Digging with an open mind...

...Déjà View | Writing new histories

Then there is the issue of the professor who wants to study the historical veracity of the great epics. I have many thoughts—mostly unkind, perhaps even a little Marxist—about the idea of religion. But there is no denying that religion played a huge role in the formation of societies. Much of what we know about the history of civilizations comes from investigations into the history of religions. And that trend is growing. A 2009 American Historical Association survey showed that the largest proportion of historians in the US (around 8%) were working on religion, ahead of cultural studies, women’s studies and even military history.