Why Studying History is Important (and Why Its Fun)

Why Studying History is Important (and Why It's Fun) Chances are you’ve had to take at least one history class before, and your thoughts at the end might have gone something like “this is boring - when am I ever going to need to know when the Battle of Hastings happened?” (1066, by the way). The history we are taught in our classrooms can feel like an endless barrage of names and dates, battles and wars, historical figures and political leaders. Who cares? What you’re learning isn’t history. Sure, those things happened, and yes they’re important, but history is so much more than just an event and a date, and maybe a war here and there. History shows us why things happen and how things happen; how we go from knights and castles to tanks and bunkers; how empires are built and how they are town down; how states are founded and how they fall. History is a story: history is the story of conquest and of conquerors, of empires and emperors, of exploration and adventure, of love and betrayal, of trust and deception. History fills our human need for tales about ourselves and about the things that we have done. History is every bit as fantastic and as exciting as a novel. You need look no further than the Russian Tsars, the Egyptian Pharaohs, or the French Revolutionaries to see that history is a thrilling tale. What does that make history then? History is, in short, the study of change, and this makes it one of the most useful of disciplines. The world is driven by change, which is continuously shaping our lives in ways that we don’t even realize. Change affects us from the highest levels of governments and countries down to the most trivial details. Studying history is the key to understanding how these forces shape our lives today - the past is the key to the present. History provides context for everything that we see around us today, and the key to understanding the world we find ourselves in now is to look at how it came to be. Here are ten reasons why history is crucial to our education.1. History he lps us understand other cultures. Why are other cultures different from ours? Why is it that some cultures are antagonistic with each other, while others coexist in harmony? Why are there different customs, different traditions, and different religions from culture to culture? The answer to all of these questions lies in history. Without history, it is impossible to understand how cultures come to be. As the study of change, history identifies the driving forces behind cultures. A culture’s history is integral to the shared identities of its members, and you can’t see the full picture of a culture without understanding the history behind it.2. History helps us understand our own society. Similarly to how we can understand others through the study of history, we can also come to understand ourselves. Why do we do things the way we do? How did these social structures and traditions come to be? Looking at history in this light illuminates the forces acting on our own society throug h history and into the present. The student of history draws on politics, sociology, economics, and anthropology, all of which feed into the history of individuals and societies. In order to successfully navigate our society in the present day, it is essential to know what came before, the driving forces of change that shape our lives, and the individuals of the past who shaped our society.3. History helps us understand our own identities. History isn’t just a collection of famous names and events woven into a story that takes place in the past. History is the story of the past, and of everybody in it. Every individual had a place in shaping the historical narrative we know today, and every individual today has a place in molding the history that unfolds today. In order to understand our place within society, within our culture, and even within our own family, it is essential to realize that our present is the product of what came before, and the past provides a context for everyt hing we do as an individual. Knowing where you fit into history gives you a context for yourself, your culture, and your world today. History gives you an understanding of your own identity.4. History builds citizenship. Why are we good citizens? Because we have an understanding of a shared past and a communal identity, and we get this shared experience through our common knowledge of our history. Learning about how we came to be as a community informs how we see ourselves as a group in the present day, and we do this through knowing our history. Knowing how our shared experience came to be and what has defined us in the past gives us a reason to work towards a better society today. This is why American history is taught in school: it tells us why we are American, how we got to be American, and what it means to be an American today.5. History gives us insight into present-day problems. Without understand the root of a problem, there is no hope of solving it. This is what history doe s: it identifies the driving forces of society, of government, of individuals, of change, and it traces these features of the past to contemporary features of the world. We can’t confront international crises without one of the most basic tools in our belt, namely understanding how the crisis arose and what forces shape them. Conflict cannot be resolved without comprehending the historical roots of a situation. If we want to stand any chance of confronting the pressing issues of our world, we need to start at the root of the problem: we need to know history.6. History builds reading and writing skills. In many ways, history is as good as an English class at developing reading and writing skills because it employs many of the same techniques, as well as adding several other elements. Studying history involves reading different sources - be they documents, letters, or even novels - and pulling out themes and patterns, motifs and details, and making sense of what these features tell us about the past. This is similar to the task of the English student, but even more, history adds layers of politics and social change that inform the modern world. Writing is the vessel to communicate the exciting discoveries and keen observations of the history student, and as such history teaches us to read thoroughly and write well.7. History builds interpretation and analysis skills. History is based on the records left behind in past decades and centuries, so the study of history is inherently an act of analysis and interpretation. Similarly to how one reads classic literature in order to understand something about the author and society from which it originates, one looks at historical documents and letters, and indeed novels and art, to understand the time period that created them. This gives the history student several skills that carry over into every walk of life and are among the most useful tools to carry into the world. We learn how to compare conflicting interpretati ons and identify biases. We learn how to see an issue from multiple perspectives. We learn how to assess evidence and determine its value. A good understanding of history will leave any student with this indispensable inventory of skills that can carry anybody far in life.8. History helps us understand change. History is the study of change. The world around us is in a constant state of change, and understanding the role of change in society plays a pivotal role in being able to interpret the world that we see now. Without understanding why things used to be different and how they interacted to shape one another, it is impossible to get a complete picture of the here and now. History will give us a firm grasp on why things change, the mechanisms that drive change, the significance of some features of change to others, and the different magnitudes of change. Conversely, by giving us an understanding of change, history also helps us comprehend stability and the continuities that exist from past to present and from society to society. In short, history is a tool to understand the world.9. History allows us to learn from the past. “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” This oft-quoted saying tells a great truth: history has patterns. One of the continuities in history is the mistakes that are made century after century as people live in pursuit of the same self-interested motives. Wars are fought for the same reasons. Regimes topple through the same shortcomings. Riots and revolts accompany the same abuses. Men and women take stands against the same oppression time and time again. This is why history is essential to the repertoire of the politician and the ruler, because understanding the failures of the past puts us one step closer to addressing the shortcomings of the present.10. History is the greatest of stories. History has so many practical uses that it’s easy to forget that history is also a story, a thrilling adventure that takes p lace across the world and through the ages. This story encompasses the great empires of China, Rome, and Britain, the conquests of Alexander the Great and Napoleon, the explorations of Marco Polo, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It’s a story of romance in the royal courts of Europe, of honor in the Japanese samurai, and of spycraft in the American Revolution. There is the devastation and tragedy of two World Wars, the rise and fall of dictators and oppressors, and the fight for rights and liberties in a world of abuses. History is a tale that spans the entire human experience, and it is a tale in which we all have a part to play.