So, Historical Capsule is a subreddit that’s a “step into the past”. It’s an online depository for old and vintage photographs that tell stories from significant events and moments in history.

The subreddit is home to 50,000 members, being ranked in the top 3%, and encourages open discussion and celebration of all things history.

On the surface, history might sound like a dull and boring discipline. However, if you dig deeper into what it’s all about, you begin to understand just how much essence it has and how much it has to offer in general.

After all, history might be something that’s all about the past, but you’d be surprised just how transformative it might be.

History professor Mary Jo Festle wrote a piece on how history as a discipline transforms students. In it, she explained that since there isn’t realistically any empirical evidence of this hypothesis, she took it upon herself to figure it out.

She asked nearly 60 of her students across 8 different sections of the small research seminars they hosted to give open-ended responses to prompts reflecting upon the change.

One of the main prompts was asking students to describe how their understanding of what history is changed during their studies.

A third of the students provided some form of “I now understand history is not just facts about names, dates, or a chronology of events.”

The answers verified the idea that the interpretive nature of history is a crucial lesson that can be considered a threshold concept.

One student elaborated that they realized how much power historians actually have, i.e. the power to construct the past. History is dynamic and a point of debate as a lot of the unknown in it can be argued.

Another point to mention is that students didn’t see themselves as books full of facts and figures in history. It’s these same activities of interpreting and analyzing sources, conducting research, looking for influences and biases and challenging what has been read from a critical, multifaceted standpoint, that makes all the difference in the discipline.

Another student pointed out that, before their studies, they enjoyed watching documentaries and furthering their knowledge that way. After them, however, it was an eye-opening experience to understand that they can now discover history for themselves, see how the evidence works and the puzzle pieces fall into place. There’s more of a hands-on approach than meets the eye.

If anything, the mini study concluded that in 70% of all cases, history topics were personally challenging in terms of values and assumptions about the world. Among these were themes and topics like gender and sexuality, religious history, the Holocaust as well as Nazism. A number of them touched upon issues of race and foreign policy, civil war and ideology.

This ultimately led to some openly expressing how challenging topics have made them better human beings. One pointed out how Islam studies brought to light racist assumptions. Another changed their opinion on same sex marriage after investigating sources from LGBTQIA+ people. It gave them perspective. Perspective that made them rethink what they thought before.

So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Has history changed you, and if so how? Or mayhaps you have an interesting historical story to tell that might fit this listicle. Whatever the case, share your takes and commentary in the comment section below!

And there’s plenty more historical content where that came from.