History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day, it is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography.  History tells people what they have been, where they have been and what they have been, where they are and what they are; most importantly it tells people where they still must go and where they still must be. The relationship of history to the people is the same as the relationship of a mother to a child.

-John Henrik Clarke