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Pour reconstituer notre histoire, nous en avons besoin.

Pour reconstituer notre histoire, nous en avons besoin.
To piece together our history, we need it.
From Lesson 235:The pronoun 'en' with verbs (en)·French

Questions & Answers about Pour reconstituer notre histoire, nous en avons besoin.

Why do we use en to mean "it" here instead of le or la?
The French expression for "to need" is avoir besoin de. Because it requires the preposition de, you must use the pronoun en to replace the inanimate thing you need. You cannot use le or la to replace an object introduced by de.
Where exactly does en go in the sentence?
Like most object pronouns, en is placed immediately before the conjugated verb. In this case, the conjugated verb is avons, so it becomes nous en avons besoin.
Does pour just mean "for" in this sentence?
When pour is followed directly by an infinitive verb like reconstituer, it translates to "in order to" or simply "to." It is used to show the purpose or goal of the action.
Doesn't histoire usually mean "story"?
The word histoire translates to both "story" and "history" in English. You have to rely on the context to know which one is meant. Here, piecing together "our history" makes the most logical sense.

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