I think for this week I am a bit lucky. This week I found
something that represents a bit of a cross roads for my interests. As I was
purusing the interenet on my daily troll for information, I came across this
If you are too lazy to click on the link and read through
all the information, the small amount that there is, I’ll summarize a bit for
you. Man searches through attic, man finds baseball card, man discovers card is
from the Civil War Era, man sells card for 92,000 dollars. Is this important?
No, not really, but I found it neat. I absolutely love both baseball and
history so to unearth something that is a cool little treasure trove of both is
always fun!
On a side note, baseball season is right around the corner! Spring training has started, teams are reporting, and I can not wait for a chance to get to Salt River Field and take in a few Spring Training games!
I am for sure in agreement that some of the minute details don't really matter. While they may be interesting to the buff or more detailed civil war scholars, I think for a general public understanding of the war, they are somewhat inconsequential. Now determining what is a minute detail is tricky. For example, Sickles claiming he was pretty much single-handedly responsible for the Gettysburg win is an issue because looking back, it seems as if he almost jeopardized the Union victory. Now on which exact spot a certain general fell, or which was the soldier to kill him, I personally find less interesting. As to the warped memory of civil war veterans shaping the history, I think this is somewhat inevitable. History is rarely a static, objective collection of facts. Part of history is people's interpretations of perspectives of these events. For me, the perspectives and memories of these men are sometimes more telling than the validity of what they actually say. Their point of views illustrate the emotional and personal side of war that other times objective historians could leave out.
ReplyDeleteI think you posted on the wrong post, but I know what you are referring to! I absolutely agree that the history is rarely static and that warped memories are going to find their way in. I think part of the issue is how people view historical records, which is as absolute fact and not open to interpretation. Thats were things start getting tricky.
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