History is a subject frequently categorized as boring and irrelevant. It consists of names and dates, all relating to people long dead and events long past.  

But history somehow has a pull that we can’t resist. The PBS series “The Civil War” drew in record numbers of viewers for public television stations, and movies like “Dunkirk,” which grossed half a billion dollars, come out year after year that focus on historical settings.  

So there clearly is some interest in history that exists, but why does it have this stigma of dullness around it? 

The simple reason is the unstoppable force that is a course curriculum. The curriculum demands a class study the entire history of human civilization in one school year. 

Anyone can see that such a task is a fool’s errand on par with Sisyphus. This format forces teachers, who usually have a true passion for their subject, to breeze through eras to prepare their students for whatever will be on the exam.  

Is it any wonder, then, that there is a generally negative opinion surrounding history? 

What I advocate is increased personal study of history. When one truly studies history in detail, it is not dates, names and events. It reads like a novel. 

History contains heroes, villains, violence, conflict, drama, romance and some of the most enduring figures to have ever lived. 

History has characters that are deeper, more relatable and most of all more real than anything the world’s greatest novelist could ever create. 

And what is it about history that makes it so relatable?  

Because it’s all real. The personalities and characters feel human because they are human. The events and conflicts are engaging and dramatic because they actually happened and had real consequences for real people.  

History is nothing more than the greatest story ever told- and it continues to this day.