Our historic imagination is at best slightly developed. We generalise and idealise the past egregiously. We set up little toys to stand as symbols for centuries and the complicated lives of countless individuals.

Dewey is criticizing the way people commonly relate to history: we compress vast, messy human realities into tidy abstractions, heroic myths, and emblematic “symbols” that are easier to remember than they are true. The “historic imagination” he says we lack is the disciplined capacity to reconstruct the past with sensitivity to complexity, contingency, and the lived experience of ordinary individuals—not merely to repeat simplified narratives. The image of “little toys” suggests that our historical icons and period labels can become childish stand-ins that comfort us while obscuring real social processes. The remark aligns with Dewey’s pragmatism and his educational emphasis on inquiry over rote tradition.