同学们，本栏目是对你们学过的知识和生活中常见问题的归纳。其中，有一些共性问题，也许你会需要哦！

让我来帮你解决常见问题！

Question1: why is history so challenging and intriguing?

Answer:

Today people also agree that it is not a science in the sense that physics or chemistry is. History has to do with human activities and social development and when there is this human element, it cannot be purely objective because as stated above, people can be very different. For the same reason, there are also far more variables involved in history than in natural sciences. That is why history is so challenging and intriguing. But however difficult it is, young students today must understand that it is a very important part of our education. It is now known to all that how much we know and understand the past largely determines how much and how well we know the present and how far and how clearly we can see ahead. We might even say that no one can be considered properly educated at all if he or she knows no history

Question2: What can you learn from the book Conflict and Consensus mentioned in this passage?

Answer:

This is a much condensed and adapted version of the preface to the book Conflict and Consensus compiled by two American history professors. In this preface, the two authors discuss the definition of history, the role of the historian and the reasons why historians disagree. They point out the common misunderstanding that history is just names, dates and statistics of the past, and that the historian's job is to find and remember as many of them as possible. They tell us that historians do not just collect facts. They give meaning to the facts. And because they have different interests and different understanding of human motivation and human behavior which in turn is due to their different background in age, sex, race, class, education, religion, politics, etc, they tend not only to be interested in different facts but also to interpret the same facts differently. The two historians therefore emphasize the importance of understanding the historians' approach, perspective and philosophy rather than the facts they have used or left out.