Good history is written with an intention to speak to the present. Historians don't just ask "What happened?" but "Why?" and the answer is always intended to help us understand where we are. History written 100 years ago might not be as much used to us as history written a few years ago, even if they are both discussing the same topic.

On the other hand, history written 1000 years ago, or even 400 years ago is quite fundamentally different than the history written during the last couple hundred years. At least in the Western World, if you go back further, historians were less likely to use documentary evidence cited with footnotes, etc.

But really, just think about how difficult your daily life would be if you had no memory of anything that happened yesterday, a week, a year or ten years ago? Knowing what happened before is essential to understanding where you are, which direction you are headed, and how fast you are going.

This submission has been removed because it violates the rule on poll-type questions. These poll-type questions do not lend themselves to answers with a firm foundation in sources and research, and the resulting threads usually turn into monsters with enormous speculation and little focussed discussion. “Most”, “least”, "best" and "worst" questions usually lead to vague, subjective, and speculative answers.

For questions of these types, we ask that you redirect them to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory.