American Public University the Historians
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AMERICAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY THE HISTORIANS' QUEST FOR MORALITY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF DR. JOHN CHAPPO IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN GLOBAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY J MICHAEL ANDERSON CHARLES TOWN, WEST VIRGINIA DECEMBER 2009 Copyright © 2009 by Author All rights reserved. iiiiii CONTENTS ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 Morality in History..........................................................................................................................6 Modern Historians Endeavoring Objectivity Hinders the Historical Quest of Morality...............38 Deniers of Historical Events Hinder Historical Teaching of Morality..........................................44 The Effects of Morality or Immorality in Politics and Geography................................................50 The Effects of Morality or Immorality in Education.....................................................................55 The World Needs a Renaissance or a Revival of Morality............................................................62 APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................87 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................88 iv ABSTRACT Briefly summarize the thesis and contents of the paper (Turabian A.2.1). 1 INTRODUCTION Read any newspaper; listen to any radio news broadcast; watch the world television networks and it quickly becomes obvious that people are not at peace with one another or with themselves. Frustrations from individual daily living conditions in governments, and lack of understanding and respect to fellow man cause uprisings against historic regimes, and religious establishments. But, all countries must harness the wisdom of religion to solve their economic and social problems in hopes of creating peace between the world powers divided between the Israelis, the Arabs, the Iranians, the Turks, the Kurds, the Armenians, the Americans, the Africans, the Europeans, and the Asians without violent confrontation. There must be a comprehensive transformation of hospitality, generosity, strong family ties, and true empathy for the needs and feelings of others. This comes from the historian’s quest for morality, which can dramatically effect change. World History offers an overview of the entire history of humankind. In identifying the major characteristics or elements of civilization (the development of religion, the calendar, writing, the specialization of workers, the rise of cities, advanced technologies, and the development of complex institutions), major emphasis is placed on the study of significant people, events, and issues from the earliest times to the present. As historians try to find answers from the past to better understand the future, it is important to review the early major civilizations of the world (the early Near East, the early Indian, the early Chinese, and the early Americans). The fact that many roots of antiquity—especially, that of world ancestries—have many Biblical origins and must be realized as accepted. Traditional historical points of reference in world history are identified through analysis of important events and issues in world civilization. Historians evaluate the causes and effects of political and economic revolutions and examine the impact of geographic factors on major historic events while identifying the historic origins of contemporary economic systems. This process causes 2 analysis of the evolution of democratic-republican governments. Speculative analyses of historic documents question their influences. The historical developments of important legal and political concepts are traced through the world, while examining the history and impact of the major religious and philosophical traditions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism). These developments are questioned in ways of measurement through the connections between major developments in science and technology and the growth of industrial economies, and the process of historical inquiry to research, interpret, and use multiple sources of evidence. When looking at history, historians break the story into divisions. Whether contemplating the coming of civilization, the birth of civilization, empires and cultures of the ancient world, consolidation and interaction of world civilizations, the world in transition, the enlightenment and revolution of the East and the West, the modern world, or global conflict and change, the application of discovery forces the historian to consider the constant quest for morality in history and its consequential impacts. It is important to view the concepts of morality in relation to secular morality, spiritual morality, and mere social convention in the quest for morality in history. When historians seek historical concepts of morality, it is necessary to analyze the various parts of social science. Social science, at first, focuses on the local community and family; then, it is realized as a discipline-based and content-specific, which includes various fields which involve past and current human behaviour and interactions in sociology, history, political science, economics, religion, geography and anthropology. It begins in the roots of ancient philosophy—the Law of Moses, the Hammurabi Law Code (died c. 1750 BC)—first king of Babylonian Empire, Solon (c. 638 BC–558 BC)—Athenian Lawmaker, Lycurgus of Sparta (800 BC?–730 BC?), Spartan Lawgiver, etcetera. The recent developments came forth from the moral philosophy of the time of the eighteenth century and were influenced by the Age of Revolutions, such as the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution and philosophers such 10 and Mongolia, confirms this statement, “There is nothing new in the attempt to understand history as a whole. To know how humanity began and how it has come to its present condition is one of the oldest and most universal of human needs expressed in the religious and philosophical systems of every civilization.”7 Man already clearly knows the answer concerning existence, but denial of the reasons for fallen man and justification of dementia pushes farther away from the answer. This is very sad because God gave man the answer at Creation. A world that professes wisdom shows ignorance by challenging the very existence of God, and exchanging truth for fairy tales. In Jim Barrie’s version of the fairytale, Peter Pan, the Darling children are lured to fulfill their dreams, believing they can do things inhuman. Unfortunately, the world is being lured in the quest of personal lusty fulfillments, and materialistic goals. It is okay to desire better as long as the desire does not replace certain realities. Before man should focus on the existence of humanity, though, the attention should be on the Divine existence. Man’s existence has been marked by necessity and desperation, which should have caused man to seek God’s face but, instead, has drifted further from God. Before the human race can ever come to grips with the reality of the origin of his existence, he needs to pray the prayer of Job, “Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!--I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments.--I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me (Job 23: 3-5, KJV). Man needs to earnestly seek God, the source of all of life’s answers. Before the communication age of technological advancements of cell phones and emails; travel enhancements through the use of supersonic jets; before over 192 countries established independence from their mother countries—including the breakup of the Soviet Union, after 1990; before world growth population rates reached over 6 billion people— with Asia, South America, and Africa flourishing; before controversial issues like “most-favored 7. David Christian, “Series Editor's Preface,” in A history of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia, Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998), xi. 11 nation” statuses became paramount in historical and economical debates; before the Yangtze River was damned to prevent mass destruction from flooding; before there was man, or even an earth formed for his inhabitance; and before there were angels and cherubs to sing and dance about in poetry, there was God! Civilization cannot exist without God. The refusal to discuss God in civilization and the denial of HIS existence shows that the history of mankind is very unpleasantly uncivilized because, without God in civilization, the faults of man, in spite of his great accomplishments, are like a very selfish animal. The question of misery in the world was even addressed by the Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, over 2,500 years ago. R.P. Lebret said it correctly, when he said this about civilization, “Civilization ceases when we no longer respect and no longer put into their correct places the fundamental values, such as work, family and country, such as the individual, honor and religion.”8 It is obvious that the world as we know it has lost its respect for the individual, the family, country, and religion. This lack of respect questions