The Nature of History

I disagree with you eazybee. The real drivers of historical innovation are ideas and technology, which happen independently of those in power, whether it be kings/queens or some other form of government.

Kings, Queens and battles were used to define periods of time, and battles were immensely important as well, altering the balance of power, and the lives of the people who had the misfortune to live in that area. Kings and Queens were the leaders of their country and their personality and family dynasties shaped the times, far more than they do now. Technically government is in the hands of the people, far more than in the past.
Learning about monarchies doesn't preclude social history but chronology (increasingly replaced by thematic teaching) is so important because it is difficult to understand events without some knowledge of what preceded them.

History is past and present with everything in life without history we would not learn. It’s here and now and everything that happens is history in the making the building blocks of knowledge.

Yes, I find social history much more interesting than the external bits, even though I see the two things as interconnected.

I hated history at school as it was all about killing basically.

I wanted to know what people ate, when toilets came in, how they made their money, what they wore, what they thought, how they treated illnesses, what music they played and on what instruments. OK, tell me which king/queen was in power and how that impinged on people's lives; tell me about political movements - but I wanted to know how people lived.

I think history is about what makes ‘us’ what ‘we’ are. By that I don’t mean me in particular (or you, or anyone else as an individual), but ‘us’ as a society. We can look back at events that may have happened for disparate reasons but have worked together to shape our attitudes and daily lives, and get a better understanding of how our society works. Wars, kings and queens, politicians are part of that, but so are poets, artists, inventions and events such as plagues and pandemics and their control.

It’s all far too wide-ranging for one post. Three-year degrees are broken down into small chunks of history (whether political, ideological, religious, social, economic or cultural) and even then they scratch the surface.

I think it’s fascinating to consider how we are shaped by all of the above, and however much we tell ourselves that we think for ourselves, have our own opinions and beliefs, they are based so much on where we fit into the part of the society that we were born into.

Does the coronation matter to all of that? To me personally, no, not really, but the public reaction to it does. The ‘public outpouring of grief’ (see, even the press cliches become part of our collective understanding of events ) when Diana died shaped the way the monarchy now do things. Had they stayed aloof, we might now have a republic. To many people it matters a lot, as being part of a country with a monarchy is part of their identity. Put together, I think this is an important day.

To me, every single second is a historical moment because it's over almost before we can think about it.

Understanding history puts the present into context and helps explain who we are and why we are where we are as individuals and as societies. Every one of has had a unique experience of random moments of history.

I agree with you LadyHonoriaDedlock. I don't have much time for the kings, queens and battles view of history.

I don't even know what time the coronation is and I have no plans to watch it. It won't make any difference to my life and I doubt very much if it will make much difference to society and the country as a whole.

Two events which stand out for me as having far more historic significance because they changed important aspects of the way the country is run (and affected my own life) were the 1979 general election and the 2016 referendum.

There is no one definition of history, other than it happened in the past and everything you mention, and hundreds of things you did not mention are all history.

The only thing that varies is what you are writing a history of - and that can be kings, queens, battles, politics, your local area, your family history, the landscape, religion, postage stamps, embroidery, philosophy, music, tin cans, non-dairy spreads and anything else you can feasibly think of.