yoreplaceforhistory

“I don’t know where I’m goin’, but I sure know where I’ve been.”

“Here I Go Again,” by rock band Whitesnake, 1987

Dear guests:

 This blog has been dedicated to history, in all its forms and glory. Those who enjoy this site likely will be those who believe, like the song lyric above suggests, that the present and future are meaningless without a firm grip on the past.

Let’s define history before we continue. For this site’s purposes, history entails any and all phenomena from the past, and this goes way beyond names and dates from wars and revolutions. Intellectual analysis has a place here, but it’s only part of the mission. For while history indeed includes The Big Events, it also involves pop culture and societal churn from the past, including literature, music, movies, radio, television, sports — pretty much anything that has been in the ether.

As for current events, there is a glut of blogs about The News, so this site generally will only refer to the present to help illuminate a phenomenon from the past. For example: I may talk about how YouTube compares with “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which was once a prime medium for publicizing personal video creations. The show still exists, but its heyday was the 1990s, which brings up a chance to clarify the present and past. If something exists today, but it has passed its prime, then it can be considered a cultural relic for purposes of this blog. Guests can write in and dispute any contention, though, for I am not the final arbiter of what’s history and what’s current.

 Indeed, much in the past is factual. It’s a fact that Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, but it’s not a fact that the U.S. had it coming. Opinions are welcome, but opinions presented as facts are not. To expand on the old adage that history is written by the victors, when you get past the basic facts — e.g. dates, places, names, etc. — a historical event or other phenomenon is open to interpretation.

 Finally, the framework of this blog is not necessarily limited to the parameters spelled out above. These are guidelines, not strictures.

 Yore history guide,

 Frank

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