Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Role of History


"What Herodotus the Halicarnassian has learnt by inquiry is here set forth: in order that so the memory of the past may not be blotted out from among men by time, and that great and marvellous deeds done by Greeks and foreigners and especially the reason why they warred against each other may not lack renown."
-Persian Wars, Herodotus

"Obviously, then, history is a social necessity. It gives us our identity. It helps us to find our bearings in an ever more complex present, providing us with a navigators chart by which we may to some degree orient ourselves...It helps us to find the particular example, to see the uniqueness in a past age or past even, while also helping us to see how the particular and the unique contribute to the general."
-The Ancient Mediterranean World

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