What is History?

I just picked up a history book by Wilfred M. McClay entitled, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story. I'm really looking forward to reading it. In the introduction, he offers this thoughtful perspective on history:

History is the study of change through time, and, theoretically, it could be about almost anything that happens. But is must be selective if it is to be intelligible. Indeed, in practice, what we call "history" leaves out many of the most important aspects of life. It generally does not deal with the vast stretches of time during which life goes on normally, during which people fall in love, have families, raise their children, bury their dead, and carry on with the small acts of heroism, sacrifice, and devotion that mark so much of everyday life - the "unhistoric acts," as George Elliot wrote in the closing of Middlemarch, of those "who lived faithfully in hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." There are a few moments, like the American holiday of Thanksgiving, or great public commemorations, at which the low murmur of those ordinary things becomes audible and finds a measure of public acknowledgment. But by and large, "history" is interested in the eruptions of the extraordinary into the flow of the regular. It must leave out so much. (emphasis added)

If I find interesting things to share, I'll post more as I go along.