The meaning of history...

Herr... It's a question like "the meaning of life". But I've never seen this question asked on ATS, so I try :

What do you think is the meaning of history ?

I will go for today, and after a night of a good sleep, I will tell you what I think about it.

Tough question.


I think the meaning of history is to learn about history.

This is why they started to write history. So people can read about it and learn.

Or


"History is lies agreed upon the masses" -Adolf Hitler

the meaning of history, understanding the past, it's not so much following or learning from it. history is written with a bias approach, there are always 2+ to an event/story.

what percentage of events are/were recorded? 'properly'? by whom?

its like the skin congealed on yr tomato soup.

Of course History is written with a biased approach. If it wasn't, it be boring. This is especially true of Ancient History - the ancient peoples wrote stories of divine beginings and glorious victories to impress the people of it's and other culture(s). Not until a certain philosopher in Greece (the name eludes me) did this change. We still experience exaggeartion of the truth to this day (The George Washington story) but not to the extent people back in the day did. Society now is just too cynical, skeptical, and smart.

[Edited on 5/5/04 by xenophanes85]

Have you ever heard about the european concept of "end of history" ?