Remember Anything

Learning history can be a daunting task for almost anyone. Where do I start? What do I focus on? What is most important? These are all questions that come to mind when someone decides to learn history. That leaves the person who is trying to learn history with the need to establish the purposes of the learning. Are you trying to learn history for a class, for research, or just for personal gain?

If you are trying to learn about history for a class or for research you probably already have a starting point and simply need to start reading about the topics related to your class or research. To start this process you need to find articles relating to your topic if you do not already have them. The easiest way to find articles is to look at some of the various database websites that store scholarly articles or go to the library and use the catalog to find books on your topic of interest. Once you have found one book look on the shelves next to it; they will have other books related to that topic. After finding the books and articles it is time to do the actual reading. While reading the information, you should read with a purpose by having a highlighter or pen in your hand. You should be highlighting interesting information and writing questions and notes in the margins to ensure that you are thinking and analyzing the information as you read it. After completing your reading you should have a good idea of the topic you read about; if you still do not it is time to go back and re-read the notes that you took.

If you are trying to learn history for your own benefit with no exact needs or goals in mind the process is slightly different. Not having a defined starting point allows you the opportunity to learn about whatever you would like. Interested in the US Civil War or maybe World War II or the rule of Henry V or maybe Louis XIV? All you need to do is go to a bookstore or a library and look at the books in the history section and pick out something you might like. This allows you the opportunity to learn a wealth of information on that subject.

If your goal is not to learn a lot on one subject but to learn more of an over-arching history of the world, this will be a little more difficult. The broader the amount of information you are trying to learn the harder it will be and the less you can learn on each topic. To learn history this way you will benefit from a history textbook that will tell the story of history without giving too much detail. It is then up to you to make your own connections and try to understand why things have happened and to supplement your knowledge gained from the textbook with articles and books on topics for which you have more interest.

Ultimately learning history is something that is very difficult to accomplish; it would be impossible for a person to know everything about everything. The goal in learning history is not to know facts, but to understand why things happened and what these things might lead to. If you can have a good understand of how wars affect one culture you can apply that framework to other wars to allow for an easier understanding. There is no easy way to learn history—if you want to learn something you have to do the reading to understand it.

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