A simple definition for the word “History” is the study of the past. History has and will always be a part in every individuals learning career, whether small or big. This subject never stops expanding and never stops complicating itself, the more you know the more you seem to question so on and so forth. So how do we learn about history?
At the moment, there are two fundamental ways to look at the learning of our past; Academic History, and Popular History. Breaking such a broad and open subject into two methodologies of learning helps simplify the all-encompassing scope of history and the way we see it today. It is clear to see that at first thought one method of learning comes from a more ‘academic’ stand then the other, hence .Academic History’.
Academic History a method of teaching and learning that utilizes a more scholarly approach then Popular History. Academic History often produces work through a meticulous set of guidelines and procedures. These guidelines include aspects like scholarly sources and the use of accredited or certified facts from professors, professionals etc. Academic History also goes through rigorous editing, and re-editing all for a ‘well-polished’ complete historically ‘true’ product. This would include textbooks, scholarly journal articles and more. The goal of Academic History is to find the closest truth to history possible utilizing all the context and information they have, to conclude a final product of understanding. The importance that this has on the subject of history is that it keeps the field alive and always looking for more information to further the understanding or ‘our’ history.
On the other hand, Popular History is a less formal and more inherited form of history. It is what it sounds like history known, sadly unknown as well, by the people. It is the information you know, not from learning at school or by a teacher, but from; stories, from family. This type of history although it may not be credible by sources, it is just as important as Academic History. It keeps people interested; it speaks to a ‘popular’ audience. It is the phrase “History is His-Story”, passed down from one to another.
These two ways of understanding history are both important to the furtherance of our understanding of our past and our futures understanding. I do understand the large divide in the two academia’s but would like for there to be a more understanding middle ground. Too much of anything is not good, so I believe these two methods should be equally prevalent in education to enable for a larger (popular), and a smart (academic) audience.