West European Studies

1. With which account of how a scholar became a historian did you most identify Why
As I read through the various accounts of how the scholars became historians, the one story which I most identified with was that of Gordon H. Chang from Stanford University. Just like him, as a child I found history a boring subject and could not understand how learning the about the dead could in anyway help me in my life. But as I grew up and became more aware of the world around me, I realized that how people behave is determined by their past and this past can go back several generations. Soon I realized that the societys behavior depends on the societys past, or what we may call history. This realization, for the first time in my life, drew me to studying history. I realized that a number of things that we take for granted today are only possible because somebody in the past struggled hard to make it possible. The realization the actions of people who lived before me directly impacts my life, has also made me more responsible, since my actions and the actions of our society will have a direct impact on the lives of future generations. The study of the past has a direct impact on the future has shaped and this realization got me interested in studying history.

2. How has your conception of what history is and how historians work changed (or been maintained) over the course of this semester Provide examples to illustrate your answer.
At the start of this semester, I had thought that a historians work is simply to find out about the past and report it accurately. I thought that a historians work required carrying out intensive research so as to find out about the past. During the course of the semester, I have realized that no matter how hard a historian tries, he can never accurately find out exactly how people in the past lived and behaved and their motivations will always remain a mystery. Hence, a historians work is not only to find out about the past but also interpret it so as to get a better understanding of the past. For example, it is not enough to know American women got voting rights in 1920. Once we realize that President Wilson was initially against suffrage, we need to dig further and try and find out the causes which led to his change of heart and this would require an interpretation of the times in which he lived and the forces acting upon him.