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What is History? So, what is History? When I told someone I was giving a talk on History and what it is, they said, “and you only have an hour?” No doubt everyone in this room has some idea of what History is, or isn’t. So let’s get started and see how far we can get with my highly selective view of History and what it brings to mind, at least to me. (Might also remind you that this is the first time I've ever given this talk, so I'm sure it'll be changing and certainly improving over time.) Napoleon said "history is a myth we all agree to believe." Shakespeare noted that "what is past is prologue" to the present and the future. Henry Ford being the pragmatic he was said "history is bunk." Wil Durant believed civilization was a stream contained within two riverbanks. Sometimes the stream was filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing such things as historians usually record, while on the banks behind them, unnoticed by the historians, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs and write poetry (just doing the things people do). He said the story of civilization is what happens on the banks and not in the stream and that historians are pessimists because they ign