Here are the lyrics to a rap I wrote to learn about historical lenses that we use to analyze historical events. We learnt about all of the following lenses in class and how they effect how we see everything in history and how we study it. The writing in italics is my explanation to my lyrics and a brief insight into what I learned in class from my classmates presentation.

You still don’t get it?

Let me break it down

Historical significance

No cognitive dissonance

So listen to this

History is pure bliss

Is an event notable?

Is it even memorable?

Where the people honourable?

Did it cause changes?

New wave paces

This part is a reference to the questions that you need to ask to determine if a historical event is significant and if so how significant it is. This is the first step as it lets us know how important a certain event is to study. This can tell us how long we may want to spent on the events we have to study.

Continuity and change

Ask if things have stayed the same

Or have things really changed

Was this positive or negative?

Turning point in the human narrative

Much like historical significance you need to ask certain changes when applying this lens. This includes if changes actually happened and if so to what extent and whether the changes are positive or negative. This step is crucial to showing how everything is effected by the past and how key events can effect the future.

Evidence and interpretation

Studied by a nation

Since the birth of creation

It takes some patience

How do we know what happened, happened

Evidence of course does this need to be captioned?

We use this evidence to interpret using primary sources

Did they drive cars or did they ride horses?

Everything is a factor

This isn’t a disaster

Evidence and interpretation is crucial to understanding a historical event through primary sources and interpreting them to gain a true understanding of an event. Primary sources are the best sources as they are direct but often need interpretation.

Cause and consequences

Lets drop the pretences

Another of the historical lenses

Hence this

Unintended and intended results

Terrorists and evil cults

Formed from old revolts

History doesn’t holt

When talking about cause and consequences we have to look at what factors and caused an event and what the results were. The results can either be intended or unintended. This means that when a person or group causes an event they have an idea of what they want to happen and reasoning behind their actions. However sometimes there are unintended consequences that the individual or group can not predict.

Historical perspective

There’s thee steps to this

Look at it from the past and the present

Even use the perspective of a peasant

This refers to how an individual in the time period would see an event when they experienced it first hand. The way we perceive things now could be vastly different to how someone in the time could have felt. So it’s important to compare present and past perspectives using primary sources for the best information.

Ethical judgment you better not lack

Was it okay to attack like that?

Was the judgement in the history books

If so then take another look

Is the judgment reasonable and justifiable

Some things are undeniable

Ethical judgment involves using our present day perspective to judge how ethical an event is. Whether or not the people and/or parties involved were completely ethical in their actions. However it is important to remember what we see as unethical today using historical perspective we could see that they would have thought of their actions as ethical.

Get it now?

No. Not really?

Just read my blog post

I’ve decided to apply my historical lenses to a pivotal point in 20th century history. The moon landing in 1969.

The first historical lenses to look through is the events historical significance and the related question. First of which being whether the event is notable or not and what parts are significant. For the moon landing we can say that the historical significance is from the fact that this was the first time humans landed on the moon. There were consequences but that comes in another historical lens. It was was a symbolic event in two ways. It was symbolic of the United States victory in the space race which had further significance in the Cold War and its end. The moon landing was also significant and symbolic of humans expansion into space.

The next lens is evidence and interpretation which means finding out what really happened through primary sources and interpreting it. For the moon landing the evidence is the video footage and several accounts from NASA employees including the three astronauts involved. On top of this several countries including Russia, Australia and the United Kingdom each independently received the transmission. Some people believe that the moon landing was fake but with these thousands of accounts including from Russia who had every reason to lie and modern day lighting analysis shows that the footage was not fake. From the evidence shown and interpretation of it we know that this event happened.

Another historical lens to look through is continuity and change. Life since 1969 has changed a lot but not all of it was a result from the moon landing however some things were a result. For example the Cold War ended and computers came into more use. Other changes include more money and research into space exploration. Most of these changes were positive rather than negative. It created a turning point in the Cold War and space exploration later leading to things like the space X program to go to mars.

Cause and consequence means looking at things that caused an event and the consequences coming from it. The first step is to look at all the contributing factors. For the moon landing these were human curiosity and more significantly the space race and the Cold War with Russia. If these factors were not there we most likely would not have landed on the moon because of how expensive it was to do. We also need to consider the intended and unintended consequences. The intended consequences were to further fund space exploration and to threaten the Russians. The unintended consequences were the increase in computer use.

The second to last lens is the historical perspective that you have to consider. This involves looking at an event from both present and past perspectives. For the moon landing we know that the American people were extremely happy with the event and the Russians were not pleased. Looking at spit today we have largely the same opinion of the moon landing in the western world all though today there is a much larger loud minority that claim the moon landing is faked. Yet we still see this as a very impressive feat.

Last is the ethical judgment lens we talked about. This is pretty easy when talking about the moon landing. It is easy to say that the moon landing was ethical and these judgments are included in the historical accounts.

Here is the rap I made highlighting each of the 6 historical lenses although I do not mention my example of the moon landing it is still informative about the details of the historical lenses.

https://youtu.be/WwpThHeZ_k4

The Manhattan Project was the first thing we learnt about this year and it got the full PLP treatment. We started this unit with watching small clips from various sources like a Disney movie explaining how uranium works and a modern video about the long term effects of radiation. And of course projects galore like this letter we had to write:

Dear Churchill 

I have recently been sent to Los Alamos to complete my mission of finding out exactly what these Americans have been up to.

 

My journey started with a long bus ride to the remote town and research facility of Los Alamos there I was allowed to walk around freely with only a hand full of tasks to complete, for most I was only to report to certain building. My first stop was to the guest house and was rather uneventful as the only thing I did there was talk to a slim man smoking outside. He told me that Gen. Leslie Groves had stayed there when he visited lots Alamos. 

Next I was to visit Ashley pond on my way I looked out over the Sangre de cristo mountains in the distance. Once I arrived at Ashley pond they upgraded my clearance! I couldn’t believe it, I was extremely pleased to receive such hospitality. Once making my way down to D building, this is where they did most of their metallurgy, as a result the building is dust prof and air conditioned. Once there my clearance was upgraded again. Once I looked through all the buildings I came across a bus headed to test ‘the gadget’. Once I got there I looked around and saw it suspended above the ground from a large tower. After I had inspected the sight I walked back onto the bus and we drove to a safe distance. It staggered me how far we drove before we stopped and I thought the Americans crazy. But when the bomb went off I could see why. It was a massive explosion like nothing I’ve ever seen. 

The Americans truly have a devastating power in their hands.

Alexander Reginald

So I’ve mentioned the first 2 points of PLP so now it’s time for the third, field studies. This time Ms. Willemse and Mr. Hughes decided to go to one of the old reactors from World War II. The B reactor at Hanford was their first choice as it’s close and was a very big contributor to the project. Unfortunately I had a conflict so I couldn’t go on this trip but I was at school while they were gone. My job while they were gone was to research my topic but once they got back I changed my topic. Not to mention the substitute teacher didn’t even show up for 2 of the 3 days. However I am still very proud of the final product that I poured of a lot of time into after the rest of my group got back.
Embedded video here. (Need to speak to Teva)

You may be wondering what contribution to the project was. Well we decided each person should get a topic to cover and my topic was the one about Lula Little which meant I did all the research and writing for it. 

Something I would do different next time would be better communication between people and a more clear vision from the start.