L'Histoire du Monde!

Herodotus

Just a few thoughts on my favourite subject of history.

History is always going to be about perspectives in my opinion.  I find it hard to argue that there isn't a side or a bias in the research, teaching, or writing of the field of history.  Though I'm not convinced that this is a bad thing because there is always a goal, or answer that is being sought after in its pursuit, even with an agenda.  Yet this phenomena is a testament to how we remember our past.  We fill gaps and change details of the story with anything from what seems logical to simply how we want it remembered, and that alone tells much about the time and place in which we live.  

So you see my dear friend, history doesn't have to be a suffocatingly drawn out discussion about the details of what happened, where, who did it, why, and when...it can be useful to highlight overarching themes, and sometimes this is what is most useful in history's application to issues of today and the future.  It is easy for me to embrace this because I love history, I'm interested in it and find it fascinating.  To be honest I think those that don't heed it are either lazy, don't understand what history really is, are shallow, or are catamites. 

But we must keep in mind that different groups of people throughout the world developed at different paces, in different ways, and from different causes.  It would be flawed then to divide the world up into the traditional periods of time like we do, because it would unjustly categorize stories of civilization.  Take "Industrial Revolution" for example...I mean seriously?  Hello Mr. Enlightened European, meet American Indian with no concept of the wheel, user of stone tools, forager, and worshiper of ancestors.  Yeah, Running Bear should definitely be included during that era. Alas, we've come to expect the Eurocentric bias.

Yet I think that even though history as a field is flawed, what field isn't?  And it's fine going down the path that it is.  The field will continue to evolve and adapt; always churning along towards truths with more accuracy.  I think we must accept that it will never be perfect, but ultimately there is a reason the field has been delineated with time-periods, themes, and regions the way it is: for mere human understanding.  Our brains have been better at categorizing and sorting out the past with these approaches for at least the last 2,500 years (since Herodotus, "Father of History").  I just hope that history will find a way to gain interest for people.