History Repeats Itself

History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, Although It Does Occasionally Rhyme

History has a tendency to repeat itself

Historic recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history. The concept of historic recurrence has variously been applied to the overall history of the world, to repetitive patterns in the history of a given polity, and to any two specific events which bear a striking similarity.

As memory fades, events from the past can become events of the present. Some, like author William Strauss and historian Neil Howe, argue that this is due to the cyclical nature of history — history repeats itself and flows based on the generations.

If one is comparing two wars, the only similarity is that they are both wars.