The History Blog Project

History is not the rote recitation of dates, names, and events; any more than mathematics is simply reciting the multiplication table. It is through our sense of history that we help bring the full potential of the present day.

Human progress is only possible by building on what has gone before, otherwise we become like Sisyphus; forever pushing the rock up the mountain, only to have it roll back. Up and back, forever repeating the same mistakes and never truly progressing to our full potential. This is true of individuals as well as societies.

Through building on the lessons learned, trials endured, secrets uncovered, and beauty revealed we are able to expand and progress – each one of us and the society in which we live.

Many today have no sense of history. It is relegated to boring, dusty old books of little value and importance in their everyday world. Even while dangers loom from within and without: challenges to our Constitution, violence in the Middle East, but understanding the world we live in today is limited, at best, without at least a passing knowledge of what has gone before.

And yet there is a frightening lack of without this basic knowledge, and ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is the rock of Sisyphus that will roll back over us, dragging us back down the hill of human progress when we aren’t paying attention, wondering what hit us, and having to learn it all over again.

The History Blog Project is a network of blogs designed to connect us to the meaning and importance of history. Through the words of some of history’s wisest characters we find insight into our own world. Connecting to the past helps us see how, in so many ways, the human condition remains the same. It is the foundation upon which we can face the modern world and move forward.