What do my friends know about 1918? Not much--but they have questions
For the past few weeks my #explore1918 posts have followed a standard format: I've researched something about 1918 and then written about it.
This week I decided to do something different.
Instead of just putting information out there and hoping that people learned from it, I asked my friends,
"What do you know about 1918? What, if anything, would you want to know?"
It's worth noting that most of my friends have at least an undergraduate degree and are used to me talking about history. Some share my interest. In other words, this was by no means a credible survey of the general population. Still, however, I had fun and received some interesting responses.
I messaged most people on Facebook without any prompting. Perhaps I should have anticipated confusion.
Most people didn't know anything. If they did, it was usually something general about World War I or the Spanish flu.
The main exception was my partner, who often listens to me talk about my projects.
But even those who didn't know anything often had things that they wanted to know about.
These historical interests didn't surprise me because they reflect my friends' present interests. Shosh studied literature, Ariel's Judaism means a lot to her, Maguire cares about fashion, and Eliza loves to cook.
My friend Chris, who I messaged as part of a Whatsapp group chat, showed off his interest in politics.
While I can't draw many meaningful conclusions from my unscientific survey, it reinforced the fact that people care about history that relates to them and/or their present interests.
This is such a great idea!! And a fantastic reminder of how important it is to meet our audience where they are. What's the point of writing about x in 1918 if everyone's interested in learning about y?
In 1918 the first wave of globalization officially crashed and burned. Thanks to radio, steamships, canals and newspapers there was unprecedented free trade that WW1 and the Spanish flu outbreak ended. Besides the war and the pandemic, optimism about globalization is sinking into a quagmire just as rapidly in 2018 as it did in 1918.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge, @newcastle!
What a great idea!
While i was looking something related to history and i saw that, good idea, i made my contribute.
Thanks for reading!
In the 11 November 1918 there was take place the "Compiègne Armistice" in which an obscure deutsch official Matthias Erzberger signed very heavy conditions as surrender for Germany. This surrender document was signed inside a train wagon in the middle of a forest. M. Erzberger will be one of the first victims of the Nazi revolution some years after, being killed as (according to Nazis) a traitor of Germany. That wagon was brought by French inside a museum in Paris. Some years after Hitler invaded the France and forced the French to put again that wagon in the middle of the Compiègne forest and forced them to sign their surrender there. After that he filled the wagon with dynamite and blew it up.