HIS 100 6-1 Discussion: The Responsibility to be Historically Informed

This Owlisdom How-To Guide will help you through the HIS 100 6-1: Responsibility to be historically informed. It discusses how being historically informed citizens is important and how history can change our views and actions.

Discuss what responsibilities, if any, citizens should have related to being historically informed.

The Importance of Being Historically Informed

The first section of the HIS 100 6-1 discussion will discuss the responsibility of being historically informed.

• Why should citizens know about history? Think of democracy, informed voting, and social empathy.
• Describe and list the critical skills required to understand history well, including how to use your critical thinking, critique sources for bias, and compare historical perspectives.

Example

What matters is not just knowing dates and events in history. It’s about being informed, to build an informed, empathetic, active citizenry. Why? Our votes in a democracy shape the future (Welzel, 2021). History teaches us what the policies and leaders we elect will be; not just what they say, but how they will act as a result of history. It is like you can figure out potentially the ending of a movie you have seen a thousand times.

History also shows us empathy (Kohut, 2020). We learn better about struggles and triumphs of various people at different times and can empathize and help one another more.

Critical skills in history include critical thinking, questioning, connecting historical facts, scrutinizing sources for bias because every story tells one side and also comparing perspective to see the whole picture. These skills enable us to filter through the noise to uncover truths that help guide our decisions and beliefs.

Think about a challenge, opportunity, event, or issue that affects your community. How might be more historically informed impact how you understand that issue or take action?

Impact on Understanding Community Issues

We continue in HIS 100 6-1 discussion of the responsibility to be historically informed, as it is imperative to understand the challenges a community within history faces.

• Pick a local issue (e.g. environmental, housing, or education) and briefly write about it.
• Discuss why historical knowledge about the problem can help us understand it better or perhaps provide a solution.

Example

The lack of affordable housing is a big deal in our community. Rent is out of control, and people are getting pushed out of neighborhoods they have spent years paving a path in. It is about buildings, families, memories and roots.

Underlying today’s housing landscape—redlining, urban renewal, and more—have had a heavy impact (Nardone et al., 2020). These policies worked against some interests which resulted in long term inequality in housing access and quality.

Such understanding can alter our view about the issue. But it’s about more than market forces — it’s about how we can start making different choices in the past. With that knowledge we can use it to fight for policy that changes these imbalances and prevents these imbalances from happening again. It demonstrates the effect of informed action on a brighter future.

What perspectives did your peers offer that you had yet to consider previously regarding the value of a historically informed population? Sharing other ways of being more historically informed could help your peers understand or act on the community issue they identified.

Response to Peers

In this portion of the HIS 100 6-1 discussion, responsibility to be historically informed, we discuss how to engage with peers and respond to their questions.

• Think about something you learned from your peers’ posts that was new to you.
• Reflect on what it would take to be more historically informed, and share how this would help your peers better understand the community issue that you identified.

Example

I resonated with your insight about learning from history to tackle today’s challenges, such as housing. It’s eye opening to see that history can be a sort of roadmap for how to deal with present situations (Koulisis, 2022). With a look at how previous communities overcame similar challenges, there are actionable strategies that will work today. This approach holds hope and solutions which point us through the present and future instead of lost in an endless circle of the past. The practical side of history that is helping us shape better responses to present problems was underlined by your perspective.

Reference

Koulisis, O. (2022). Meet Me in the Classroom: History Surveys for Democratic Politics. Journal of American History, 108(4), 779–787. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaac006

Closing

With this guide, you will be able to articulate what being historically informed entails, the significance of surveying history, and how historical awareness may help solve contemporary problems. I hope you do well in the HIS 100 6-1, responsibility to be historically informed. Good luck!

We can also read HIS 100 next modules 7-1 project submission.

References

Kohut, T. A. (2020). Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367853648 

Nardone, A., Chiang, J., & Corburn, J. (2020). Historic Redlining and Urban Health Today in U.S. Cities. Environmental Justice, 13(4), 109–119. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2020.0011 

Welzel, C. (2021). Why the Future Is Democratic. Journal of Democracy, pp. 32, 132.