Connecting Through : History is closer than we think.
In a short essay by Peter Stearns he asks the question - Why Study History? [1] Why indeed? Surely all that matters is the here and now. The present? After all that is all I am, all any of us are, in the present. In his summation of why people study history although as he states while there may be many facets and passages of inquiry, his basic thought is when we boil it all down there are two driving notions, relying on two fundamental facts. 1) History Helps Us Understand People and Societies 2) History Helps Us Understand Change and How the Society We Live in Came to Be I'd agree with that. But for me that is all just a little too dry. For me, struggling to make sense of the world as an independent researcher, history has always been about connections. Connections are exciting. Connections send research down uncharted rabbit holes of adventure, often deviating widely from the planned path theoris...