By association with the National Grigsby Society and my studies of the history of science and technology, I have come to the view that history could be made far more interesting. When I was a kid, I thought history was very boring; that has changed.
History is described by some as follows:
“History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.” – George Santayana
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions. -Ted Koppel
The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down. – A. Whitney Brown
“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
“History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.” -Percy Bysshe Shelley
“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” -Thomas Jefferson
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” – H. G. Wells
The question becomes, “how does one really understand history; can one?” Education is crucial but one must be on guard against the foibles described above. Back to the genesis of this thought, I think the study of the history of one’s family can make history far more inviting and interesting.