What can i do to start liking and understand history well?

Question

So far, i failed almost all the history tests and worst of all, i can not bring myself to like it. I don't know how to link up events to answer questions. Can anyone give me some tips to rekindle my learning spirit. Sigh. Is there anyway that i can like this subject, as much as i do for math and science???

Answer 1

History is just a really good story. Try looking at history that way instead of as a bunch of dates, events and so on an and so forth. Make sure that you get a good teacher for history who will look at it this way, instead of some guy who is also the gym coach.

History involved real people, like yourself and the people you know. As another answerer suggested, what are you interested in? If you like sports, tie your history studies into that. If you like games or math or science or movies, tie your history studies into those as well.

Movies and Novels can help you realize that each historical event actually happened in real life, full color and 3 dimensions. It is easy to start thinking of history as nothing more or less than dry words on a page, instead of real people in real dramatic events.  

Answer 2

keep   reading..  and  forget  the  future!!!

Answer 3

Start with some historical event that interests you.

Then read about some of the factors that preceeded the event - often individuals, of course are involved.  Read about them, and the circumstances around that event.  Work back in time, and forward from the event and things really begin to connect, eventually, with the present day.

I think that to appreciate history, a person will first recognize the present day as having been the result of many other historical events - some good, some bad - but all contributing to the way we live at the present time.  That recognition of the present day has to have some significant measure of interest - the desire to ask, "Why?" for a person to have an good interest in the past.

What, today, is interesting to you?

It struck me, how a seamstress at our local community theater could talk for hours about clothing and fabrics from the Middle Ages...!!  It linked her life today with a very interesting, detailed portion of the past. And that's how I found out much later that "denim jeans" came from Nims, France.... "de Nims".

Answer 4

well, use pictures or short-drama if you want to study history, this is the most interesting parts for our brain. cuz the brain memorize something better if u r using pictures and color (try using colored watermark in ur notes). or you can use MIND-MAP. it combines pictures, color, connector lines.

Answer 5

history is boring because well its just a boring subject. but it is interesting once u get into it. just look on line on the yahoo kids site because they might explain it better with pics and not just a bunch of boring pages. try movies. like letters from iowa, enemy lines. stuff like that. try to avoid books. movies is what got me into it because i didn't have to read a bunch of words that just went threw one ear threw the other. or music. like there is a linkon park song. ohhh i forgot whT IT WAS. ITS ON THE NEWEST CD. LOOK THAT UP. (sory bout he caps) and a song called "american solder. stuff like that. stick with the intertainment. thats what they are there for is to intertain us and sometimes they put educational things in it

Answer 6

Math and science are the foundation of the Universe, the laws that govern us, the forces that control us, the elements that create us. English is the exemplification of the evolution of the human spirit and how we relate to the world. History...history is the combined actions of everyday, normal people, biologically no different from you or me, who aimed themselves into the unknown, and progressed forward, shaping the world along the way. History is formed by those who do not know where they are going, who do not know how history books will speak of them. They do what they believe is right. There is good, there is evil, there are epic clashes. Civilizations rise and fall on the actions of normal people, doing what is right. Empires, culture, art, trade, war...all of it on the backs of fellow human beings, taking charge for motives of their own to point their ship at a distant point on the horizon that they think is right, and to sail off, hoping and praying that theirs is the right path. It's so...so utterly fascinating that it's beyond comprehension...It's where we've been as a species, it's why we're here now, it's where we're going...

The problem is, school's are the absolute worst place you can go if you want to learn. You're not expected to, history in school is a test whether the student is capable to read, take notes, memorize information and retain it long enough to regurgitate. School history is designed as a literacy test and, unless you have a truly great teacher, will always be boring because you're not actually learning it.

You learn that George Washington was a general for the separatist forces against the British during the revolutionary war, who went on to become the first official president of the United States. You don't learn to consider what he was thinking, what went through his mind as prepared to sleep in his tent one night, shivering in the Valley Forge. Was he confident his path was the right one? Did he fear the revolution would be crushed by the British, their empire extending across the globe so the sun never sets upon it. Did George Washington doubt the revolution? The executive branch of government he was about to assume kept in checks and balances, did he wonder if perhaps it would collapse to a worse monarchy than the one he fought? On the battlefield, with the sweat on his brow, did he ever think perhaps the loss of life of the poor, the tired, the young and old farmhands and woodsmen dying on the front line wasn't worth the prize that was a new country, which he was uncertain would be better or worse than the old?

No, of course. You don't learn that. You memorize that:

"Valley Forge, 40 km (25 mi) west of Philadelphia, was the campground of 11,000 troops of George Washington's Continental Army from Dec. 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778."

You have every right to be bored in class.And a bit of advice, never judge the merit of a subject on the quality of the teacher, there's a lot more bad ones than good.

I wish you the best of luck in your history class this year, if nothing else, force yourself through it. I know how hard it can be. Cheers.

Answer 7

Since you have an interest in Maths and Science, I would start there and look at the history of numbers and/or the lives of famous scientists and what lead them to find out the things they did, by discovering the kind of lives they lived.

You may find yourself more taken with social history - Edward Rutherfurd has written interesting (rather long) books on various areas of Britain and Russia, starting with pre-history and going through to the present, showing the lives of ordinary people.

Go to the library and see what books take your interest and start to discover using a scientific approach.

Answer 8

I recommend historical fiction.  I find that if I read a story about the times, or about the characters, that they are much more real and immediate to me.  Give it a try;  search for historical fiction for the time period.  There are historical novels about every age from ancient times to the Iraq War, and everything between.

Answer 9

I find that if I read a historical novel, that it piques my interest so MUCH that I am prompted to seek out non-fiction to give me the background.

Not sure which aspect of history you are specifically referring to,  but as some examples, novels by James Mitchner <an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which are novels of sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in a particular geographic locale and incorporating historical facts into the story as well. Michener was known for the meticulous research>or Jean Plaidy  or Edward Rutherford <both known for English History>or Jean M. Auel <Clan of the Cave Bear series---CroMagnon and Neanderthal civilizations> are a few that I found so totally absorbing, that I just HAD to do further research.

Hope this helps

Answer 10

Start with your own family.  Ask if anyone in the family was famous or was at any famous event.  Ask to see any items left from that time, or any photos.  Your family history will start you on a lifelong love of history in general!

One thing that you can do is visit historic places of interest in your area.  Look around the place, and try to think of how those people felt, what sort of clothing they wore, etc.  Also, visit museums.  Look at each article.  Imagine the person using that item, what the times were like, what was going on at the time this item was in use.

When I was a kid we used to go to museums all the time.  Also, when we went on vacation, we stopped at every California Historical Monument we saw.  Most historic sites have a history of the place on a plaque, sometimes have handouts.  As you visit each place, close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself  there, during whatever took place.  Imagine the sounds, smells, imagine what emotions you would be feeling during that event.  A battlefield?  Try to visit it in the early morning, try to look through the eyes of one of the soldiers.  Can you feel the fear, smell the gunpowder?  Try to get right into it.

I guarantee you will never look at history the same as you do now.  You will realize the each person in history was extraordinary, and did something special.  Too, although others might not be mentioned in the history books, there were probably hundreds and maybe thousands of people who contributed to this special thing that this special person did.

The whole world's past will come alive for you.