To me, History is a number of things. However, two things stick out to me as among the most important. History is both an endless pursuit of knowledge, and a means of understanding the present by looking at the past.
I am a curious person. I enjoy learning new things, and I find history to be an excellent outlet for that yearning for knowledge. There is simply so much of it, that there is no possible way for one person to study all of it, hence the need for specializations. However, History is not just an endless collection of stories. There are also so many things to consider and ponder. A near endless amount of research inquiries can be created when analyzing even a small amount of historical documents/artifacts.
There are lots of ways to explain how History is used as a way of understanding the present.We use history in a variety of different ways, although sometimes it’s a more recent history. For example, we use precedents set by the courts in our government. We use the past behavior of individuals to predict how they will act in the present or future. These are of course very minor examples of the application of history. For an older and larger scale example, look at the Renaissance. during this time, thinkers, leaders, and scientists became facinated by Greek and Roman culture and society, inspiring new innovations and ideas.
I think a lot more can be said about these two topics, and I think there are numerous other ways I can describe how I view History. However, these concepts are part of what History is to me, and among the most important reasons why I want to study History.
These are also two of the main hallmarks of history for me. A love of telling stories, and of gathering more knowledge to make those stories, is something I see among a lot of historians. While academic historians are often expected to have an argument when writing professionally, when historians are making small talk often we will exchange our favorite bits of historical knowledge, tell our favorite stories, delight in bringing up unknown sources and new interpretations. And the renaissance is a great example of people using history in what we now think of as a historic period ourselves (like an onion). While the academic history we do today has a specific form, it does feel to me like using history (or history-as-myth) to understand our present is a common, almost a-chronological human behavior. (I’m not sure such things exist, but if they do this is one of them.)
Those are some things that I wanted to include in my post, but I didn’t want to go over the world limit.