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historians who most appeal to the general reading public
know the importance of
dramatic and skillful writing—as well as of accuracy. Biography and military history
appeal in part because of the tales they contain. History as art and entertainment
serves
a real purpose, on aesthetic grounds but also on the level of human
understanding. Stories well done are stories that reveal how people and societies have
actually functioned, and they prompt thoughts about the human experience in other
times and places. The same aesthetic and humanistic goals
inspire people to immerse
themselves in efforts to reconstruct quite remote pasts, far removed from immediate,
present-day utility. Exploring what historians sometimes call the "pastness of the
past"—the ways people in distant ages constructed their lives—involves
a sense of
beauty and excitement, and ultimately another perspective on human life and society.
History Contributes to Moral Understanding
History also provides a terrain for moral contemplation.
Studying the stories of
individuals and situations in the past allows a student of history to test his or her own
moral sense, to hone it against some of the real complexities individuals have faced in
difficult settings. People who have weathered adversity
not just in some work of
fiction, but in real, historical circumstances can provide inspiration. "History teaching
by example" is one phrase that describes this use of a study of the past—a study not
only
of certifiable heroes, the great men and women of history who successfully
worked through moral dilemmas, but also of more
ordinary people who provide
lessons in courage, diligence, or constructive protest.
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