Advice on History

His­tory Never Gets Old

Before get­ting too far, I hereby claim ‘His­tory Never Gets Old’ as my quote. I made it up and have repeated it many times. Just want to note the attri­bu­tion for the record. Okay? Done!

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His­tory never gets old. Look at how many his­to­ries about Rome; the World Wars and count­less other peri­ods or episodes peo­ple have writ­ten or will write about. As we speak, some grad­u­ate stu­dent or vol­un­teer painstak­ingly dusts aware lay­ers of time to uncover a for­got­ten fact. DNA test­ing and carbon-dating pin­points times, dates and lin­eages. His­tory never gets old.
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Vic­tors Write History

But vic­tors do not live for­ever. DNA, car­bon tests and sim­i­lar tests may retell his­to­ries with more objec­tiv­ity. Those who reject the vic­tors’ tale may write their own ver­sion. Researchers focus­ing entirely else­where, may uncover new facts about a seem­ingly unre­lated topic, reveal­ing new views on the vic­tors’ (or the van­quished) claims. Cli­mate change or just ero­sion could unearth miss­ing pieces of a puz­zle. Vic­tors write the first edi­tion, but the story sees many revi­sions. His­tory never gets old.
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By Nature, His­tory is Revisionist

Speak­ing of revi­sions, his­tory by nature must be revi­sion­ist. Yes, I know the dam­age a revi­sion­ist his­tory of the Holo­caust brings. In gen­eral, how­ever, no his­tory can repeat ver­ba­tim how a an episode plays. His­to­ri­ans must nar­row their topic and pro­ceed from a given per­spec­tive or with a par­tic­u­lar agenda. Oth­er­wise, his­to­ri­ans turn into stenog­ra­phers, who may per­form a great ser­vice, but are not known for pro­duc­ing any­thing earth-shattering. His­to­ri­ans inter­pret his­tory, which means they retell his­tory in the lan­guage and under­stand­ing of their time. This approach can lead to bias or ‘spin’ but. I doubt few, except hard-nosed schol­ars, would want to read any his­tory in Olde Eng­lish, for exam­ple. Lan­guage and per­spec­tives change. His­to­ri­ans must write to their audi­ence in famil­iar words and phrases.

Besides, the first two points also means that his­to­ries will go through many revi­sions over time.

Draw Your Own Conclusions

The obvi­ous out­come is that you must draw your own con­clu­sions. There are no short-cuts. I can hon­estly say that, as much as I love his­tory, I will only scratch the sur­face. Why? Because almost every work I read con­tains a bib­li­og­ra­phy ripe with sug­gested read­ing. My grasp of Euro­pean his­tory, in gen­eral, from the Clas­sic Greece for­ward is fairly strong. Yet, the ‘must-read’ list in this area grows longer and longer. I also need time to focus on a full his­tory of the Amer­i­cas (not just recent times). China, japan and India all await more detailed focus. But, I digress. The point is that dearth of con­tent is not the prob­lem. There are more than enough tomes to choose from. And unless, you are in the field, the his­tory you think you know is out­dated, per­haps, no longer rel­e­vant. Remem­ber, his­tory never gets old.

So you have to do the work your­self. Read. [Author’s note: when you pur­chase titles through Mea­sur­ing His­tory, you get a good read, while also help­ing the cause]. Watch videos. Dis­cuss. Ques­tion. Keep an open mind.

His­tory Never Gets Old!