This is my last question before I finish my application so I would greatly appreciate any feedback! Please don't be afraid to tear it up
Thank you to all that respond :)
QUESTION: Stanford students are widely known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging:
The first day of our Revolution and Conflict class, our teacher walked into the room and asked us if we agreed or disagreed with the statement, "History is written by the victors." Even though I had heard this claim before, I had never truly thought about the fact that everything I have ever read in a textbook had come from the perspective of the winner. I felt betrayed. Had everything I knew about American history been a lie, or would history have still been remembered in the same way regardless of who wrote it? With the help of my teacher, I began to seek out literature that was written by those who had lost the war instead of those who won it. The book that resonated the most with me was When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip, a story about the Vietnamese War from the perspective of a Vietnamese woman. This book was profound for me because it showed the war from the perspective of a Viet Cong woman in which the Americans were the enemy instead of the other way around. I had never before read a book from the perspective of the "enemy" and enjoyed how I was able to form my own opinions about the Vietnam War after being exposed to both opposing sides. I think that the practice of history only being written by the victors cheats students out of forming their own opinions. Although it is idealistic to think that history will always be retold from both perspectives, I think that history is much more interesting when the victors aren't always the good guys.
Thank you to all that respond :)
QUESTION: Stanford students are widely known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality. Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging:
The first day of our Revolution and Conflict class, our teacher walked into the room and asked us if we agreed or disagreed with the statement, "History is written by the victors." Even though I had heard this claim before, I had never truly thought about the fact that everything I have ever read in a textbook had come from the perspective of the winner. I felt betrayed. Had everything I knew about American history been a lie, or would history have still been remembered in the same way regardless of who wrote it? With the help of my teacher, I began to seek out literature that was written by those who had lost the war instead of those who won it. The book that resonated the most with me was When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip, a story about the Vietnamese War from the perspective of a Vietnamese woman. This book was profound for me because it showed the war from the perspective of a Viet Cong woman in which the Americans were the enemy instead of the other way around. I had never before read a book from the perspective of the "enemy" and enjoyed how I was able to form my own opinions about the Vietnam War after being exposed to both opposing sides. I think that the practice of history only being written by the victors cheats students out of forming their own opinions. Although it is idealistic to think that history will always be retold from both perspectives, I think that history is much more interesting when the victors aren't always the good guys.
