Goodreads asked Ben Hamilton:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Ben Hamilton I used to teach high school history, and I've always been a big history fan. One of the most important concepts in history is the "primary source document" i.e. a historical record written by someone who actually lived through historical events. I've always been fascinated by primary source documents, like the letters of Cicero that just miraculously survived, giving us a window into normal life from a time period so long ago that it pre-dates Jesus.

And I thought "Hey, wouldn't it be interesting to try and create a primary source document on purpose?" So the question became if I wanted to write a book that would be useful for history teachers to use in class in future generations, what would I put in the book?

That's kind of where the idea for The Chasing History Project got started. My target audience is literally high school history classes in the future. It's written with the goal of recording useful information that ought to be in history books, but keeping it entertaining enough that a high school student will actually enjoy reading it. I also have this sort of running gag that I take for granted the American Republic is collapsing (just like Cicero's Roman Republic was) and I'm just leaving a record for future civilizations (just like Cicero did). That's obviously a joke, right? Cause America would never collapse like Rome, right?

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