Something to Keep in Mind

Carl Becker (1873-1945) was a hugely influential historian in the early twentieth century. This statement on "simple historical facts" (like dates of battles, names of presidents, etc.) suggests why the discipline is concerned with more, much more, than just memorizing those facts:

"Thus the simple historical fact turns out
to be not a hard, cold something with clear
outline, and measurable pres­sure, like a brick.
It is so far as we can know it, only a symbol,
a simple statement which is a generalization
of a thousand and one simpler facts which
we do not for the moment care to use, and
this generalization itself we cannot use apart
from the wider facts and generalizations which
it symbolizes. And generally speaking, the more
simple an historical fact is, the more clear and
definite and provable it is, the less use it is to
us in and for itself."