Should ATS have a History Forum?

I think every ATS member knows the uncertainty when choosing a thread forum.
However, things can get especially confusing when discussing recent history, or the representations of history in modern mediums (from writing to film).
What about history that can be viewed with some distance to current events and media, but it is also by no means "ancient"?
OK, one can squeeze it into other forums, but that makes it either unduly "political", or it doesn't fit into the rather anal confines of religious conspiracies, and so forth.
History requires a certain discourse analysis that may draw from a range of other sources - from secret societies to religion.
Discussions on film and documentary about history will all too easily fall into the Chit-chat forums.
That can be a pity, because how history is perceived tells us much on current censorship and conspiracy.
Re-making the past tells us much on present propaganda, but it also means we can have some distance to current issues.
So it could be one forum where one could say: "Obama uses established Masonic tropes in his speeches", without the divide-and-rule assumptions of the more political forums.
I could also discuss how clogged up London was with crap during the Industrial Revolution, and how relativistic posts on "filthy India" really are.
It could put some received notions on our human condition into stark perspective.

OK, considering the lack of response, I suppose not.
It could have been helpful, methinks.

# yea. History is key. If you do not know the history of anything you are going to misinterpret the situation. Media and government has mastered skill of painting history for the benefit of societal institutions. It is easy to create opinions in people when they are uneducated about an issue.
This being the case a history forum would have many benefits. Discussions of different accounts of an event. The role of historical events, people, and ideas in any issue. I am for it.

reply to post by halfoldman


To open a topic..
History is anything that happened before today,,

reply to post by backinblack

In one sense yeah.
But then we also have "origins" and "ancient" forums, so history is anything (not categorized on ATS) between today and what, ancient Egypt and the Neanderthals?

What about interpreting film from the History Channel that is an artifact of 2009-2010, but yet it claims to show 500 years of history?
Isn't it important to dissect the differences between e.g. Westerns and Vietnam film under Reagan, and how they change in every dispensation?
Isn't that uncovering propaganda and denying ignorance?
Isn't it strange how "Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman" had long-haired sensitive cowboys in the 1990s?
What does that suggest about the era in which it was made?
How did it change?
Or did it?
What does a "documentary" like "America: The Story of Us" include and exclude?
It's probably no coincidence, but carefully constructed.

reply to post by halfoldman


Yes but the topic 'history" is too vague..
It would need a forum split into section or it would just be a mess of everything you've noted..

I think we need one. For example, I think discussions about, say, Nazi Germany during WWII hardly fit into Political Madness, and I don't think they fit into the General forum either.

OMFG YES!

I would love a history forum, I hope the 3 amigos take note!

reply to post by backinblack

It could generally reflect what is current history material in academia.
How was "history" divided from the classics and social studies?
A lot of students still think history is boring.
As far as most boards/forums are not water-tight, but often a judgement call, one could say:
- the history forum covers all conspiracies since medieval times, especially in the past 500 years
- the history forum covers all writing, film, websites that purport to show an interpretation of history as propaganda material, which shows a link between the material and the power at the time of making it
Not perfect, but that's my idea.

It would be a waste of time. History is written by winners so is basically useless for me.

Just imagine murderers like gw bush, and what they will have in books about him in 200 years. Sick.

We have probably had horrendous leaders, and history probably shows them as winners, lol.

Even though we should learn from history how can you learn from untruths? Of course history happened but when you start talking about certain events, it sickens me to hear people stating as fact what people felt and meant in writings, when we cannot even agree today what anything means.

I would like a serious philosophy forum, but the one we have is not very serious as too many come here to ridicule, and too many have people on ignore. Yep ignore on the net is really adult like.

Just noting: isn't it strange that we think the Neanderthals 20, 000 years ago were more fascinating than the past 2000 years?
What about "The Tudors", the treatment of women, the religious splits?
What about Brecht's people's history?
It's like we are channeled into a major conceptual gap, which is a huge lacuna about our recent past.
I think this is deliberate.
Why?
Well, when did the kings and queens still call themselves "appointed by God"?
I mean these are the ages that DEMONSTRATE how we have been controlled by a small, interbred group of people.
Of course we mustn't discuss it!

reply to post by andy1033

Well, the aim would be the exact opposite to learning from untruths.
It would be about questioning the received or presented "truths".
Yes, history is often written by the "winners".
Good point.

Hidden History

reply to post by GirlGenius

Nice.

Wish I could Star!!!

For example, I had a book based on Channel 4 series (2006) by Tony Robinson: "The Worst Jobs in History".
en.wikipedia.org...

Now, one of the "best" jobs in medieval England was to wipe the king's butt.
If you wanted to advance politically you had to be "Master of the Stool".
That could certainly mediate posts on "filthy" foreign countries.
In fact, our imagined "cleanliness" is in no way assured - past or present.

However, I thought, "I can't post this, although it shows much on the worth of one human in relation to another.
I'll go straight to the Chit-chat forum on any board."
However, if I said:
"Neanderthals wiped chieftan's behind - new evidence!", or even "Egyptian tablets - Proof slaves wiped Tut's butt!" my speculation would remain on ATS!
But I think that merely reflects a wider channeled market.

Bertolt Brecht: A Worker Reads History.
(originally a poem, perhaps better in German):

Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the city up each time? In which of Lima's houses, That city glittering with gold, lived those who built it? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished Where did the masons go? Imperial Rome Is full of arcs of triumph. Who reared them up? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph? Byzantium lives in song. Were all her dwellings palaces? And even in Atlantis of the legend The night the seas rushed in, The drowning men still bellowed for their slaves. Young Alexander conquered India. He alone? Caesar beat the Gauls. Was there not even a cook in his army? Phillip of Spain wept as his fleet was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears? Frederick the Greek triumphed in the Seven Years War. Who triumphed with him? Each page a victory At whose expense the victory ball? Every ten years a great man, Who paid the piper? So many particulars. So many questions.

oldpoetry.com...

Perhaps today popular history is provided by images and Hollywood, and snippets, and however interested parties want to use it.
Most of us are largely historically illiterate.
Whatever.
Sometimes one can see history on a single face.
I don't have the last Neanderthal, but I can show you Marlene Dietrich.
Maybe we are still too shell-shocked?
We don't want to look back?
Where have all the Flowers gone? - that too is history which once inspired people:

reply to post by halfoldman


I would like to see a history forum, it's the one forum ATS lacks.

History is key to many of the subjects debated here, from Avionics to politics to Industry and social structure, etc.

I think Alternative History would be a good title.

So if it's a vote then "Aye".

Hello,

I just posted in another thread about how I would love to see a History forum be made available, and how I would be ready to put my time&effort into making it a worthy addition to ATS.

Lest We Forget.



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