David Cannadine is taking on the broadcasting slot held for so long by Alistair Cooke
But what historian David Cannadine says can be lacking is an historical perspective on contemporary events as they unfold - a sense of making history now, of understanding that what happens today shapes the future. For the next three months, he hopes to explore this as the new host of the BBC Radio 4 opinion column A Point of View, which is also available on the BBC News website.
"I'm a professional historian by training and I specialise in modern Britain, modern British empires and modern America. I try to throw light on not just past events but modern circumstances, and this is a marvellous chance to try to do more of that."
This awareness of our history is important, he says, and he has always been eager to satisfy his intellectual curiosity about what happened next.
"All children believe the world they grow up in is the way the world has always been and the way it will always will be. This is our bit and our go and our time, but we're part of a constant process of change which we need to be aware of - not least because it helps us get in a better, more humbling perspective."
He does not, however, believe that we can learn from the lessons of the past, as each event is unique to its time and place. "Comparisons are at best suspect and at worst very dangerous. What we do need is the sense that we're part of an unfolding human continuum."
While there is undoubtedly an appetite to understand the events of the past, Cannadine believes history is a subject ill-served by formal education.