Looking at history "from below" - Essay Example

While Europeans may argue that religion was the main objective of their visit for America, it is clear that they exercised oppression and denied the natives of their rights, which can be better described. However, historians have ignored this fact and termed their invasion to America as a mere discovery. From this perspective, it is clear that history has been a subject of bias, influenced by the personal ideas of its authors. Dussell, an Argentine-Mexican liberator philosopher, is among authors who have focused on the subjective nature of history and its implication as far as constructing historical events is concerned.

Dussell (126) opens by representing the two sides of the same coin as far as historical opinions are concerned. He argues that history can be analyzed from the top or from below, while considering the position of the writer. Analyzing the analyzing the history of Europeans entry in America from above implies analyzing the opinions presented by the European history. From the perspective of Europeans, their entry into America was either an invention of a country or even its discovery. Invention implies the creation of a country that never existed, while discovery implies the finding of a country that had not been known to exist.

On the other hand, approaching history from below, Americans perceive European visitation as uncalled for and the worst form of invasion. From this point of view, history suffers subjectivity and the impression that it stands for depends on whether it is analyzed from a “top” or “below” approach. Evidently, criticism of history is an issue that has prevailed for many years as scholars identify the voice of the writers within historical recordings. Twain is among author who found fault in historical recordings and expressed the weakness that history has suffered for many years.

Twain stated that “the very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid