What is the difference between describing 'how' and explaining 'why'? To describe 'how' means to reconstruct the series of specific events that led from one point to another. To explain 'why' means to find causal connections that account for the occurrence of this particular series of events to the exclusion of all others. (Sapiens, Location 3695, p. 238)
So why study history? Unlike physics or economics, history is not a means for making accurate predictions. We study history not to know the future tub to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine. (Sapiens, p. 241)
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