讀歷史的意義

由於席勒的《三十年戰爭史》尚未到手，於是先看 C. V. Wedgwood 的《三十年戰爭》。

小樂迷 P 介紹此書時，提到有人認為，即使不以歷史著作來看，此書仍是英語散文的佳作。此話確實非虛，只讀〈前言〉便已體會得到：

Written history usually reflects something of the time in which it was composed. I wrote this book in the later nineteen thirties when the depression, the Hitler regime in Germany and the Spanish War made the plight of the hungry, the displaced, the persecuted and the exiled an ever-present concern. Human distress inevitably became a major theme of the book. I do not regret this emphasis. The suffering caused by the Thirty Years War was beyond all reckoning, and I believe it to be an important part of the educational purpose of history to indicate the repercussions of policy on the lives of the people …

文筆優美，即使自己對這段歷史知之不詳，依然很有讀下去的衝動。

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自中四起便已沒有讀歷史，今次重新翻開歷史書，感覺好像與老朋友久別重逢！歷史記錄了不同時代、不同人的生活和故事，透過這些記載，自己可以更了解某些事情的前因後果，對所處的世界更加理解。這大概就是讀歷史的意義吧？