History The Wepon Review

History the Weapon

By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

The article "History The Weapon" can be described as being similar to the game "Telephone", in which a phrase/message becomes completely misrepresented as it passes from person to person over a period of time. History, according to the article, is subject to the influences of the historian. It describes many examples of how history can be interpreted so differently depending upon how the recollection benefits specific goals of a person, politics, country etc.

Interestingly, it points out in one example, how Japanese scholars have taught their children that during the Japanese War, Japan was the victim. If you study cultures of North Korea, they still believe they were the victim. My last report "The Death March", tells of a completely different side of this particular time in history.

History does teach us about our past, as biased as it may be. We have had the opportunity to have this information available to us so that we may learn from our mistakes. History, in my opinion also created a more unified America. The Civil War, where it was truly brother against brother, taught us to be one nation. Our history was also subject to the effects of disaster, such as the many papers that were lost to Civil War fires, documentation that can never be recovered. Computers were not around, back up systems not considered, so if it were to have been remembered, it would have been by the memory of someone. Memory is often subjected to the pitfalls of dramatization, influence, and actual ability.

While history has its benefits, it also carries with it a flaw under certain circumstances. North Korea still operates under the control of a deceased leader, Kim Sung who died back in 1994. His son took control, Kim Jung, enforcing the same communist rules that have been instilled in the minds of North Korean population for the last sixty years. History could teach them so much. History could be their freedom, which