All the events of the past shape our experience of the present, yet some past events are so significant – such as the Civil War in America – that we cannot conceive of subsequent history or our present experience would not have been materially different if the past had been different.  As a result, we tend to look at the at the significant events in the past the necessary precedent of subsequent history and our present experience.  This is quite logical, and it conforms to our under...