Why I Write History

I believe history is a series of stories about people who lived before.  I try to get the current audience to not see it as something dry that happened in the past but rather people whose lives were filled with conflict and drama just as our own are.  I’d want everybody to be interested in history.  I think it’s so important to learn from the struggles and triumphs of the people who went before us.  

So I think the key to that is hopefully to see history as story.  We’re somehow hard-wired for stories that have a beginning, a middle and end, stories that really teach us about the past. If I were to say anything that matters the most to me about my writing it is that ability hopefully to tell a story that can interest the reader so they’re willing to go with you with those people to more complex policies that are part of the time because they care about the people themselves.  It’s the people that makes it come to life. 

In Their Own Words is recorded in Big Think’s studio.

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