All the King's Men: The Importance of History In All the King's Men, history plays an important role in motivations and the lives of all the characters. The importance of history is particularly visible, unsurprisingly, in the story's main characters - Willie Stark and Jack Burden - whose lives focus on history and, in some cases, depend on it, and how they relate to it. While Willie Stark views history as a tool to manipulate people for his own ends, an attitude leading to his own destruction, Jack Burden's view of history changes over time and ultimately allows him to accept his relationship with the past and therefore with the present. Since each man has such a different point of view, it is no wonder that history means different things to everyone in different ways. Willie Stark must sustain his entire empire in a world of enemies and corruption, to do so he relies on the past to provide the foundation. “Dirt is a funny thing,” the boss said. "Come to think of it, there's nothing but dirt on this green globe of God except what's under the water, and that's dirt too. That's dirt that makes grass grow. A diamond is not a thing in the world but a piece of earth that became terribly hot. God the Mighty picked up a handful of earth and blew on it and made you, me. , George Washington and humanity bless incapacity and apprehension It all depends on what you do with the dirt "1 In this case. , Stark refers to the past as dirt – something that can be used in many ways. The way he chooses to use it is of course blackmail; “Then he leaned forward suddenly, towards the man, and said, not slowly or easily now: “Damn, do you know what I can do to you? And he could too. Because he had the goods. »2 Thus, the story is important to Stark as the means by which he maintains power. Stark and Burden use the story differently depending on how it figures into their lives. For Stark, with ultimate power being paramount, history is something that can be used to manipulate others into