Cannot get to History via dropdown until I've been somewhere

Because History is now part of the "< > v" dropdown on the top left, it is inaccessible (unless one accesses the old style menu bar) until one has been somewhere and the blue "<" button is highlighted.

Why cannot the dropdown "v" be enabled even when the blue "< >" buttons are not enabled? This seems like a design oversight to me.

[400 byte] By [NJBufton] at [2008-2-14]