History

About this programme

What is history? Interest in the past is almost as old as society. The past may be close at hand. We can find it in old photographs of our family and our town. The past may also be so remote that reaching it at all is a challenge. We can study cultures that ceased to exist many centuries ago and have left scant traces. But does the past matter? It matters when we are curious about ourselves and believe that our existence is rooted, not only in genes, but also in a cultural heritage. History seeks to discover the past through the methodical study of written and oral sources, increasingly in conjunction with artifacts. History is not a science. Our collective past cannot be analyzed in terms of constant laws and processes that invariably produce the same results. Attention to history rarely prevents old mistakes from being made all over again. But history brings us face to face with real people and the things they did and suffered. Studying them from a distance, we can often understand t