Introduction

Thinking about history is a creative game that people all play from time to time as people try to imagine possible interpretations. Imagination is required to give meaning to even the most obvious historical artifacts. People create stories when people see pattern and meaning in the observed world. Unconsciously, people categorize the data people observe in the world and seek patterns that can be expressed as metaphors. Well-used metaphors imbue historical writing with more than layered meaning; they also add substance and style. In his influential book The Death of the Past, the English historian J. H. Plumb chose an easily understood architectural analogy to describe the collapse of the Christian past as a guide to modern civilization. Two frames of reference, such as music and architecture, can be connected. The creative result is that people can see one thing in terms of another, such as in the phrases "architecture is frozen music" or "all the world's a stage.