I graduated high school before Instagram was created, and maybe that’s a good thing. Otherwise, I could've spent entire classes scrolling through accounts like The Historical Meme, laughing at the ineffectiveness of the Maginot Line instead of reading about it in my textbooks. Luckily, today I can indulge in this at 3 AM, so it doesn’t interfere with my life—yay! I invite you to join me, preferably at a more reasonable hour, to revisit what you've learned about our past (or discover it for the first time) in a refreshingly unconventional way.
More info: Instagram
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Image credits: roman.honour
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To learn more about history, we contacted Howard Dorre, writer and co-host of the presidential history blog and podcast Plodding Through The Presidents, which he creates with his wife.
"History can offer the average person a better understanding of their world, through real-life stories of conflict and triumph," Howard told Bored Panda.
Indeed, these memes can ignite your curiosity, and that spark can continue to burn even after you're done scrolling through the list. Don't worry—you can continue your studies elsewhere.
Some things, however, may offer the most value for your time and effort, depending on your interests and background, and provide valuable context that will help you get the bigger picture.
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"For Americans, I think it's important to understand the Revolutionary period and the formation of our Constitutional government, the history of slavery in the United States and the events leading up to the Civil War, the Reconstruction period, and the gains for African Americans that were erased with Jim Crow, the fight against fascism during World War II, and the Civil Rights era in the 1960s," Howard Dorre said.
"Together these periods tell the story of America's promise of equality and freedom in a way that makes it clear that we're not on some automatic steady path toward a better world."
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You can choose from a variety of sources to deepen your understanding of history!
In the fall of 2020, a US survey of 1,816 people revealed that the top three were all in video format:
- Documentary film/TV — 69%;
- Fictional film/TV — 66%;
- TV news — 62%.
Interestingly, more traditional sources, such as museums (35%), nonfiction books (32%), and lectures (12%) filled out the middle to lower ranks of this hierarchy.
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Some much-welcome news is that the public sees clear value in studying history, even relative to other fields.
Rather than asking whether respondents thought learning history was important—a costless choice—the researchers asked instead how essential history education is, relative to such fields as engineering and business. The results were encouraging: 84 percent of respondents felt history was just as valuable as the professional programs.
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