History With Mago Bill deals with history of a variety of
sorts. Can geological time be history? I may call it so here.
American History, which will mostly deal with the history of the United States of America.
World history, beginning about 4000 BC and continuing to about 2000 AD.
PreHistory ending about 4000 BC and beginning perhaps about 500,000 BP.
An Introduction to These History posts
The
following is a sort of history you might find on this page in the
future. I have my biases. For example, Irish history seems so important
to me I may put it on a completely different Page which I may call
Ireland and Irish.
There are those who deprecate history itself. So common is this deprecation that the expression "That's history." has become deprecatory.
That which happened this morning is history. That is, it is history when someone can tell me about it, or when I witness it and tell you about it. Basically, it seems that history is that told about what has happened. I suspect that there are historians who would not find this simplification agreeable.
By attending to a history, one may not only learn what happened, but also how it happened and other potentially useful information. History can be felt as the pleasure of a good story. Even a history, badly told can contain useful info. Many are finding a lot of history enjoyable and interesting.
Some say that experience is the best teacher and that history is a accounting of our experience
This history business is not always easy. For example, many would agree that a history not told be a historian is just a story. Then again a true story might be thought a history. But then again there are historians who are falsifiers. Not easy.
A lot more can be said and is said about history. As an example it is said that historians record and present history in accord with their own worldviews and perspectives. Some record it as the see it. More try to make sense of histories told by others. A great many historians embrace truth and reality, in accord with how they have seen it and understood it. I believe that their interest in reality is great.
I believe that you could be a historian. When you value evidence, know a true story, and have a realistic imagination, you may be a pretty good one. However, many will call you a story teller, unless you have documents as your principle source of evidence.
Many professional historians tend to examine the nature of changes as an important part of their work. The examine all sorts of changes: cultural, economic, technological and many more.
History is not a science. It has an immense number of variables, yet has no laboratory. Historians do have the advantage of hindsight and they use that advantage. They also find help in the questions they entertain. Such as: "How did we get into this mess?" and "Why did that happen?" At other times they test their ability to suspend judgement and try to place themselves in the context of the moment.
As I think about it, there seems to be a very great deal to learn about the doing of history. I may write more as I begin to learn more. In the meantime I will try to share a good story or two and a few of the curiosities of the past. Historians have been called antiquarians; doesn't that have a romantic ring.
Better posts to come here.
My name is Richard Sheehan. I am a U.S. citizen living in Colombia.
RCS
Mago
Bill is a nickname which I choose to give my paternal great grand
father. I have used the name Mago Bill on several blogs because it names
a source of inspiration for me. It has inspired me to write a variety
of history posts for you; most recently here, and my Ireland and the Irish Blog. Nearly all of these inspired post are of history, prehistory, and a bit more.
This blog is new and does not have a Mago Bill title. However, because Mago inspires: this history blog, a number history and prehistory timelines, because my vision of him inspires many of my thoughts on history, and much of my historic and prehistoric research, it seems appropriate to mention him here.
My sister, the family genealogist, discovered ample documentation of his existence and that the name he most often used in the United States was M.William Sheehan. Soon we discovered evidence that the "M" was for Mago; a name even more unusually in the US then than it is now.
In Ireland Mago, as a given name, has had several periods of some popularity. For me, William became Bill. Thus the name Mago Bill came to personify my inspiration for several blogs and much research.
Spanish speaking friends of mine told me that the Spanish word "mago" means magician in English. Some of the same friends tell me that the Three Kings or Three Wise Men, we are told brought gifts to the baby Jesus, were called magos and that each one may be called mago.
I have learned that the name Mago was an important family name among Carthaginian Phoenicians while Rome was young. Later some of the family Mago were close to Hannibal, a name you may recognize.
Carthaginian traders and navigators came to Ireland to trade for tin and other goods. They they brought so much knowledge and talk of the name Mago with them that it so impressed some individuals, that they named their male offspring Mago.
"Mago" has more history to be told and I may very well tell some of it here on this history blog. You may have already found that this blog contains prehistory, archaeology, geological history, and a bit more, in addition to my idea of normal history.
Thank you for your visit and for reading this Page. For your pleasure, make some time to review the Posts on this blog.
For now, bye.
RCS
No comments:
Post a Comment