It seems to me that in viewing history, many people make a mistake that can skew their impression of it. Many people think that if two given events happened long enough ago, that they happened at the same time as each other. So consciously or subconsciously, they will perceive the gap between, say, 4000 BCE and 3500 BCE as being shorter than the gap between 1950 and 2006. Or that less time passed between an event in 1800 and one in 1850 than between 1990 and today. That sort of thing.
This can lead to all sorts of errors. For example, the traditional view of "cavemen" as living during the beginning of the earth, or contemporary with the dinosaurs. In fact, our earliest hominin ancestors lived, relative to the creation of the earth or even the extinction of the dinosaurs, at practically the same time as us.
This also shows up in debates on immigration. People say that our current wave of immigrants are different from earlier groups as they are somehow not assimilating. After all, they are not speaking English or adopting our culture as earlier groups did.
But this is placing two events (the arrival of immigrants from a given country and the assimilation of that ethnic group into American culture) at the same time. This didn't happen. No one got off the boat from, say, Poland or Italy, arrived at Ellis Island, and instantly started speaking English and acting like an American. Rather, the adults still kept their old culture - there are plenty of "Little Italy" or "Little Poland" neighborhoods attesting to the fact that they grouped together and kept their customs. It was only the children who came over, and the next generation born here, who over the course of years learned English and considered themselves American.
The same thing is happening with Mexicans and other Latinos who are coming today. They are not assimilating any less, or in any different way, from earlier immigrants. We just see the process as it happens, rather than the final outcome from a distance of many years. I have seen it - the adults who come here will live in all-Latino neighborhoods and speak only Spanish. (By the way, they don't speak English not out of pride or laziness, but because they have no real way of learning it).
But the children who come here, and the ones born here, will grow up speaking English in school with their friends, and will make a conscious effort to become more like other Americans. In fact, at my job I deal with many Latinos who either immigrated or were born here. I have commented to parents, who speak no English and are unfamiliar with our customs, that their young children born here are as American as I am - and my legacy goes back centuries.
What other examples can anyone think of?
This can lead to all sorts of errors. For example, the traditional view of "cavemen" as living during the beginning of the earth, or contemporary with the dinosaurs. In fact, our earliest hominin ancestors lived, relative to the creation of the earth or even the extinction of the dinosaurs, at practically the same time as us.
This also shows up in debates on immigration. People say that our current wave of immigrants are different from earlier groups as they are somehow not assimilating. After all, they are not speaking English or adopting our culture as earlier groups did.
But this is placing two events (the arrival of immigrants from a given country and the assimilation of that ethnic group into American culture) at the same time. This didn't happen. No one got off the boat from, say, Poland or Italy, arrived at Ellis Island, and instantly started speaking English and acting like an American. Rather, the adults still kept their old culture - there are plenty of "Little Italy" or "Little Poland" neighborhoods attesting to the fact that they grouped together and kept their customs. It was only the children who came over, and the next generation born here, who over the course of years learned English and considered themselves American.
The same thing is happening with Mexicans and other Latinos who are coming today. They are not assimilating any less, or in any different way, from earlier immigrants. We just see the process as it happens, rather than the final outcome from a distance of many years. I have seen it - the adults who come here will live in all-Latino neighborhoods and speak only Spanish. (By the way, they don't speak English not out of pride or laziness, but because they have no real way of learning it).
But the children who come here, and the ones born here, will grow up speaking English in school with their friends, and will make a conscious effort to become more like other Americans. In fact, at my job I deal with many Latinos who either immigrated or were born here. I have commented to parents, who speak no English and are unfamiliar with our customs, that their young children born here are as American as I am - and my legacy goes back centuries.
What other examples can anyone think of?
