"No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." — David McCullough

The pull, the attraction of history, is in our human nature. What makes us tick? Why do we do what we do? How much is luck the deciding factor?

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.

To me history ought to be a source of pleasure. It isn't just part of our civic responsibility. To me it's an enlargement of the experience of being alive, just the way literature or art or music is.

I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities.