ABSTRACT
History is a capacious term used to denote all things past, narratives and chronological orderings describing the past, inquiries leading to some sort of knowledge, and the specialized area of study that takes the past as its subject (Oxford English Dictionary Online, n.d., para. 1, 4, 7). Thus, it makes sense to conceive of historical renderings as “histories” when identifying and imagining the many things that histories have been, are, and can be. Histories can be epistemologies, means by which to form and maintain identities, methods of explanation, and tools for asserting truth claims. They can be stories, imaginings, and forms of entertainment; cautionary devices forewarning people to avoid certain ways of thinking and acting; fonts of inspiration spurring people to clamor for change; teleologies explaining the past and signposting the present and future; catalogs, archives, and systems of organization that can simplify and complicate understandings of the present; commemorations of what came before; well-springs for nostalgia and disgust; and heralds announcing what is present. In regard to youth, histories are of critical importance in that, depending on the historian's perspective, they can explain the ways “youth” as a life stage and identity came into being, the ways adult experts and laypersons have thought of and regulated young persons over time, the roles youth have played in their own constitution, and the historical forces that affect what youth can be at particular times, among other things.
