History is a sad tale

Okay, I apologize for beginning the newsletter this way. History is not just a sad tale, it is also a scary one. But in addition to that, it educates us and humanizes us.

Let's talk about history.

Humanity has faced so many huge problems in the past and still surfaced better. Famines and wars and natural disasters, and bloodthirsty kings, mass murders, the evils of colonization and slavery, the loot of nations and traditions.

Learning about all of that stuff is like going down a rabbit hole that only makes you realise halfway through that you cannot possibly emerge out of it unscathed. I see. It's not always appealing.

But after linguistics, if there's one thing I consider worth studying at all, it is our own history. It hides secrets, you see, to a lot of present-day phenomena.

History gives you answers to questions you didn't know existed.

History is a sad tale, I repeat, but if you're particularly optimistic that it's not, I'd recommend you 5 podcasts — mainly for history geeks, but on a wider level, necessary for all of us to acquaint ourselves with — that will reveal to you the secrets of humanity, our pasts, our geography, sociology and politics, the science we never pondered over, the cultures that are admirably resilient and the questions we all should be asking.

Question for you:

Can you predict the future by learning the history of something?​
Find out now. Reply your thoughts to this email.