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History Books And Magazines Are As entertaining As Fiction

By Grady Atwater

One of the objections to learning about history is that history books are

dry and boring, and people don’t have time to read a big, thick, history

book. However, history is as entertaining as fiction when it comes to

telling compelling stories that offer drama and interest for readers.

Osawatomie’s own history is a great story that is full of drama, action

and adventure that rivals anything a fiction writer can produce from their

imagination.

The question then is, “why are some history books dry and boring?” The

reason is that historians work to analyze and explain why things happened in

the past, and some history books concentrate less on stories and more on

analysis, which some readers find interesting, and others find dry and

boring. Most primarily analytical history books will be written by

academics who quite naturally write in an academic style. Readers who

either enjoy, or can overcome their objections to academic history books

will find that they can learn a great deal about the reasons that history

has changed throughout the years, and about the various views different

historians have about the events of the past.

For readers who are looking for history books that offer interesting and

entertaining stories, a narrative history book fills the bill. Narrative

histories tell a story chronologically from beginning to end, and offer

readers realistic historical stories that educate while simultaneously

being entertaining. Historians who write narrative histories are working

to educate the public while simultaneously striving to make their work an

interesting book or article to read. It is important to note, though, that

every historian who writes a book includes analysis on some level, so

there will be some analytical statements in any history book. However,

narrative works contain dramatically more story than analysis and offer

readers a chance to learn about history and read a good story.

Readers who don’t have time to read entire books need not despair. History

magazines offer articles written by historians that offer a quick read

offering good stories and basic facts for readers. The brevity demanded

by the minimal word count that historians who write for magazines labor

under ensure that readers who want their history in small entertaining

doses will find what they want in these sources.

History magazines come in different forms. Academic journals offer mainly

analytical papers that are written in a strict academic style. This is

because academic journals are written primarily for academics and serious

history buffs that have a deep interest in a certain aspect of history.

Most history magazines are aimed at the general public, and offer

interesting narrative stories that will give readers the gist of what

happened during an historical event without too much in depth information.

History books and magazines offer readers a chance to read interesting

stories about the reality of the past. The reality of the past is as

interesting as fiction, and is interesting to read about because the

events depicted actually happened, and helped to build an understanding

about why America is the country it is today.

Short URL: http://osawatominews.com/?p=1006

Posted by admin on Mar 9 2011. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

1 Comment for “History Books And Magazines Are As entertaining As Fiction”

  1. So true, Grady, and a perfect example of really interesting–downright fascinating–local history is Journeys of Ursuline, which Mildred Haley and Roger Shipman compiled to show the connection between the Ursuline Sisters and Miami County. Instead of the “dry stuff” they used snapshots, yearbooks, scrapbooks, and personal narratives to create a picture of the community interacting with the Sisters. It’s at the historical society or at amazon.

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