I recently read the book Dance of Days (Anderson and Jenkins), a history of punk rock music in Washington DC. Music and history are my first loves, so this book certainly checked many boxes. At the end, the author wrote an eloquent paragraph addressing the question of why we need history. Contrary to popular myth, it is not "so that we won't repeat it," because often times we absolutely want to repeat history. We want to make beautiful art, love each other, start peaceful and meaningful revolution, and grow. And history is most often the ground from which inspiration grows.He writes,"...The past can provide the raw material for new life, new adventure, new answers, and new hope. Those memories can be our lesson, our fuel, our foundation, the gift left by the generation before, waiting to be discovered and put to use, to fertilize the ground of renewed struggle, to shine a light true and strong, defeating the darkness. This is a way, then, that books of history might bring us life, not entangle us in death or distraction."
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