History Is the Lie Commonly Agreed Upon. (Voltaire)

CHC 2D – Canadian History

WHY HISTORY?

History is the lie commonly agreed upon. (Voltaire)

Question to think about: “Who writes our history and how do we know its all true?”

History is only a confused heap of facts. (G.K. Chesterton)

Question to think about: “Could you use ONLY facts to write a story?”

The past is useless. That explains why it is past. (Wright Morris)

Question to think about: “Do you believe your past is useless? Why or why not?”

History is a people’s memory, and without memory man is demoted to the lower animals. (Malcolm X)

Question to think about: “Explain why you think memory/history is one of the things that separate us from the animals.”

History illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity. (Cicero)

Question to think about: “How does history provide guidance in our daily lives?”

The function of the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate him/herself from the past but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present.

(Emily Carr)

Question to think about: “Why do people with amnesia usually hunt for their past?”

We glorify the past as the future drags on. (Bono)

Question to think about: “As historians (discoverers of history) can we really be so stuck in studying the past so intently that we are missing out on planning for the future?

OR… maybe is the past the key to understanding the future?”

If you do not like the past, CHANGE IT! (William L. Burton)

Question to think about: “HOW IN THE WORLD CAN WE CHANGE THE PAST? LIST A FEW WAYS.”

History is the record where you can find for yourself and you country examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid.

(Livy)

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (Santayana)