As mortals, our experience is limited. However, vicarious experience can be vastly extended through the study of literature and history. Attention to the biographies of those who have lived before us offers a way to extend our experience. A student should know many more people at the end of Hist. 11 than at the beginning, even though they are all dead.
Genealogy is another branch of history.
Perhaps, you can learn of your ancestors and the decisions that they made that influenced your present situation. History gives us perspective. By knowing where we have been and where we are now, we have a better idea of where we are going. Recall, or memory is, however, only one thinking skill. You must remember some of what has happened in the past.