A random walk down the past in our every-day lives. It is the history around us, the history in the news. It is the context which shapes our behavior now, the past which inhabits our surroundings.
I’ve often engaged in a fantasy parlor game with friends and family about how fascinating it would be to return to an earlier time to see what life was like, to experience the time before cell phones and electricity, video games and cars, even central heating and antibiotics, if only for a short while.
Dreaming yes, but fun. We don’t need a time machine or even a reenactment though to transport us back. We just need to open our eyes to see the history all around us, in our lives. It is present in our buildings and belongings, in the headlines and in the family and personal connections. It helps us make decisions that affect our futures, individually and collectively.
The purpose of these musings is to explore this past and its connections to where we are now and where we’re heading tomorrow.
John Dickson
History All Around 
#1 by Carl Stieren on November 23, 2015 - 6:11 pm
Thanks for your article in History News Network about how history will judge our response to the Paris Attacks. I was trying to say much the same thing here in Ottawa during the recent election campaign, but my focus was Bill C-51, the Canadian version of the Patriot Act. I liked your article very much, as well as your wise post here in historyallaround.org about Hillary Clinton and the origin of her separate email account. (I cheered when Bernie Sanders said “Enough about Hillary’s email!) Now I have a question to ask you about history of events vs. perceived or personal history. Can we chat briefly by email?