The study of history is universal. I hope to bring you some of the more interesting stories about people and events from many countries. Most of my posts will feature American history , but I will also include historical accounts from other countries as well. this is not just my obsession read what an historian from the United Kingdom has to say on the subject.

All people are living histories – which is why History matters

Penelope J. Corfield

Historians are often asked: what is the use or relevance of studying History (the capital letter signalling the academic field of study)? Why on earth does it matter what happened long ago? The answer is that History is inescapable. It studies the past and the legacies of the past in the present. Far from being a ‘dead’ subject, it connects things through time and encourages its students to take a long view of such connections.

All people and peoples are living histories. To take a few obvious examples: communities speak languages that are inherited from the past. They live in societies with complex cultures, traditions and religions that have not been created on the spur of the moment. People use technologies that they have not themselves invented. And each individual is born with a personal variant of an inherited genetic template, known as the genome, which has evolved during the entire life-span of the human species.

So understanding the linkages between past and present is absolutely basic for a good understanding of the condition of being human. That, in a nutshell, is why History matters. It is not just ‘useful’, it is essential. https://archives.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/why_history_matters.html

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