I know what you are getting at. Its easy to recount the important facts of history, but to have lived through it is also to recall all the unimportant, but perhaps still relevant, facts.
I'll give you an example that comes to mind. Its was back in 1982. I was sitting in the pub with a mate, who was working as a track cutter on the west coast of Tasmania, part of the early stages of surveying for the recently approved Franklin Dam. See: http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/wildrivers/franklin/franklin or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Dam
Anyhow, to cut a very long story very short, there was a ferocious political debate going on, the entire state was polarised over the building of this dam, the entire country was being drawn into it. Even international celebrities were travelling into the west coast wilderness where my mate was working, to blockade his work and get arrested.
Over a beer or two my mate asked me whether I thought the dam would ever actually be built. Without hesitation or doubt I replied that it no, it wouldn't. "But how can it be stopped?" He wanted to know.
I had to say that I didn't know how it was going to be stopped, but only that it was inevitable. It was just a sense of the public mood that convinced me. Not that there was an overwhelming majority opposed in Tasmania, in fact a majority still supported it. But the opposition, although it was a minority, simply felt a lot more strongly about the issue. And the opposition was growing stronger every day.
Its hard to explain, you had to be there. You have to experience the vibes, that can't be explained.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas