Today, I bought Bernard Lewis' "The Middle East: 2,000 Years of History from The Rise of Christianity to the Present Day". Little would I realise that Bernard Lewis is according to Wikipedia, 'a widely read expert on the Middle East, and is regarded as one of the West's leading scholars of that region. He specializes in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West.
It is fair to say that the love of History, Philosophy and Literature kept me grounded in my studies. It is these subjects that beckons me to the school library almost everyday, even to the point of skipping Accounts classes. It can be said that my education during secondary school years consists solely on these 3 subjects and nothing more.
History might be a boring subject to most but it is not to me. On the contrary, I find History interesting as how a series of decisions made by men, and the chains of events that followed, leave its footprints in the sands of time and affects us even today. For example, the conflicts that is happening in the Middle East did NOT start right after 9/11 but rather, more that 1500 years ago.
When I close my eyes, I can see Socrates saying 'Know Thyself', Hannibal's Cartheginians massacre the Romans at the battle of Cannae, a sailor hauling the mast of an 18th Century Man-of-War, Spitfires diving to attack a formation of He111s and Ben-Gurion announcing the birth of Israel. For today, I can see Von Blucher leading his Prussians in a charge against Napolean's troops at the battle of Waterloo, for today is the anniversary of this famous battle.
If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.
-Aristotle
-Aristotle
History is philosophy teaching by example and also by warning. -Lord Bolingbroke
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