Undertaking historical studies

Learning about and deriving lessons from the past.

The study of history may be primarily viewed as an accounting of chronological events and as a congeries or series of happenings which both form and dominate the shape of societies. The emergence of comparative studies of civilization can however lead to a shift in perception of the growth of cultures. Civilizations can now be seen from a wider as well as a more dynamic perspective, as revealing the development of fundamental patterns of human relationships in the context of those artistic and social forms which embody the transformations of human consciousness.

1. Understanding or considering history allows the use of the lessons of past generations.

2. The historian must have some conceptions of how men who are not historians behave. (Edward Morgan Forster).