Parallels in History
William F. Mugleston
The doctrine of the absolute uniqueness of events in history seems nonsense,” Crane Brinton observed in his classic, The Anatomy of Revolution. Indeed, as every history teacher knows, similar situations do keep recurring, in politics, international relations, social standards, personal behavior, and a host of other areas. Today’s headline-grabbing news story may well have its counterpart twenty, fifty, two hundred, or even two thousand years ago. Of course it is true that no two situations are ever exactly alike, for the players themselves are different and may perform and react in diverse ways. But the parallels are surely there. Mark Twain said it for all time: “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.”
From OAH Magazine of History, (vol 14, no 3, Spring 2000). Read more: http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/korea/mugleston.html
