There is something fascinating about history: she plunges us into past societies whose customs now seem absolutely abnormal, compared to ours, and yet were considered the norm in their time. Read a historical novel quality makes us aware of many of these different standards, and it is extremely useful to look with new eyes the society around us .
And at one time it was normal for some people to have slaves, who were considered their property to such an extent that their masters did not hesitate to make love to them, or being asked to slaves closest to commit suicide after the death of their master. The concept of equality does not exist, for example noble Romans had a very clear distinction in they had with the people, and would never have suggested that they may be equal.
In another era, the most powerful religious authority of the West was normal torturing people who do not agree with them or who were guilty of engaging in practices that had prohibited. This was in contradiction with the teachings in the book on which it relied to hold its authority, the Bible, but justified it by saying that torturing these people allowed them to confess their crimes and thus gain salvation of their souls to the afterlife.
These two examples show us that things have evolved in the common sense in the West , and that despite all these shortcomings, a secular democracy, with well separated from the religious power of political power, and promoting equal rights for all citizens these some may be the social and economic inequalities, is a great improvement over what existed.
The media continually basting bad news every day, and discussion and debate over policy tend to be critical, cynical or evil, this kind of step back can only help us to see things more positively .
Of course there are also examples of neutral historical – things that have disappeared and who were neither good nor bad – and some negative, but I think in general, when we look at the history and the evolution of the West, we can only note that the overall trend is positive, there is less inequality, suffering, pain, disease and death before.
Read historical novels allows to discover the standards of past centuries, which allows us to look at others with a new look, take a step back on them to better appreciate their fair value.