Rick's Rules of History

A few thoughts on history that I modestly named after myself.

1. Everything that ever happened almost didn't...and vice versa.

As David McCullough likes to say, "There is no such thing as the past." Before it was history it was someone trying to figure out what to do. History happens in the present, on the fly, under deadline, in the heat of anger, and sometimes by accident. It's not set in stone before it happens, and it didn't have to happen the way it did. Some of my favorite stories are about pivotal moments that completely changed history.  For example:  George Bush would never have been president except for something that happened on the Mayflower in 1620.

2. History is made by people.

This may seem obvious. People are the primary actors on the stage of history, not monkeys or trees, or rocks. The point is that history is not always great armies colliding, or great civilizations rising and falling. Sometimes it is what one single person does: A man who sings a song and thereby saves the life of a president. A soldier who finds three cigars and changes the course of the Civil war. Three drunken redcoats who inspire the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. We're not all just corks rising and falling on the tides of history. Individuals make a difference.

3. Yesterday's headline is today's forgotten story

Our society's historical memory is incredibly short. So something that was headline news 65 years ago (or even 10 years ago) turns into a forgotten nugget just awaiting rediscovery. It was the hottest story in American when President Franklin Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving in 1939 to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. It divided the nation--literally--with half the states celebrating on the old date and half on the new date proclaimed by the President. But who remembers it today?

4. Just because it is in a history book doesn't mean its true.

"History would be a wonderful thing" said Leo Tolstoy," if only it were true." I go to great lengths to assure that the stories I tell in my books and documentaries are true, because there are a lot of myths floating around out there. And some of them have been enshrined in history books! Someone in my position has to be a history detective, piecing together clues and different accounts, trying to trace everything

back to its source to see if it is really true.

5. History is too much fun to leave to historians.

My mission in life is to infect people with my passion for history. This stuff is a blast!

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