Discussions on the history and historiography of Australia's New England

Monday, August 15, 2011

Reaching the past despite the present

My main history posts yesterday and today are on my personal blog. GeoCurrents' Demic atlas project looks at a new mapping project, while Maps & myopia looks at the way that constructs such as maps and institutional structures affect our thinking. This is pretty important for all those interested in history at whatever level.

I often speak of the past as a far country. We have to break through, and that's so hard because of the way our own thinking is conditioned.

I wondered if any of my readers have their own experiences of times when they suddenly realised that their conditioned thinking was blocking their understanding of the past they were looking at? How did you overcome it?

No comments: