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— and essential for anyone concerned about American political health today. Studying history underlies many specific and quite diverse uses of history in our own lives. History well told is beautiful. Biography and military history appeal in part because of the tales they contain. History as art and entertainment serves a real purpose, on aesthetic grounds but also on the level of human understanding. Exploring what historians sometimes call the pastness of the past— the ways people in distant ages constructed their lives— involves a sense of beauty and excitement, and ultimately another perspective on human life and society. History Contributes to Moral Understanding History also provides a terrain for moral contemplation. Studying the stories of individuals