Just read a fascinating article by Walter Russell Mead on “A Lifetime Reading List.” It inspired me to reflect on why we read books and why some of us love history. Mead points out that:

“World history is so complex and multifaceted that a great danger is that young readers will give up on making any kind of sense out of it.  Dozens of civilizations, scores of powers, religions and cultures rising and falling everywhere you look, uncountable throngs of significant schools of art, more battles and wars than you can shake a stick at: getting things in chronological order is the best and perhaps the only way to help young people find their footing in the torrent.”

And not only young people.
You can read the full article here.