History Quote by Greg Denning

““Giving the dead a voice, letting their signatures on life be witnessed, is reason enough for my history. The voices of the dead in such a history are hard to hear, and the distinctiveness of their signatures hard to respect. Such a history takes much inquiry, even more imagination, and a deep sense of humility about what an historian can know and has the right to say. The living need history, too. Not to be made to feel guilty for a past they are not responsible for or cannot change. The living need a history disturbing enough to change the present. I do not mean disturbing in the sense of destructive anxiety or alienation, but disturbing in the sense of awakening a consciousness that brings resolve to change. It is the present made by our past that we are responsible for. It is our own banality that needs to be disturbed, our presumption that we are disempowered by the very structures and systems which we make ourselves and sustain with our moral lethargy. If my history, by story and reflection, shows that things can be otherwise, then I think it fulfils a need.””

— Greg Denning