History

I love it, I watch the history channel regularly, someone once said "the future is in the past" another quote was "he who ignores the past is doomed in the future".

So many disasters could've been avoided if governments and armies had heeded the past, Singapore fell to the Japanese because the massive guns protecting the port were all facing out to sea, they couldn't be turned round to fire on the Japanese army advancing from inland.

The British should have remembered that because Laurence of Arabia took Aquaba in the middle east in 1916 due to the same situation.

There are so many lessons to be learned from the past it's folly to ignore it.

Re: History

One of the best quotes is something like "He who does not pay heed to the past is doomed to repeat it", which is something like your second example Nero, and one of my favourites - in fact I think I should do it justice by trying to find it and give a source ....

Here you go - Edmund Burke (a clever one him; I've heard lots of good quotes of his)
"Edmund Burke (1729-1797) statement, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Burke was a British Statesman and Philosopher who is generally viewed as the philosophical founder of modern political conservatism.

This was amended and used by George Santayana "Those who ignore history are bound (or doomed) to repeat it" is actually a mis-quotation of the original text written by George Santayana, who, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Rooted in the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and many others

Info from Wikipedia, so I hope it's kosher

Re: History

I love history, mainly local, and medievil.........always got my nose stuck in a book about it..whenever we move I have to find out about the area...

Re: History

I'm the same Moli, I've taken a few pics of old Stirling bridge and just had to find out more about it.



The bridge was built in the 14th century, it's the only crossing over the river Forth that leads to the western highlands.
The archbishop of Hamilton was hanged on it in the 16th century for supposedly being in a plot against the king.

The English commander in Stirling castle during the Jacobite rebellion blew up the nearest arch to prevent the highlanders from crossing.

Re: History

I think we DO need to read our history but the big question IS -do we ever learn from it --I suspect not -seeing the state of the world today ....?

Re: History

There's 'too much' real history though, isn't there, and it's too intertwined
e.g. are 'Kings & Queens' and ther machinations what formed the present day, or the originators of the Industrial Revolution, or the pirates and theives who grabbed half the globe in the name of their monarch or climatic and similar events in ancient history or the internal combustion engine or changes in agriculture ..or..or...?
It's very difficult tying things together; I think that is why we enjoy local history (confined to a small geographical area/few people) and genealogy, following our own family back.

Re: History

I too love History it is my favourite subject though not very learned... I love anything Victorian and Elizabethan (first one) What would we do now if it wasn't for Victorian engineers ....

Re: History

I love history because we had an inspired history teacher at school who taught about the lives of the people and how cultural changes were as important as the wars. I`ve taken groups to places like the museum of London, where you can follow a timeline from earliest times to the present, which is fascinating, and also to the War Museum, which has a wealth of evidence (letters, taped comment, photos) from people telling their own stories.
I`ve been involved with a reminiscence project for the last few years, helping younsters learn what lives were like for their grandparents and it`s astonishing for them to see how much some things have changed - and how some things haven`t.