'Write yourself into history'

http://www.historymatters.org.uk/output/page96.asp

Is anyone on here going to take part in this? It sounds quite interesting - basically you write an account of your day on October 17th (ie. tomorrow), and it will become part of the official historical record, preserved for posterity in the British Library! The overall idea of the project is to create a One Day in History.

The only thing you have to include is something about how history affected your day (if at all). This can include something like watching repeats on the TV, looking at old photographs, walking past a historical building or just listening to music written in the past...

Edit: I've deliberately put this in GD rather than the History subforum - I thought it might interest a wider audience...

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Reply 1

soup_dragon87

This sounds really interesting. I will certainly be adding my contribution :smile:

Reply 2

L i b

An amusing contribution on their website:

Giuliano Cucchiaio, N. Ireland

16 October 2006

Buses in Northern Ireland are crap. I am sure there are historic reasons for this.

Reply 3

Forgotmytea

soup_dragon87

This sounds really interesting. I will certainly be adding my contribution :smile:

Same!

-Saruman

Reply 4

Segat1

This looks so ****e. Kinda like in 2000 when everyone was doing Time Capsules.

Reply 5

Kew

Segat1

This looks so ****e. Kinda like in 2000 when everyone was doing Time Capsules.

Except that this is intended to create a resource for serious historical research. Seems like a really good idea to me!

Reply 6

2026

Kew

I shall consider taking part.

Reply 7

Segat1

Kew

Except that this is intended to create a resource for serious historical research. Seems like a really good idea to me!

How?

Everyone writing up what they did at work today? How is that going to be useful?

Dear Diary

Today I did a press release, and yelled at a PA about some branding issues she has ignored. Lunch was chilli con carne. The chefs here are hot! Meanwhile, my boss is getting fired. Left work at 6pm again to find car's tyre has been let down. ****. Call AA. They arrive 45 mins and ten ciggies later. Sit for 40 mins on the A14 trying to get home. Bar Hill Tesco full of fat chavs. Get home at 8pm. Make dinner, watch Ladette to Lady. Roar with laughter at chavs clashing with toffs. Think this could be an excellent Celebrity Deathmatch. Go to pub, drink a pint with landlord, who is flatulent. Pub shuts. Go home. Sleep. Historical value is teh secks.

Reply 8

2026

Segat1

You have an awful life :p:

. Though I see your point.

Reply 9

Kew

History isn't just about national events/moments, discoveries or the lives of important people, it's about normal, every-day life too. This aspect is particularly important with regard to social history.

Reply 10

Segat1

My point is that it's going to be exceptionally boring. Unless something interesting happens, which, being Britain, will be that Madonna has adopted a donkey from Thailand and everyone is outraged because it's a donkey with no illnesses/ailments/poverty at all. Or some MP has shagged a rent boy.

Reply 11

Kew

Segat1

I disagree - the potential for interest is huge. Researchers aren't only interested in people's attitudes towards national events, but in the actual characteristics of their lives and what this tells us about various different aspects of society. Personally I think it will be fascinating to discover what the given information tells us about the culture of this country and how it compares with that of the past, to see just how radically different people's everyday lives can be, etc. etc.

Reply 12

Segat1

Kew

Hmmmm, no. Don't get it. Think media/blogs cover this really quite well at the mo and we don't need another medium to do this. I really have to set you up with FTB, you two would get on so well. hang on a min......

Reply 13

HistoryStudent

But in the future centuries, surely people will be just as interested in everyday life of the people in 2006, as we (well, anyone with an interest in social history) are in people living 100, 200, 300 etc years ago? Why do you think people read the diaries of Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn and many others nowadays, despite them having been written in the seventeenth century? Because they give an intense flavour of what life was like that at that time. Although the people writing for this project now aren't as important as the above people were, what they write will be just as interesting to future readers.
Anyway, even many people at the present will find it interesting, because firstly I'm sure a great variety of lifestyles etc will be described, and secondly the 'history in the making' factor.

Reply 14

Segat1

oo h another potential gal for FTB!!

Reply 15

HistoryStudent

Segat1

oo h another potential gal for FTB!!

Who's FTB?

Reply 16

belle_27

If I had found this thread yesterday I might have considered it but I'm not the sort of person to write a diary but it does sound interesting from a social history point of view especially if one of the entries is from someone who becomes famous in future years.

An amusing contribution on their website:

Giuliano Cucchiaio, N. Ireland

16 October 2006

Buses in Northern Ireland are crap. I am sure there are historic reasons for this.

One day that'll be a source on a GCSE History paper on the situation in Northern Ireland.

Reply 17

Kew

Segat1

oo h another potential gal for FTB!!

No chance, for a start we're sisters. :wink:

Reply 18

Segat1

OH NO!!

Anyway I just found out he has a gal .

Reply 19

FadeToBlackout

Oi, Cilla, I'm off the market :p:

Anyway, to try and drag this thread back onto topic...

I did, my day was rather boring (coxing, work, see a film later) but hey, if it helps it helps.

Today I did a press release, and yelled at a PA about some branding issues she has ignored. Lunch was chilli con carne. The chefs here are hot! Meanwhile, my boss is getting fired. Left work at 6pm again to find car's tyre has been let down. ****. Call AA. They arrive 45 mins and ten ciggies later. Sit for 40 mins on the A14 trying to get home. Bar Hill Tesco full of fat chavs. Get home at 8pm. Make dinner, watch Ladette to Lady. Roar with laughter at chavs clashing with toffs. Think this could be an excellent Celebrity Deathmatch. Go to pub, drink a pint with landlord, who is flatulent. Pub shuts. Go home. Sleep. Historical value is teh secks.

-Employer-Employee relations
-Work-based interactions
-Attitudes towards sex and sexuality
-Shopping habits (PS, Bar Hill is HUGE, spent £160 at the start of term there!)
-Consumer habits- smoking, shopping, etc.
-Tertiary industry satisfaction (AA response times)
-Traffic issues on the A14, leading to a possible economic analysis
-Attitudes towards the working classes
-Popular culture- TV programmes, Ladette to Lady revealing contemporary stereotypes as to proper behaviour, etc etc.
-Social habits (pub)
-Recreation (alcohol)

See, there's a fair bit in there if you know what to look for! :wink: