History Department

Why History?

The great eventful Present hides the Past; but through the din, of its loud life hints and echoes from the life behind steal in.

John Greenleaf Whittier

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Lauren Hill

(Singer)

Studied History at Columbia University

History Department

Why History?

The Present is the living sum-total of the whole Past. 

Thomas Carlyle, Characteristics

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Sasha Baron Cohen

(Ali G & Borat)

Graduated from Cambridge with a degree in Modern History

History Department

Why History?

History is but the record of the public and official acts of human beings.  It is our object, therefore, to humanize our history and deal with people past and present; people who ate and possibly drank; people who were born, flourished and died; not grave tragedians, posing perpetually for their photographs. 

Bill Nye, History of the United States

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Graduated from Oxford with a degree in History

Louis Theroux

(Broadcaster)

History Department

Why History?

History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders from the tablet:  the statue falls from the pedestal.  Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand; and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust? 

Washington Irving, The Sketch Book: Westminster Abbey

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Graduated from Oxford with a degree in History

Al Murray

(Comedy Genius)

History Department

Why History?

For me there is no greater subject than history.  How a man can study it and not be forced to become a philosopher, I cannot tell. 

George E. Wilson

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Ed Norton

(Actor)

Graduated with a degree in History from Yale University

History Department

Why History?

If one could make alive again for other people some cobwebbed skein of old dead intrigues and breathe breath and character into dead names and stiff portraits.  That is history to me! 

George Macaulay Trevelyan

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Shakira

(Singer)

Graduated with a degree in World History from UCLA Los Angeles.

History Department

Why History?

History never looks like history when you are living through it. 

John W. Gardner

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Amanda Peet

(Actress)

Graduated History at Columbia University

History Department

Why History?

We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre. 

Dick Gregory

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Graduated from Oxford with a degree in History

Alan Bennett

Writer

History Department

Why History?

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. 

Winston Churchill

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Graduated from Oxford with a degree in Modern History

Michael Palin

Monty Python star and

Broadcaster

History Department

Why History?

Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything.  You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree. 

Michael Crichton, Timeline

History Department

Why History?

History Department

Why History?

Graduated from Cambridge with a degree in History

Salman Rushdie

Writer

History Department

Why History?

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters. 

African Proverb