Studying History Is A Bridge Between the Glorious, Terrible Past; Utopian, Dystopian Present and Future

When studying history, as an introduction I ask students “what causes historical change?” We write the answers on the board. Until 2020, the first answer students usually came up with was “war/the military.”

In 2020-21, it’s usually “diseases/epidemics/pandemics,” at least temporarily. One student suggested including “climate change” in that category, a…