What is the relationship between history and literature?

From an academic
standpoint, these two subjects are closely interrelated to me.  As a teacher, literature is
essential in helping students understand the midset of a society, or a segment of society, in
the time period of the novel.  History is also a subject best taught through stories, as its
name suggests.  So to put the bare historical facts into a story with real characters,
interactions and emotions is a powerful teaching and learning tool in today's education
system.

Of Mice and Men, The Jungle, Uncle Tom's Cabin
and How the Other Half Lives are all reflections of society in
its historical element.