Everyone has a theory of history that forms the lens through which they see the world. For many people, this is based on half-remembered high school classes or movies like Saving Private Ryan and Game of Thrones, while others deliberately study it as part of their intellectual life.
But whatever you call it, most people agree that history is a series of events that took place in the past. That’s one of the central definitions that you’ll find in any dictionary, and it’s the core of the discipline known as history.
It’s also something that historians are always trying to learn more about, because if you know what happened and how it affected the future, then you can better understand how it affects us today. But that’s not an easy task. Historians study evidence from the past, which can be anything from written documents to archaeological artifacts, and they make decisions about what to focus on, what to ignore, and how to explain the significance of those choices.
There are different ways of approaching this problem, which is a large part of why so many different people can study history and have such vastly differing theories about what it means. For example, some people are more interested in the big picture — what actually happened and how it connects to current issues — while others are more focused on the details, such as the location and pattern of every bit of shrapnel from a military battle.
Historians have to balance both of these things, but even in the most detailed studies, it’s impossible to cover everything that happened. That’s why it’s important for people who study history to take a broad approach, and to understand that even the most carefully chosen bits of evidence can be biased or flawed.
In fact, it’s the biases and flaws in historical sources that make them interesting, not just because they help us understand what actually happened, but also because they can provide insights into the human condition. Marx, for example, used history to support his stinging criticisms of capitalism, which he thought was a system in which wealthy capitalists exploited the working class to maximize profits.
In the end, a theory of history is a way to organize all of these facts and events into a coherent story that makes sense of the world we live in, and provides insight for our future. But it’s a dangerous weapon when wielded by those with a political agenda and nothing else to offer. Using history to advance a narrow and ideological agenda not only damages the utility of this discipline, but it also fosters poor understandings of our own past that can lead to harmful policies in the present. We should all do what we can to stop this from happening.