So was that before or after Michaelangelo?

February 19, 2008 4:25 PM

How about some ideas for creating a mental framework for studying history?

I read something a few years ago about how children in the English education system used to have to memorize the British monarchy in order. I think it was written by someone who had done so and was terribly bored at the time, only to later realize it was great to have a set of ordered slots to shove knowledge into.

I keep finding, though, that I don't have any such mental architecture and I can't seem to get general historical contexts (of, say, paintings, philosophical movements, architecture, etc.) to stick to anything in my mind.

Can you think of either some kind of general cultural timeline, in book form or otherwise, that would help? I feel like I just need a series of mental hooks to help catch new things. From what lens do you usually see history?

posted by lauranesson to education (7 comments total)

Give the Phenomenal Memory program a shot. It uses real exercises and a variety of techniques that work quite well.
posted by trinity8-director at 5:40 PM on February 19

That looks interesting, t8d, but I've never had much problem memorizing things when they fit into some larger scheme. The problems come for me because I don't have a larger scheme. I can see a work of art from, say, 1853 and have only the foggiest of ideas about what was going on then. It's as though things in different fields just get labeled "Modern," "Recent," "Old," "Really Old," or "Antiquity," with each field having different timespans. It blew my mind realizing that Mozart was composing at the same time the American Revolution was going down. In my head, the Revolution equals "old" in American history, while Mozart is "really old" in the field of music.

I know that's a silly description and that this whole question is pretty unclear. Sorry about that; it's nice and blurry in my head, too.
posted by lauranesson at 6:11 PM on February 19

The problems come for me because I don't have a larger scheme.

Ooooh, you really should run to your closest library and grab a copy of the original Connections television program (don't bother with any of the later shows). 10 episodes. In each, the narrator (historian James Burke) one takes a single subject--say, the plow--and follows a line of events throughout history that leads to something completely unexpected, like the B-52 Bomber.

What makes the show amazing are two things: first, Burke's ability to weave a tale using commonly-available historical material is just dumbfounding if you've ever opened a history book. The manner in which history is currently taught is all wrong. It's not "first this happened, then this, then this..." like a chain. It's more like, "this happened, and at the same time this other thing was going on, then ten years later this third guy read the first guy's stuff and did this, meanwhile the nephew of the second guy read the third guy's stuff, realized he just cribbed his uncle's stuff, re-worked it, and came up with this."

It's hard to explain. Watch the show. It was produced by the BBC, so I don't think anyone will kill me for linking to a torrent of the show. It will completely change, and likely fix, the way you've been thinking about history.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:03 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]

This is a bit off the wall but I figured I would throw it out. I have always took the stand point of Time Travel to study history-- building adventures around the subject matter I was reading and interjecting my presence into the event. It is a bit out there but by placing myself in some role helped me recall exactly what was going on when asked to remember it during testing. YMMV.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:02 PM on February 19

I know exactly what you mean about Mozart (and reading about Benjamin Franklin in France was a trip - Marie Antoinette, Voltaire, John Adams ... fascinating stuff. All those people in one place at one time? Amazing.)

One thing I've tried is just picking a few (three, five, seven) major items from any subject to give myself a framework. World history? Um: Roman Empire, Renaissance, Revolution (American and French) til now. US history? Hm: Revolution, Civil War, World War II. (Obviously, there are a lot of things in between, but at least this gives me some big markers in the timeline in my head.)

Then, when you read about something, add it into your own framework.

In fact, you might want to create a physical timeline on paper or on the computer, so you can get a sense of the time elapsed between the events that are of interest to you.

Finally, if you have an interest in any topic - France, music, art, the development of technology - try learning some major markers for that topic and then add dates from other topics to the one set you've learned well. Wikipedia has lists of periods, major events, and timelines for lots of topics: US history, Chinese history, timelines for lots of countries, the Ottoman Empire, science in the Islamic world, great paintings. Any lens that focuses a subject you already love should work well.
posted by kristi at 9:58 PM on February 19

I see history from a lens forged by personal experience. To me, history's real value is how it influenced events/customs/works of today. Or what parallels I can see of it today. That is, understanding how things came to be the way they are. Specifics aren't important, unless you need to impress folks at social occasions, but I don't think that's what you are asking.

My advice is to keep reading. That way you keep your mind refreshed. I read mostly for education, not entertainment. Even if I read novels it's because it is largely considered a classic or a milestone. I find most other readers do the opposite.

Don't try to memorize paintings for it's own sake. Rather try to understand the underlying reason for it's importance; it's context e.g. social climate at the time. For example the reason that so many pre-renaissance works were illuminations of the bible was because the arts were considered solely the domain of the church and such a gift was given by God. But when the renaissance came along with renewed interest in the humanities, there was a signature break from that tradition and more humans and things from everyday life started appearing in artists works.

If you are able to relate the work to something that you can see today then you have a good grasp on history.

You're not going to remember every page of a 500 page book, but you will internalize it and It will inform you/your actions subtly as you experience new things. You are sophisticated, not because of how many things you can remember at once but how you can understand things about the human experience through what you have studied.
posted by Student of Man at 2:09 PM on February 20

The home-schooling book The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home has some suggestions on setting up a paper timeline to note historical events on. The book is about home-schooling kids but many adults have found it useful for their own self-education as well.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:58 PM on February 22