This website is intended as a refuge for those who love history of the inspiring and personal sort: the great stories about real people that bring us together and make us proud of our shared humanity. I started the History Stories for my Son Podcast because I believe there is an unmet need in our society for a positive, story-telling approach to teaching history.
I love history. I always have. It started when I was a kid, listening to my father tell the tales of great men and women who shaped the course of human history. My dad was a story-teller, and the great insight I learned from him was that history is a story. It is populated by vivid characters, more complex and more real than even the best fictional characters.
Growing up I read everything I could about history, and took every class that was offered, leading eventually to a master’s degree in U.S. History. But the further I went on the academic path the more I realized I was getting away from what I loved about the subject. The way history is taught today, at least in the United States, is not as a story about the people who made history. At best, history is taught as a dull recitation of facts. At worst it’s taught as thinly disguised ideology, with our complex human story reduced to fit within the narrow confines of some political theory.
If not for my dad’s story-telling, I would never have become interested in history because I never would have learned the human stories that make it interesting. And that would have been a shame, because the human stories of history are what taught me where I come from. If we forget about the actual people who’ve come before us, and their stories, then we are adrift. History is the great laboratory of human experience. It teaches us practical things like what works and what doesn’t. And it also teaches us intangible things, like what character looks like when it’s really put to the test.
I want to share with you the type of stories my dad shared with me: Stories about people, about individuals making choices and making a difference. I want to share those stories with my own son when he’s old enough, hence the name of the Podcast and this website. But I figured, why stop there? If they inspired me, if they informed me, if I want to share them with my own son, then maybe there are other people out there who’d be interested. Maybe other people would like to hear these stories and, perhaps, share them someday with their own children.
When I started the Podcast I had it in mind particularly to speak to young people, a group I hope to inspire to carry the love of history into another generation. But I decided pretty quickly the best way to accomplish that mission is to tell stories that people of all ages can enjoy and engage in. So, while History Stories of my Son was inspired by my desire to teach my own son about history, that doesn’t mean this is a children’s education site. These stories are for everyone. These may be the kind of stories I heard from my Dad for the first time when I was a kid, but they’ve become even more interesting as I’ve grown older.
I hope you enjoy the website, and I hope you take advantage of this format to share your own thoughts and questions as you encounter the stories here.