History is a construct. The past has happened and we are trying to make sense of it. We make sense of it in a number of ways from creating myths to elaborate metanarratives based on philosophy.
The big question of history is how did we get to this point. What happened to bring us here. This can be answered in various ways from the economic, to social pressures, political will and elaborate philosophies of manifest destiny, geography determinism or even Marxism. That is of course if we even believe that we are moving forwards historically!
These questions are the concern of the philosophy of history and my particular area of interest. I am particularly interested in the distinction between history written to explain is different to propaganda intended to convince. For both history has great utility.
History in my opinion is redeemed or convicted on its social activity. If it enables and empowers the audience to understand their world better, to investigate the sources for themselves and come to their own conclusions, to go away and look at churches, old buildings and other relics with information and questions of their own then history has done its job. The goal is to open minds just as propagandas goal is to close them.
Historytalker 