Geschichte

The Beginning

I don't know much German, though my family on my dad's mom's side came from Germany. I can count to three in German (with a very bad accent), I like some of their beer, and they make great automobiles. Besides that, I know one other word in German; and I believe it is one of the most beautiful words in the whole world.

Geschichte means History.

It also means more than what Americans think of when we think of history. It is a story of the past. It is something the Americans could have never invented or perfected because we have too little of it to call our own.

The first time I heard the word was in HIST 300: Approaches to History at the University of Southern California. The description of the course was simple, "Approaches to history; intellectual and personal dimensions of the historian’s work. Required of all history majors." It is the second sentence that all students dread, but the thing which I now wish everyone could experience: 'required of all history majors'. We as historians were required to study the history of history. It made all the difference for me.


Herodotus, the "Father of History", was our first guide. Then it was on to Thucydides. Together they laid the foundation for our modern historical method. They called it historia - inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation.


Eventually, we got to the Germans. Nothing was off limits for the German philosopher-historian. He became a philosopher, a scientist, an artist. And I began to gather the tools and learn the field that would set me on a path of discovery, understanding, and insight into major world events, cultures, missionary movements, church denominations, sports, wars, politics, and too many other things to list now.


I'll continue a series of posts telling you some of the great things I've learned from history and why I think everyone needs to understand it. I'll give you some tools to study history, some great authors to read, and some of my thoughts on why history matters now more than ever. I hope you'll stick around.