The interpretation and analysis of this piece is merely a reflection of

myself as a human being. History, regardless of its format, shall only be

understood through the lens or paradigm of an individual it allows it to pass
through. An example of this lens is the person’s emotional stability or
instability. An emotionally-disturbed reader would provide a bitter and/or
crestfallen point of view. A curious reader would absorb all the necessary
information about the particular historical account that would benefit
her/him, ergo giving a much objective if not positive analysis. To wrap it all
up, not all analysis will be similar in perspective as each person is in
different life stages and levels of maturity when consuming pieces of history.
This is just something to keep in mind whilst perusing my work.

Moving on…

The quote from E.H. Cam struck me the most. He stated that history is
an “unending dialogue between the present and the past”. Having been a
person who reads biographies of the ancient stoic philosophers of days old,
this speaks volumes e.g., leadership qualities and principles haven’t really
changed all that much since the dawn of mankind due to the animalistic
natures of humans. Ergo, I can read about how the great leaders of the past
have led nations and apply the concepts to my daily life benefitting from
their greatness whilst avoiding the pitfalls. Another example, whist reading
the biographies of the men and women before my birth, I am able to
commentate live, ask questions, and have violent reactions on the borders of
the page. That is how I have conversations with the dead.

On the other hand, the dark side of history is that only affluent people
are able to tell their stories on written accounts, whilst the lesser people in
society are forced to disseminate history through word-of-mouth. This is
quite poignant for several reasons. One of them being is that history from
word-of-mouth is generally ignored or pushed aside in favour of written
accounts when in the context of the school academe care of textbooks.

To sum it all up, history only serves to benefit those who seek it. Jose
Rizal said it better than I could ever express: “He who does not know how to
look back at where he came from will never get to his destination”. History,
in my opinion, serves as a roadmap to greater things in one’s lifetime. It can
inspire greatness within a person to change the world and leave a legacy for
future.