History

In 2020, Peter N. Stearns revisited his “Why Study History? (1998)” essay with “ Perspectives on History. By Peter N. Stearns People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Given all the demands that press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come, why bother with what has been? Given all the desirable and available branches of knowledge, why insist—as most American educational programs do—on a good bit of history? And why urge many students to study even more history than they are required to? Any subject of study needs justification: its advocates must explain why it is worth attention. Most widely accepted subjects—and history is certainly one of them—attract some people who simply like the information and modes of thought involved. But audiences less spontaneously drawn to the subject and more doubtful about why to bother need to know what the purpose is. Historians do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. In a society that quite correctly expects education to serve useful purposes, the functions of history can seem more difficult to define than those of engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually indispensable, but the products of historical study are less tangible, sometimes less immediate, than those that stem from some other disciplines. In the past history has been justified for reasons we would no longer accept. F...

The concept of history plays a fundamental role in human thought. It invokes notions of human agency, change, the role of material circumstances in human affairs, and the putative meaning of historical events. It raises the possibility of “learning from history.” And it suggests the possibility of better understanding ourselves in the present, by understanding the forces, choices, and circumstances that brought us to our current situation. It is therefore unsurprising that philosophers have sometimes turned their attention to efforts to examine history itself and the nature of historical knowledge. These reflections can be grouped together into a body of work called “philosophy of history.” This work is heterogeneous, comprising analyses and arguments of idealists, positivists, logicians, theologians, and others, and moving back and forth over the divides between European and Anglo-American philosophy, and between hermeneutics and positivism. Given the plurality of voices within the “philosophy of history,” it is impossible to give one definition of the field that suits all these approaches. In fact, it is misleading to imagine that we refer to a single philosophical tradition when we invoke the phrase, “philosophy of history,” because the strands of research characterized here rarely engage in dialogue with each other. Still, we can usefully think of philosophers’ writings about history as clustering around several large questions, involving metaphysics, hermeneutics, epi...

I studied history in college. a professor of medieval history They were one of the greatest teams in history. It was one of the most destructive storms in modern history. It was a period in American history when most people lived and worked on farms. The history of space exploration is a fascinating topic. He wrote a well-known history of the British empire. The book begins with a brief history of the Internet. See More Recent Examples on the Web The mixup came from a 2007 plan to promote the state's history with the War of 1812. — Sebastian Blanco, Car and Driver, 5 June 2023 Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 5 June 2023 But even in states with recent histories as political battlegrounds, lawmakers pushed hard this year to the left or right, potentially leaving a significant segment of residents alienated. — Mitch Smith, BostonGlobe.com, 4 June 2023 Florida Historic Golf Trail Everyone knows Florida has an amazing array of golf courses, and the Florida Historic Golf Trail combines great courses with sports history. — Elizabeth Rhodes, Travel + Leisure, 4 June 2023 New PoCo Muse magazine highlights county’s history Porter County Museum recently released the new issue of PoCo Muse Magazine, a biannual publication that focuses on stories from south county, a release said. — Chicago Tribune, 4 June 2023 But her history is directly tied to the first Spider-Verse film. — Dan Gvozden, The H...

The history facts they teach you in school are interesting, sure, but everyone knows that stuff.It’s the facts not many people know that make history truly interesting! For example, did you know that the longest year in history was over 400 days long?! And did you know that Hitler helped design a vehicle that we still drive today? It makes you wonder how many things about the world’s history you actually know… Well, here we’d like to educate you on some of the lesser-known history facts that they don’t teach you at school! Prepare to be amused & amazed with this huge round-up of the top 100 craziest history facts you could ever know! Augustus Caesar was the wealthiest man to ever live in history. The nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, Roman Emperor Augustus, had an estimated net worth of $.46 trillion when counting for inflation. Some say that Mansa Musa, king of Timbuktu, was the world’s wealthiest man as his wealth was apparently too great to count. However, Augustus’s staggering wealth could be measured. Alexander the Great was buried alive… accidentally. At age 32, when he died, Alexander the Great had conquered and created the largest land-based empire the world has ever seen. It stretched from the Balkans to Pakistan. In 323 BC, Alexander fell ill, and after 12 days of excruciating pain, he seemingly passed away. However, his corpse didn’t show any signs of rot or decomposition for a whole six days. Modern-day scientists believe Alexander suffered from the neurologica...

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