No wonder we historians are bad at math – they keep changing the answers

Apropos an old thread on naming wars based off their duration (and how complicated that really is), this story appeared recently on my History News Network feed. It’s neither early modern nor European, but it’s been a busy six months.

Story from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/world/asia/china-japan-textbooks-war.html?_r=0

Professor: “How long was the Eight-Year War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression”?
Student: “Eight years.”
Professor: “Wrong. Fourteen.”

My main thought: while it’s nice that there’s an official name for wars, just imagine the need to change all those references and Library of Congress subject headings. Ugh.

 

Advertisements