History is His Story

I thought I did not like history when I was in junior high or high school...It was about memorizing facts, figures, shapes of maps, lists of people...  I did not like my teachers, and the classes were DULL.

I learned in college that History is really His Story, the story of man, of men, of politics, romance, greed, bravado, valor, morality, immorality, of women, of cultures, of so much more than facts and data.  I started to like history.

I made friends with a Texas history teacher, and learned so much about Texas history from her.  Sometimes, I remember more Texas history that native born Texans who went through formal Texas history classes.

And then, I discovered The History Channel http://www.history.com/.    Of course, I will not pretend to like every show the channel airs... But, they have a variety of shows that are really fun, interesting, and extremely interesting.  I like "America Eats," "Modern Marvels," "The Presidents," "The States," "How The Earth Was Made," for example.

The History Channel alleges to report the "real facts" when there are popular history events in movies, the news, etc.  It sometimes gives a more factual account of a popular account...But, as a historian has pointed out, they, too make historical errors.

The most important part of history, is that we can, and should, learn from our past.  We do not, though, as a people, as a nation, as a world... I think we also need to learn from anthropology, and  archeology.