Again with Santayana
Lately I have been reading a three-book series of historical fiction set in Jacobean England. I started this series because the author had come highly recommended to me, and this series was the only thing I could find on Libby to check out at the time. As I read the first book, I had the growing feeling that, unlike some historical fiction, this one was mostly history with just a little fiction included to make it interesting. As I read, I looked up names of people and places and found that nearly all actually existed. After reading the first one, I looked up the author and found she is a professor of history at a major university in England. Well that explains that!!
But I did not come here to discuss those books, specifically. I came to talk about the value of reading and learning about history. This includes reading the Bible, even for people with no religious inclinations whatsoever. The Bible, after all, is a very comprehensive history of a few different time periods. One of my chief take-aways from my first reading of the entire Bible is that humans are still humans and always have been. We really have never changed or “evolved” as some folks like to think we have. The books I am reading, although set in the early 1600s, sound very familiar, very like things that are going on in this country and this state right now.
A commonly known phrase came to mind this morning, and I had to look it up to be sure I got it right and to learn the source—“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” was written by the philosopher George Santayana in 1905. Another quote that came to mind and had to be checked out is, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” That one was written by Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887. The sentence that follows is, “”Great men are almost always bad men.” Having read a little on the context of the Lord Acton quote, I think I will be reading more about this letter and the debate that inspired it. In our system of government, we have checks and balances that are meant to keep anyone from having absolute power. In Jacobean England, the monarch had absolute power, and some were absolutely corrupt, just as Acton warns. Despite the problems and turmoil we often have, it could be far, far worse. I am wishing others would delve into some history so they could understand the importance of doing things like learning what is going on in the world and, at a bare minimum, voting.
I know at least a few of you will want to know about the books anyway, so here it is: The author is Tracy Borman and she has written enough books to keep me busy reading for years. The series I am reading now were the first novels she published and are known as the Frances Gorges Trilogy. Libby is an app that allows you to check out ebooks and audiobooks from the public library system (YAY!). You need to have a library card in order to use Libby. Happy reading!
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