You’ve thought about history for most of a semester now, and you have been living through a remarkable historical moment.  Journalists and will be writing about 2010 for a long time; it will become a subject of films and books.  Some people after you will be curious what it had been like to live through 2010, and you will likely develop an ever-shifting stock narrative about it, a short version and a long version.

1.  Besides the outcome -- will there ever be peace again?  will the economy ever recover?  will the American empire stop declining, or at least slow down its decline? -- what will people in the future know about 2010 that you don’t know?  They will know the outcome, of course, but what else?  You are living through it, so you will know more than them, but they will also know more than you, no?

2.  They may know the outcome, but they will still be curious about it, and want to know more.  That’s where you come in.  What don’t they know, which they will have to find out from you (because, perhaps, what you know is just as important as any ultimate outcome)?