Sources for America?s History, First Edition, Volume 2 Since 1865 8th by Kevin B. Sheets
iSBn 9781457628917
Historians are fond of quoting L. P. Hartley?s famous line: ?the past is a foreign
country; they do things differently there.? it is a helpful image that emphasizes
the distance, remoteness, and inscrutability of the past. Visiting a country whose
language you do not speak can be disorienting until you start deciphering the
gestures, unlocking the meaning behind facial expressions, and picking apart the
cultural practices natives take for granted. for many students, the past is equally
disorienting, and to seek safe harbor they ignore differences to emphasize commonalities. ?those people in the past are just like me, except they wear funny
clothes.? Stripped down, they do resemble us, but more often they encountered
their world in radically different ways. Understanding these differences is what
makes the study of history so compelling.
