Looking back at history

[Matthew Hurwitz]

I like how you touch on the way in which current events can change the way see past history. The idea that after even just a few years, things can happen that change our evaluation of things that came before. It struck me that just as the Korean War is in limbo, over and yet not technically over, so too is our understanding of the war, and the two countries in limbo. When we teach the Korean War, we often look at it as if the war ended in 1953 (even though we know it didn't). Looked at through that context, the war seems like an American success, a blow to the spread of Communism that also gave rise, with U.S. support, to a modern democratic South Korea that is a rich and powerful economic force in the region. At the same time, the war didn't end, and so the end of the story remains to be seen. As humans, I think our instinct is always to try and find narratives in history, and part of having a narrative is having a beginning, middle, and end. Putting TBD next to the modern history of Korea would feel incomplete, and yet is the only alternative to ignore key facts about it in our search for a clear arc? It made me think about whether it's possible to present all perspectives and show all angles of a particular conflict, and yet also retain the narrative aspect of history that allows us to stitch together an overall understanding of a topic.