why do we study history?

Answers to why do we study history

Because we can learn about our forefathers and other countries and their cultures. Knowledge is wisdom and hopefully we can learn from past history.

1) history is interesting.
2) history is fascinating with comparison to modern world.
3) history teaches us to understand modern world.
4) history tells us how the world and organism came into being and evolved.
5) history teaches us to learn from the past and don't make further mistakes.

Digging Deeper
When am I ever going to use this? Why do we need to know this stuff? The questions every teacher loves to hear. The answer is actually pretty simple, "To know yourself".

What is important about history? Why so people need to know all those names and dates. The reality is, they do not, and can not. There are so many important people and dates, it is impossible for any one to know all of them. Besides, it is pretty easy to look up most of the factual information most people need on any thing close to a frequent status. The importance is not in the specifics but the lessons.

In the movie Amistad, John Quincy Adams, played by Anthony Hopkins, is arguing a case before the United States Supreme Court. He meanders around the court chambers looking at the busts of the founding fathers, including his own father, John Adams. He sums up the importance of history very succinctly when he says, "Who we are, is who they were."

The importance of history is the importance of understanding yourself. There can be no true understanding of the present with out knowledge of the past. Everything happening in the world today is a piece of a long line of events, decisions and lives that came before. By not knowing the past, it is not possible to know the present or the future.

No one knows what will happen in the future, but the past can help guide us into the future. The lessons of the past are like a map into the future. The map is blurred and maybe even missing pieces, but it is the best we have. By examining the struggles, successes and failures of our ancestors, we learn how to examine ourselves and move forward.

Not all the lessons learned will be correct or successful. That will be for future generations to study and try to learn from. The mere act of trying to learn from the past and knowing the stories of the many different people is a tribute to their lives. Saying history is boring and worthless is saying the lives of all the people that came before us were worthless. That is certainly not the case.

So remember, history is not just a bunch of names and dates. History is the story of how we became who we now are. You may disagree with some of it, or not care about some, or wish it were something else. Either way you are learning something about yourself right now, and that is the most important name and date to know.

The study of history is a necessity. We can learn many things from those who came before us, whether it is learning skills, theories, or just avoiding pitfalls. All kinds of lessons of all subjects can be learned through history. One can learn about math, science, literature, music, and basically any field through the study of history. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. But the most important reason to study history is because God told us to. As American's we ought to be studying God's provision in American history. As Christians, we ought to be studying the history of the church and of Israel. Study of other nations can also prove to be beneficial. If we remember what God has done for us, our faith will be increased and the Lord will bless us. If we forget what He has done for us, we will have little faith and will fall into sin. As a result we will face His judgment. History is a very important and beneficial subject and students of all majors should be well versed in history. I no longer view history as just a bunch of numbers and facts about lost land and dead people. History is alive!

To conclude
We often ask the question, Why study history? The answer we hear is that we have to. Yet we study history for a variety of reasons--to understand people who thought and acted differently than we do in our own time, to seek self knowledge, to make sense of a time radically different from our own time, to find a sense of distance from the present to aid us in placing our own times in perspective, to help us understand how we got to where we are now, and a whole host of other reasons. One of the many things we learn about the human condition through the study of the past is the very contingency of human society, how little human life is predetermined and how much people actively have shaped times passed. Some would find this frightening to contemplate in the modern world; others find it consoling. The question has intrigued philosophers of history for eons.

Perhaps the best explanation for studying history was given by the blind Czech historian Milan Hubl to the novelist Milan Kundera:

"The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history, Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster."

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