History is the study of everything that men and women have ever done.
Through careful study, historians identify those things in human civilizations that change, that remain constant, and that have shaped the present. In short, they make us aware of the impact of the past on the present. Through the study of history, we can appreciate and understand the feelings, beliefs, and insights of those who lived before us. We are freed from the narrow lens of the present and introduced to the broader panorama of mankind. From the Catholic perspective, the Incarnation is the central fact of history.