There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn't enter into it.
If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around us.
The power of historical fiction for bad and for good can be immense in shaping consciousness of the past.
Our pasts so many times determine the value of what is happening today. Everybody is midway in their story.
Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice.
People don't know the past, even though we live in literate societies, because they don't trust the sources of the past.
We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past.
When you face up to bad things in the past, the most important thing is not to allow them to happen today or in the future, and as storytellers, we must play our part in that.
One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.
Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.