Laura Speaks History

Fluently

It has been a spell since I’ve uploaded an essay. My absence is not about failure to think of stuff to say. Nope. It’s been about moving, and making ready a new recording space.

Oh yes, I’ve also been developing, and writing, a new podcast. The History Desk Podcast will be a series of historical and mythological subjects. The first series is rather appropriate. It is titled, “What Are You Supposed to Learn When You Study History?”

There are six episodes, ranging from the Paleolithic times, to the first civilizations, and on to the Early Modern Era. In centuries, that is roughly 12,000 BC to 1500 AD.

A lot of ground is covered, but it is not about the history you already know. For those who have not studied history, perhaps knowing what you need to learn and why, before you open a book or take a class, is a better approach to the study of the past.

I was motivated to write and record this series because of, well the memes on social media, for one. Study the past so you don’t repeat it, is an overused trope, a downright cliche.  It has kept zero people, or countries, from repeating the same old mistakes, people or countries have made. Indeed, just about every bloody war in the past 50 years has been a stupid, repeated, mistake.

Listen, leaders of nations everywhere. Read your history. Better yet, listen to my podcast. The garbage you are  crawling around in?  The world has been there, and done that. Get over the petty stuff, and then sit down to talk to your neighbors.

“Neighbors,” that would be the rest of the world. Because we’re in the modern age, brothers and sisters. We have the wherewithal to wipe out other nations, other people,  with a finger on a button.

We also tend to drag wars on, and on, and on. Twenty bloody years caught up in the other side of the world, is ego. Being the people caught up in it? Misery and sorrow. Say, the world has been there and done that too many times. We learn about the 30 years war in school, and then repeat it. It’s as if we say, “Thirty years of war? That sounds like fun!”

I guess we moderns are not so smart after all.

The study of history in this present era, has become the study of nothing. We learn about individuals, that are high and mighty, but we forget to ask, “What about the people?”

Asking about the people opens up a huge can of worms. Because it is complex. The modern educational system prefers to dumb people down. In spite of this dumbing down costing us, they do it anyway. Why?

Ego.

The past can answer many of the questions if you look at it from a different angle. And keep your nose out of high school and college textbooks.

There are other books out there that answer that question, about the people. The first is a five volume set, titled, “A History of Private Life.” Another series, “Civilization and Capitalism, 15th -18th Century,” which is three volumes, is also an excellent review of how our modern, commercial world, developed, and who did the developing. In these books you examine context, not decisions by the usual suspect leaders. By studying the context, you come to an understanding of why the leaders made the decisions that they did.

You will also come to an understanding of the ancestors. This is not about ancestor worship, but being grateful to them for getting us to this point, wherein I can sit at a desk without fear of invasions, the plague, or having enough resources to keep myself fed. Well, I confess. I do live in farm country. That is on purpose too. Because it is the farmers that are key players in our modern world. Not just in feeding us, but in giving us the raw materials for clothing, bed sheets, towels, and the upholstery on your couch.

Industry began on the farms. And remained on the farms until the Industrial Revolution. Farmers’ wives no longer weave flax and cotton. But farmers still grow the plants that give us linen and cotton.

People in cities are so cut off from these facts of life, they forget that the food in their grocery stores began in places like the San Joaquin Valley. They probably don’t know where the San Joaquin Valley is.

Google it.

In the mean time, here in my new digs, with, count ‘em, two studios, I am having a ball. I have a room dedicated as a recording studio, (see the pic) and one as a design studio. The design studio is not ready to be photographed. But soon.

Stay tuned, history/mythology lovers. I will speak the history, as well as write it. And the classes are coming along as well. My goal there is to provide fun and interesting material for home schoolers.

If you are a home schooling parent, or know one, do get on my list to be informed of the products as the come down the pike. My mission is to provide usable history, not cliches. Because history is never dull.