Why History? It's about identity.

Postcard circa 1960s - Bahia Mar and South Beach  
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Many who spent their school years hating history are the same who seek social media sites or reunions reliving their own. They look for high school and college alumni and other groups for "remember when" discussions about concerts, musicians, oldie goldies tunes, favorite movies or nightclubs, hangouts or memorable characters from their past.

Why? What's so great about our past? It's history, after all. Everyone has a history. 

It's not only about reliving shared experiences. One's past experiences are woven into the fabric of who one is now. It's parallel to the nurture side of the nature/nurture equation of human development.  

The same can be said about a city, state, region or a country, which are more than geographical boundaries. People are probably more familiar with an area's accents or colloquialisms, foods or ways of cooking--even clothing--than its borders. These are elements of an identity, a personality, a common culture. If one digs deep enough, they'll discover the history behind each element including boundaries.

Postcard -Miami Biltmore, Coral Gables 1937
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Students dislike school room history because of how it was (and still is) taught. Teachers make history unrelatable when they present in a brittle-dry, lifeless, formulaic style. Today it may come with an agenda-driven overlay. Thankfully, many adults return to history when they can read on their own about what they find interesting. There is something to be said for this "free-range history."  

A reminder for those who blog: keep it short. History is for everyone, not just for researchers and scholars. Long missives discourage the casual reader, the non-historian.

Without history some say there is no future. Its ancillary could be the oft-repeated "those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."*  

History should breathe and live; it's foundational to everyone's identity, to a country's identity.

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Postcard - a Bit of  Old Spain in Miami, 1949
Florida State Archives/ Florida Memory

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* Variously attributed to Irish-British writer Edmund Burke (1729-1797) or British stateman, writer and historian Winston Churchill (1874-1965) but most likely written by Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952). 

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida history, Miami history, Palm Beach history, Jane Feehan