" The past isn't dead. It's not even past" -William Faulkner

Historians do not actively participate in or better society as anyone would traditionally think. We don't heal people like doctors do. We don't build bridges or fix roads. We don't patrol the streets and arrest criminals. That's why the study of history needs justification for some people.

We study history to learn about different governments and why they do or do not work. We study history to know what our ancestor valued and fought for and see if we are straying from their path and, if we are, understand why. Ideas evolve and every now and then we need to adjust what we need to fight for in order to have the best life we can. Our founding fathers had great ideas, but as the world changes, so do we and, therefore, there may come a time in our future when we have a set of rights and rules that will not in any way resemble our Deceleration of Independence or Constitution. And it will be okay. We study great leaders and people of positive influence to learn what they did right in hope that they and their actions will be a light for us in the dark, a guide for us when times get tough and we aren't sure what to do. We study people of negative influence to understand what they did, why they did it, and how far their actions reached out into the world. We also study those negative people so we are able to recognize when new undesirable people are rising in power and we can put a stop to their negative influence before it is too late. Too often we can be guided through our possible futures by looking at our own past. That's why, as Faulkner says, our past hast not past. History is too often relevant to our present to be dead.