Comments by "Nattygsbord" (@nattygsbord) on "Misconception: History is about Dates... it's NOT" video.

  1. I see the job of a historian as not much different from that of crime scene investigator. We try to puzzle things togheter and understand how things unfolded in the past, and we use every available tool to increase our understanding. And call in the expertise of all kinds of experts to help us reach some conclusions. Some level of precision is needed when talking about time and place. The Romans were not the same people as the Greeks, and Julius Caeasar didn't walk on this earth the same time as Aristole. However, what I guess MHV tries to say is that history is not about repeating dates, but instead focus on how things are put togheter. And I agree with him on that. Repeating such facts got no meaning in itself. Such facts are only useful when we tries to figure out things in a certain context. I think time and logic can debunk much bullshit theories. Some so called "economic historians" claim that the Smoot–Hawley Tariff caused the Great depression, because it was ending free trade and thereby causing a global economic collapse. But could a tariff in 1930 have caused an economic crash in 1929? - No I don't think so. Another example would be when the politician Rick Santorum claimed that high oil price in 2008 caused households to go bankrupt - which then led to the financial crisis. However, things were starting to go bad on the housing market already in 2006, so I feel extremely certain that high oil prices had nothing to do with this crisis. I also think we should try to reflect more upon how people viewed the world in the past. When Cleopatra ruled Egypt her civilization was already thousands of years old, and she actully lies closer in the timeline with you and me than her own people that built the pyramid of Giza 2500 years before christ. So I guess her knowledge about her ancestors were quite limited.
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