Quote
2 )The duty of the historian --Gordon Craig

"The duty of the historian is to restore to the past the options it once had."

--Gordon Craig

Paraphrase
The job of a historian is not only to reveal the past, but also our past options in order to acknowledge why the world stands where it is today, and where it is not. It is also the finding of the options to make it possible for us to make a different decision to help change the world in a positive way.

Explanation
A historian is a person who is in charge of finding the true history behind all things. As they reveal the past, they will also reveals the options the people once had during those times. For each option, a decision is made, and those decisions will eventually alter the world we know today. But there could not have been only one option in history, as there is much choice one can make. Like today, there are many choices made by powerful figures, and those decisions would change the future dramatically if distorted. So it is also a historian's job to reveal those options of the past, for us to acknowledge how our world would vary if a different decision were made, so improvements could be necessary.

Comment
I believe this does make a lot of sense. It would make a big difference if a decision were made differently in the past. Even a minor decision can change the world significantly, much less big ones. So I guess it would be a lot of help if options of the past could be restored, and a new decision could be made to improve things. Some things are really bad in the world today, and if we can find what caused it, maybe we would be able to change it. But I have to admit; I've never really thought this was part of a historian's job. But then, they are the ones who is suppose to know about what happened, so who else could restore our past options better than they could?