What Is History?

In my opinion, History is a teacher. However, due to the fact that history is created and interpreted by people, history is also relative to the people that interpret it. First of all, history is the record and interpretation of previous events. I feel that history is something to be learned from. After all, if a person ignores history, it won’t disappear, it will only happen again. When you study history, you analyze it and interpret it. By analyzing it you create a lesson from the facts that you have learned and you shape them to your own opinions and beliefs. However, when because what you learn from history is shaped to each individual, history’s lesson is very relative. For every little event there is not one, not two, not ten, but millions and billions of individual sides, variations and opinions all focused on that one thing. Learning from history is like going into a house filled with billions of people all the same age who all experienced the same event and listening to each individual’s account and opinion on that one event and then forming your own based on what you heard. You learn the mistakes that were made; you learn the victories and the defeats of great people and great nations; but you learn it all from a single viewpoint. It’s interesting to get insight into events that you only hear about from one side. A war that might be glorified as a great victory in one place might is probably described very differently in another place. Events that are very significant in the establishment of one country is just another treaty for another. And there are more specific things too. You might have thought one thing about the moon landing but your neighbor across the street can have a totally different opinion and that opinion could be completely the opposite of the opinion of a person living on a farm in Russia. The opinions of individuals are also very important in constructing the image of history. I believe that in order to truly learn from history, you