One of Maysville High School’s most feared teachers was the high school history teacher. Her name was Miss Brown. Her first name was Jewel, but most people didn’t know that until after they’d graduated. It turns out, in hindsight, almost everyone gave her credit for being one of their best teachers. I have to admit she gave me an appreciation of history when I didn’t even want one. Anyhow, I credit my interest in history almost totally to her.
I once heard it said that the past is what actually happened — history is what someone wrote down. I guess that’s true, at least to some extent. If you’ve been keeping up with the news lately, there’s a lot of controversy about what is being taught in out schools as “history.”
I suppose history has always been a little controversial, and apparently some people can be downright cynical about it. I did a little extensive research on what various people have said about history….these are all quotes by the person listed — I’d say they do sound a bit cynical.
History is more or less bunk
~ Henry Ford
God cannot alter the past, but historians can.
~ Samuel Butler
History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
~ Edward Gibson
I often think it odd that (history) should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.
~ Jane Austen
History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.
~ George Santayana
History (n.): An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
~ Ambrose Bierce
Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.
~ H.L. Mencken
Happy the people whose annals are blank in history books.
~ Thomas Carlyle
These comments are certainly a little cynical, but the fact is history does exist. Maybe the historians don’t always get it right, but the fact is that everyone and everything does have a history.
And — it’s important. A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.
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