Memory of the Past (Illuminations)

"To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it "the way it really was" (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger." ( Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, pg 255, VI ). What I got from this is that society's "memory" of  history could not possibly depict how the past really was because we were not there to experience it. We can only learn of the past through records and physical objects that have not been destroyed. Although we do not know exactly how people in the past lived their daily lives, we do know a lot of what man has accomplished through the remnants of beautifully constructed architecture, advancement in technologies, and the amazing works of art that have lasted hundreds and even thousands of years. When Benjamin relates history to a memory that flashes up at the moment of danger, he might mean that we only remember something in past as it was when it disappeared or changed. This "change" would be the progress of society, and would therefore leave the old version in the past. This view on how we remember and grow from the past could easily relate to my book about transportation and how society has learned from the past to create an even greater version for the future.