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<p style="text-align: left;"><em>By Lara Mudie Latta</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>&#8220;God cannot alter the past, though historians can.&#8221;</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>&#8211; Samuel Butler (1835-1902)</strong></p>
<p>The way history is taught in school, we are often led to believe that History is static. While the historical events may stay the same, the way society perceives and thinks about different historical periods alters and adapts as society progresses, becoming less tolerant of the previous society’s perspective on history.</p>
<p>Here are six ways the way we look at history is changing:</p>
<h2>Sexism</h2>
<p>A recent example of this is the recent social examination of how 2000’s tabloid culture significantly contributed to the high levels of <a href="https://medium.com/karlieva/how-women-have-been-notoriously-humiliated-and-scrutinised-in-2000s-media-b251c2454aa7">misogyny</a> that objectified women, which also helped to perpetuate the toxic fat-shaming culture of the time.</p>
<figure id="attachment_9933" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9933" style="width: 393px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-9933" src="https://historyhustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/britney.png" alt="" width="393" height="412" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9933" class="wp-caption-text">Britney Spears in the early 2000&#8217;s.</figcaption></figure>
<p>This certain examination of 2000’s pop culture could arguably be traced back to the 2018 #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, highlighting gender inequality and the lack of diversity in many industries. These movements sparked a mass retrospection in the media and individuals alike.</p>
<h2>Racism and Colonialism</h2>
<p>During the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, the movement highlighted history that had been previously brushed under the carpet.</p>
<p>For example, upon abolishing Slavery in 1833, approximately £20 million was made available for compensation to former slave owners as so-called ‘loss of property.’ In addition to that, according to the Bank Of England Museum website, one of the biggest former business partners and main recipients of the compensation were also partners in major London banks.</p>
<p>More uncomfortable truths about slavery and colonialism as a whole helped highlight a long-standing relationship between not just capitalism and colonialism, but also within long-standing institutions such as the Bank.</p>
<h2>Henry VIII and His Wives</h2>
<p>However, a more modern perspective can also be applied to older historical examples. In the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228541.Divorced_Beheaded_Survived">book</a> written by Karen Lindsey (1995): Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII (1491- 1547), the Feminist Theory (first coined in 1794) is applied to the events surrounding <a href="https://www.history.com/news/henry-viii-wives">Henry VIII’s six wives.</a></p>
<p>For example, when taught and studied and portrayed in films, Henry VII&#8217;s second wife Anne Boleyn (1501/07-1536) is often shown to be a seductress, tempting the King with a promise of a son. Something his first wife, Catherine of Aragorn (1485-1536), failed to produce.</p>
<figure id="attachment_9934" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9934" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-9934" src="https://historyhustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Henry-viii.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="989" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9934" class="wp-caption-text">Henry VIII</figcaption></figure>
<p>This narrative negates facts such as the king writing letters over a long period of time with no reply from Anne. In the book, Lindsey pointed out that saying no to the king was not an option and Anne’s thinking would be that she would rather be a queen than a mistress.</p>
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<h2>More Tudor History</h2>
<p>Another example within the Tudor period is Henry VIII and his eldest daughter Mary I (1516-1558) otherwise known as <a href="https://www.history.com/news/queen-mary-i-bloody-mary-reformation">“Bloody Mary.”</a></p>
<p>In Mary I&#8217;s five-year reign, it is estimated she burned around 300 Catholics at the stake. As a result, she earned her infamous nickname “Bloody” Mary. However, in her father’s 36-year reign, it is estimated, that 57,000 people were executed during <a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/how-many-executions-was-henry-viii-responsible-for/">Henry VIII</a>&#8216;s reign. It could be argued that her economic reforms and attempts to improve trade, were overshadowed by her</p>
<p>direct and brutal conversion attempt to return England to Catholicism once more. At a time when England hadn’t had a queen rule alone for a long time.</p>
<h2>Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole</h2>
<p>When thinking of pioneers of modern medicine, <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/london-statues-and-monuments/florence-nightingale/#:~:text=The%20statue%20was%20commissioned%20in,the%20architect%20was%20TH%20Wyatt.">Florence Nightingale</a> (1820-1920) is one of the few women who come to mind. Also known as the Lady with the Candle, she led a team of 38 nurse volunteers to the hospitals in Baklava to treat soldiers during the Crimea War (1853-1856).</p>
<p>She realized the lack of hygiene was killing more soldiers than their injuries. Nightingale’s strict hygiene rules, e.g. spacing the beds apart and separating the patients based on illness, revolutionized the hospitals during the war saving countless soldiers&#8217; lives. Her work during the war allowed her to go on to establish The British Red Cross in 1870. A statue was erected in Central London <a href="https://www.redcross.org.uk/stories/health-and-social-care/health/how-florence-nightingale-influenced-the-red-cross#:~:text=Florence%20Nightingale%20was%20an%20inspiring,are%20still%20used%20widely%20today.">in her memory</a> in 1915 five years after her death.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml">Mary Seacole</a> (1805-1890) was a British Jamaican nurse born to a Scottish soldier and a free Jamaican woman. In her autobiography, Seacole pondered if her volunteer application to become a nurse for the British army was rejected on racist grounds. However, didn’t she let that stop her, Seacole raised funds to go to the frontline on her own and set up her “British Hotel.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_9935" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-9935" style="width: 255px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-9935" src="https://historyhustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Mary-Seacole.jpeg" alt="" width="255" height="425" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-9935" class="wp-caption-text">Mary Seacole</figcaption></figure>
<p>Much like Nightingale, Seacole understood the importance of hygiene and kept her rooms well-ventilated and regularly changed the sheets. Unlike her counterpart, Seacole would go onto the battlefields to treat wounded soldiers, sometimes while under fire, not only to British soldiers but to British allies and even tending to soldiers from the opposing side.</p>
<p>However, the war left Seacole with little money afterward. In addition, Seacoles’ statue wasn&#8217;t unveiled until June 2016 over a century after Florence Nightingale. The statue was unveiled at St. Thomas Hospital in London and according to the Mary Seacole Trust, the statue was the first to “honour a named black woman”. The unveiling was a result of 12 years of fundraising by the Trust.</p>
<h2>LGBTQ+ History</h2>
<p>In 2013, the late Queen Elizabeth issued an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-pardons-computing-giant-alan-turing-59-years-after-his-n241">official apology</a> to LGBT men and women who were wrongfully convicted under the Gross Indecency Act 1885. The Alan Turing law pardoned those who were wrongfully convicted under the law—approximately, 75,000 individuals.</p>
<p>The namesake of the law, <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/alan-turing-betchley-park">Alan Turing</a> (1912-1954) was a mathematician and cryptographer, who was part of the vital team at Bletchley Park helping to break the Nazi enigma code.</p>
<p>However, Turing didn’t receive the recognition he deserved straight away, due to The Official Secrets Act 1911. However, Turing had also made a name for himself helping to design the earliest computers. When he was on trial for being a homosexual in 1952 his previous work during WWII remained under wraps.</p>
<p>Despite his colleagues attesting to his good character, Turing was given the option of prison or probation on the condition he underwent chemical castration, he chose the latter. However, he committed suicide by consuming cyanide two years later. Since then, thanks to the efforts of activists and historians alike, Turing is remembered.</p>
<p>As society is ever-changing we look to the past in retrospection for both lessons and inspiration, on how to move forward and how to progress.</p>
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