have been erased through punishing laws and general prejudice.” It continues, “Such histories show that gender and sexual identities are not fixed.” Raising awareness of the reality of the social construction of sexuality and gender through the telling of queer histories may help combat prejudice. Queer youth are particularly endangered by homophobia and transphobia and are disproportionately likely to be homeless because of mistreatment or fear of mistreatment from their parents.
Neiwert thinks it is possible to improve history curriculums. “One of the key things to do is to move the study of history out of textbooks and into primary sources,” she says. “It’s hard to do because a kindergartner cannot read a primary source the same way I ask my students to read primary sources, but primary sources are lots of things. Photographs, clothing, written objects.
“[The different kinds of primary sources can] help remind us that history is about interpretation. When we primarily teach history out of textbooks, those textbooks themselves are interpretations. … Someone decides what gets covered in the main narrative versus the little box where they pull out stories of women or stories of BIPOC individuals.”
From history courses I have taken at St. Kate’s, it is my opinion that St. Kate’s does a phenomenal job reflecting other perspectives. The two history courses I have taken so far are Modern Middle Eastern History and Women in Asia, and I would argue that the courses being on these topics in and of themselves divert from the idea white men are the makers of history. Moreover, both courses do a good job of touching not just on traumas and societal issues, but joys, celebrations of culture, dynamics of power within nations in the Middle East and Asia, and the impact of colonialism on both.
One text I really enjoyed reading for Modern Middle Eastern History is a compilation of memoirs called “Remembering Childhood in the Middle East: Memoirs from a Century of Change.” The memoirs reflect childhoods from children all over the Middle East from various social classes, religions and genders, and are windows into life in the Middle East with elements of both pre- and post-colonialism.
As Neiwert concludes, “Doing more work to teach history from primary sources of a whole variety makes really clear that history is interpretation.”
