History – Truth Or Fiction? Essay Samples

History teaches us a lot about events of the past. We learn about actions of individuals and groups that helped shape the world we know. History also provides us motives and narratives behind some of the world’s most important events that we take as fact. In his short story entitled Famous First Words, Harry Harrison invites the reader to reconsider some of history’s great achievements. What if historical events happened for totally mundane reasons? Would we still enjoy the study of history as we do today? Would we still view historical figures the same?
Famous First Words tells the story of an eccentric professor who invents a way to listen in to conversations from the past. Through this invention he is able to hear discussions that may relate to some of the world’s greatest creations and discoveries. What he discovers sheds a whole new, humorous, light on some of the past’s events.
For instance, the professor catches a piece of a conversation with J.I. Guillotin. Lamenting the lack of sales of his “Handy Hacker Supreme Salami Slicer” (p. 229). He believes that he should be making a fortune selling the small models to butchers, but the government started using his large model and is not paying him a cent.
Another example comes from Christopher Columbus when he complains that he did not want to seek a new spice route to the West, but felt it in his best interest to leave when he did, just I case the King has found out about his affair with the Queen (p. 229).
Finally, the professor overhears a conversation that eludes to the possibility that the Great Wall of China was actually a massive project to employ the poor during an economic depression and was not really for defense at all (p. 230). This one is really interesting because it also gives an example of history repeating itself.
It would seem that what Harry Harrison is trying to tell us is that we tend to attribute honorable intentions to much of our history, but the real story may be much less compelling. His examples are clearly compelling and may lead one to believe that a lot of history may be made up. However, considering the circumstances of the death of the professor in the story, Harrison may also be telling us that it is best to leave the mysteries of the past alone.
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