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Originally Posted by Sigaba
Historians ask themselves and each other tough even unpleasant questions, not because they don't respect the past and the people who made it, but because they do.
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Historians are not some great keeper of all things past. The war that I enjoy reading about is the US Civil War. I no longer read historians accounts of that war, mostly personal accounts. There are a few people like Bruce Catton who I do like to read. He has a good feel for the life of a soldier. Like reading [I]All Quite on the Western front[I] by E. M. Remarque. I read it when I was in High School and later when I came home from RVN. On the second reading I felt a brotherhood, so to speak. I knew he was there.
I am sorry for academics who feel they are different and because of their studies they can see in to things us mortal can not. IMHO, they are out to lunch. They are full of their own greatness and can not realize there is more to the story. Something that can not be read about, something that must be experienced.
I am not saying all historians are like this, I mentioned B. Catton. I am not interested in playing the game "armchair quarterback". I am interested in History, but form the actual players themselves rather than those who only watch.
To quote " T. Roosevelt;
Quote:
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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
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