First, then, for my views on what history is—and what it is not. Several months ago there was an interesting debate in the New York _Times Magazine_ about the nature of history, provoked by an article written by Barbara Tuchman, the historian whose public reputation is based primarily upon her magnificent book, _The Guns of August_. The essence of the debate was whether history is what _actually happened_ in the past, or is merely the _record_ of what happened. The subtle distinction, of course, is comparable to that involved in the question of whether there can be noise—as from a tree falling in the middle of an impenetrable forest—if there is no ear to hear the sound waves. I don’t intend to revive the debate; I merely want to suggest that there are various ways of looking at the nature of history. You are about to be exposed to _my_ way of looking at it. As I see it, recorded history is society’s memory. For society as a whole, as well as for an individual, memory can provide insights, wisdom, and the recollection of past experiences which are in some way relevant to every new experience—no matter how unanticipated the manifestation of that new experience may be. And of course each new experience adds to the information stored in that amazing electronic computer—the human brain. Sometimes the new experience reinforces the information already stored there, sometimes it qualifies the existing information, but always the new experience is in some way relevant to events in the past which are already recorded in the memory. This same process is to some degree true of society as a whole. Every event of significance in mankind’s past can enrich the memory of human society, and can be used to the future benefit of mankind—if some way can be found to relate that experience to current issues and problems, without distortion, through some kind of memory process. The historian, of course, is the essential element of this memory process. In considering this relationship of experience to memory, it is pertinent to point out that even the most startling new scientific development invariably has had a historical background of its own. New wonders of technology and science all have a direct connection with the past, not only through the evaluation and analysis of empirical records, but also through discontinuities or continuities which exist between the new development and what has happened in the past. If there is anything to my suggestion that historical experience is the basic material for the memory of society, then the record of past experience is a natural resource, which can and should be mined for the present and future benefit of mankind. Save possibly in the area of science, human society has never come near to efficiently exploiting this resource of its own experience.