History is not the past, but a map of the past drawn from a particular point of view to be useful to the modern traveler.

Henry Glassie is an American folklorist and cultural historian known for studying vernacular life—material culture, tradition, and everyday creativity—especially in Ireland and the United States. The line reflects a late-20th-century humanities shift away from treating history as a neutral record and toward understanding it as interpretation shaped by the historian’s questions, audience, and present needs. In Glassie’s work, the past is approached through artifacts, stories, and practices that must be selected and arranged into a narrative. The “map” metaphor fits his broader emphasis on usefulness: accounts of the past are made to orient people in the present, not to reproduce the past in pristine form.

The quote argues that “history” is not identical with what happened; it is a representation constructed from a standpoint. Like a map, a historical account is selective (it leaves things out), scaled (it compresses complexity), and purpose-driven (it is made for navigation). The “modern traveler” suggests that historical narratives serve present-day needs—identity, explanation, warning, or guidance—rather than offering a view from nowhere. Glassie’s phrasing also implies responsibility: because history is drawn from a point of view, readers should ask whose perspective is being mapped, what interests shape the depiction, and how alternative maps might change one’s route through the past.