The English word “story” is derived from the Latin storia, a shortened form of historia. Hence, the original meaning of story was, literally, “short history.” The use of the word “story” to describe a fictional narrative came later.
I wrote this book because the thing that makes history interesting, relatable and instructive is the fact that it is a story. It is not a science. It is not a theory. It is certainly not a recitation of names, dates and events. It is the most interesting story ever told, made up of an endless number of shorter stories. Each of those stories, the stories of human beings who actually lived, is filled with drama, comedy, betrayal and everything you expect in the best fiction.
Yet too often we teach history in a way that vampirically sucks all of the drama, personality and relatability out of it. We teach it in passive voice. “This happened and that happened,” we’re told, influenced by very important-sounding but abstract concepts like economics and ideology. “In the reign of King George III there were protests in the colonies over taxation and the system of mercantilism whereby colonial possessions were exploited for raw materials to feed the emerging manufacturing economy of the mother country and . . .”
Sorry, I nodded off for a second.
Then we wonder why few people study history anymore.
I love history because of the way my father told history stories. He told them as stories, about people who lived and acted and made choices that shaped the course of events. My dad was a gifted storyteller who understood that it is human character that makes all stories interesting. The history he taught was populated by vivid characters.
If not for my dad’s storytelling, I never would have become interested in history because I never would have learned the human stories that make it interesting. That would have been a shame. If we forget about the people who’ve come before us, and if we forget that they were actual people, then we are adrift. History is the great laboratory of human experience where we discover that we are fundamentally no different from the humans who came before us. The story of these people teaches us about ourselves.
Back in 2019 I started the History Stories for My Son podcast because I wanted to share with the world the types of stories my dad taught me. It’s called “History Stories for My Son” because my first motivation for telling these stories was to pass on the love of history to the next generation. But history stories aren’t just for my son or for young people in general. History stories are for everyone. Everyone is part of the story, hence the title of this book.
This book is a chronological selection of stories about people in history who I found interesting enough to talk about on my podcast. They are all connected in the loosest sense—the sense that all of history is connected. But beyond that you will find no uniform theme in my selections. I have no theory of history. Whatever you learn from these stories—and there is much to learn—will come from each unique story.
My dad was a generous man who loved humanity. I can picture him vividly in my mind’s eye, with a far-off twinkle in his eye—along with a wry twist of mustachioed lips, and a half smile—the look he got when he had a story to tell. I picture him leaning forward, locking his gaze with mine, and saying:
“Son, let me tell you a story . . .”
Brilliant concept ! Deeply researched to tell the human story behind the history. It is not a boring history book. It is story telling on the best sense of the word.