In this post ‘The Most Important Question: How do you Know?‘, Valeria Maltoni tackles an interesting and important subject: the difference between history and memory. An interesting topic at the time we live through a historical and momentous historical event – the first pandemics of modern times.
I like the distinction which is proposed, quoting Alessandro Barbero, a famous italian writer of historic novels:
“Memory is individual, it’s the point of view of one person. History is the understanding of what happened from all points of view.”
Valeria Maltoni expands on this: “History is important. Reality its complex. To understand what actually happened, a view of the events from above is critical. One of the ways to learn from the experiences of others is to get out of a personal point of view, widen the gaze. This is what history does. Because it’s the sum of all the things that happened to human beings, history answers the question: What really happened? Memory is important, but by its very nature is limiting. It takes into account only one point of view“.
We will all have our memories of the current historical moment, but history will be needed to complement our understanding. And it will probably take time before this history can be written by people not getting involved in petty political games and interpretations.
