Historical places serve as living reminders of ancient civilisations’ great achievements. Not only are these locations fascinating places of study and research, they can also generate revenue for local economies by becoming tourist hot spots.
Historical places may include houses, industrial buildings, monuments and even simple trees that have significant links with past events or periods in history. To be recognized as historically significant locations.
1. The past is a foreign country
History cannot be undone; but it can be rewritten. This holds particularly true when discussing our national and personal histories; this book illustrates that history no longer serves to sanction privilege or power structures, yet remains as powerful a vehicle to reinforce identity and slow radical change.
Published in 1985 (long before many of today’s undergraduate students and many new graduate students were born), The Past Is a Foreign Country inaugurated a critical field of inquiry about how we engage with historical heritage. Today, its reread promotes reflection upon its ever-evolving landscape.
There’s an entire world out there that differs greatly from our own, which we may only be able to partially perceive and comprehend. Yet it remains essential for survival – which is why keeping an open mind and not becoming obsessed by past memories are crucial parts of survival.
2. It’s not the past but it’s not the future
Historical awareness acts like a silent guard that keeps cultures alive. Victories or failures, traditions and heritage hold special meaning in people’s hearts – but history cannot be erased, since it forms its very core.
History is the study of human events as they unfold and of mankind’s development from his nature. As one of only two sciences that require creativity in their practice, History also stands alone as being both science and art: an artistic discipline with regards to creating contexts and designs in which to understand past realities.
A historian must master writing history without falsification; we all do it, whether intentionally or unintentionally. But history’s true nature will always come out eventually: not narration nor analysis but resurrection: gathering all available facts will show up the universal laws governing mankind’s behavior.
3. You can’t change the past
No matter how hard we try, the past cannot be changed; all that can be changed are your memories of it. Rewriting these narratives could include events from many years ago or just yesterday or even minutes ago.
As a writer, the concept of alternate history intrigues you as much as it does me. Novelists especially are drawn to it – writing is about creating worlds we could have been and giving meaning to mistakes we make along our path in life.
Change how you view, interpret and act upon past events by shifting how you think about and perceive them in the present moment – thus changing reality at an atomic level. Imagine yourself emerging from that earlier shift – your emotions, state of mind and capacities that would now exist; that would have been who you would have been had those previous circumstances not existed.
4. The past isn’t dead
At times it seems the past is everywhere we turn – from entertainment and forming family and national identities, to being selectively mined and misrepresented. For instance, memorials to executed witches, enslaved Africans, dead astronauts, murdered teenagers and aborted foetuses can be found throughout society, while politicians use historical events to build their narratives of ideology, nationalism or party loyalty.
William Faulkner once made the following statement about the past in Requiem for a Nun: “The past never truly dies and never even passes into history, but is rather an ever-evolving phenomenon with many layers to its complexity and significance.”
Lowenthal provides an exhaustive examination of how societies view, appropriate, use, misuse, construct, reconstruct and glorify their pasts while distance themselves from it. A must-read for anyone intrigued by history and its relationship between past and present; offers new and compelling insights into complex interrelations of past with present; deserves revisitation in the future.
