Why History Rules

I know I've been looking at a lot of science fiction-related stuff lately (including my Bard Conley book), but there's a reason I decided to major in history for my long-delayed university degree.

And that reason is because history rules.

Not all history, mind you; some of it is quite boring. 99% of Canada's history comes to mind. We really didn't do much. No big wars, relatively low crime rate (compared to our southern neighbor, anyway), and we didn't even do Prohibition, which led to some exciting times in the States.

I'm sure I'll get snarls from Canadians who think our history is awesome; bring it on. We're just not that interesting. The exploration stuff is great, and the scenery is beautiful, but as a nation, we just haven't done all that much.

Still, I'm starting to focus in on what history is really the best. The Crusades, of course, are a fantastic period to study. But the two courses I'm working on right now (The Gilded Age, which inspired another book of mine, and Latin American History from 1850 to today) made me realize just what parts of history are really the most fascinating.

It's the exploration of strange new lands, the seeking out of new life and unknown civilizations, and the drive to go where no man has gone before.

Yeah, there's a reason Star Trek still endures, even in its mutated current forms. Gene Roddenberry knew what he was doing with that tag line. We are, as a race, driven to do exactly that. And the Age of Exploration, from about 1450 to 1850, is as good as it got. Think about it: in that period, Europeans discovered three new continents, circumnavigated the globe, founded dozens of new colonies, and explored almost every square inch of the planet. The poles would take a while longer, but all the inhabitable stuff was figured out.

And now, we've run out of places to explore. On land, at least. And except for a few dreamers and conspiracy theorists, nobody expects to find Atlantis under the oceans. Space really is the final frontier, and if we ever figure out warp drive or hyperspeed, I'm sure we'll find some pretty awesome stuff out there.

But for now, we're stuck here on Earth. Not that it's a bad place; it's pretty sweet, really. I just took my son out back of the barn on our new farm so we could look up at the first truly clear night we've had since we arrived. And man, those stars were beautiful to look at. Thousands of them, all over the place. We also saw Mars, which is the closest place we haven't been to yet. Someday we'll get there.

In the meantime, though, there's lots of exciting history to read about. I'm going to get back to that. And maybe write something about it.