Monday, October 15, 2007

Amy Elliott: Chapter 3

After reading this chapter, the section on partisanship really stuck with me. This section connects communication with our history and how our perception of history can be seen in different lights. U.S. history textbooks is a great example to demonstrate how our history has been recorded through a general standpoint of white males in Western civilization. I am sure every history book would be completely different if someone from each ethnicity wrote it. According to the text, "partisanship, then, is not so much about identifying facts as it is about interpreting their meanings" (63). Individuals are going to interpret stories and theories differently no matter if it is from a textbook or an actual person. Partisanship explains that "knowledge is shaped by the theories and interpretations we use to make sense of the world, or to create what we call a worldview"(63). I had to include this quote because it is such a strong sentence that uses such simple words that anyone could understand.

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