If I know the person I am listening to has a heavy bias I find that I spend too much time looking for signs of that bias. When it is over a subject I know a very little about, like ones say covering 19th century France I just tend to doubt everything they say. With things I am more familiar about I can filter the BS a little better so I more tolerant. You could be discussing the latest fossil discovery but if started off praising eugenics I probably won’t listen very long.


That and in general I think we are starting to focus to much on history and try to apply it to heavily to current events. You do not want to ignore history but on the other hand you do not want to be trapped by it either. There are broad patterns we can see that tell us about human society and the way it has worked in the past but we live in world so different then anyone has lived in before the past really is a poor guide for the future. People will always be people and history can tell you how people reacted to situation in the past but you need to really understand why they reacted that way for it to be valuable.

In 1940 I don't believe there was anything in history that would have lead you to believe Europe would become what it is today.


Besides history for the most part is more modern politics then it is anything else and too many people who want to argue history really just want to use it like religious document and taken out the bits and pieces they like to support their argument and ignore the rest. Don’t get me wrong I love history but to me history is about the people and the stories not about politics. I really only care from an academic point of view what direction the founding fathers wanted to take the country.