[Colin Glassey] Why Study History
Another attempt on my part to explain (to my hypothetical students) why they should study history. Is this too preachy? Let me know if you have any comments.
What is History and Why Should You Learn it?
History is the study of our past civilizations. History is an attempt first to find out what happened, accurately, then to try and explain why things happened. History starts essentially where anthropology ends. History starts with civilization and civilization starts with the written word. Prior to written records, history has very little to say. History is, as a result, completely bound up in the nature of humans. Koala bears have no history. Lava rocks have no history. Humans, once they developed civilization, have a history. There is about 5,000 years of human history. At 20 years per generation, that means approximately 250 “parents” ago, your distant ancestors first started down the path that leads to us here today.
So, that is what history is, but why do we learn it? What use is it? Henry Ford once said “History is bunk.” Now Henry Ford is a very great man in the history of America, and, as an historian, I honor his memory (though I can’t say I’ve bought any of his company’s cars). Some people care too much about history, certain Arab terrorists say they want to bring back the golden age of their civilization, they want to return to a time about 900 years ago. This is a real problem for them because the past isn't coming back. Americans are always accused of paying too little attention to the past, we are a nation that in many ways has ignored the past and just moved on.
This is why we need to know history: We need to know history because without that knowledge our world makes no sense. As I have said, history is the study of human civilization. We need to know history because our civilization is built on things that were created by other people, just like you and me, but in the past. Humans of 5,000 years ago weren’t different in any significant way from humans today. They were our size, they had our feelings, our fears, our loves. Nothing separates us from the first Egyptians who carved hieroglyphs on the tombs of their Pharaohs, nothing but 5,000 years and the steady accumulation of knowledge. Today, in America, we live better lives than the gods the Egyptians worshiped. Think about that for a moment. The ancient Egyptians thought about paradise and the gods who lived in that paradise and what they would have: food, wine, musicians, messengers, a celestial boat for taking cruises in the sky, the occasional fight with a rebellious god (that would be Set) but not much else to worry about.
Now think about our lives. Thanks to 5,000 years of human civilization we have PlayStations, jet airplanes, cell telephones, the Mars observer, and the Internet. Thanks to humans over the last 250 years we Americans have a great deal of personal freedom, the ability to elect our own leaders, and the freedom to worship the god of our choosing. Thanks to the humans of the last 100 years, your parents, your grand parents and your great grand parents, we Americans live in the most powerful nation the world has ever known.
If you don’t know our history you would have no idea why you get to elect the president. If you don’t know our history you would have no idea why you can read 100 different newspapers. If you don’t know our history you would have no idea why people from every spot on this planet live in this country. These are all remarkable, strange things. In most countries humans don’t choose their leaders. In many countries you have to believe what the government tells you to believe (or say you do). In many countries you only get to read what someone in the government thinks it is ok for you to read it. And no other country in the world has a population like the United States. Not one.
So, only by knowing the past can we make any sense of the present. By knowing the past we can get some understanding of the world around us. But that isn’t all. Because by knowing history, we can become aquainted, in a limited way, with the greatest people who have ever lived: Ahkenaten of Egypt, the man who invented the idea that there was one supreme god who we should worship. Confucius, the man who invented the idea of man living in harmony with other people not because some god laid down the law, but because it made sense. Or my favorite: Aristotle, the smartest man of his age, the man who literally invented logic, science, and the way we think about the world today. History is filled with the stories of people who lived lives of adventure that are more impressive than Indiana Jones, people like Francisco de Orellana, the Spanish Conquistador who explored the Amazon River. He set off on an expedition with no idea how far the rain forest stretched or what lay between him and the Atlantic Ocean. And consider George Washington, the man who could have become king of America, if only he had wanted the title. Instead he gave up his power and lived his remaining years on his farm in Virginia. How many people in history have ever done such a thing when the choice was freely offered them?
Its not just men that made history. Cleopatra was a woman who ruled Egypt and nearly broke the Roman Empire in two. And the Empress Wu, the one and only Empress in Chinese History. How about Queen Elizabeth of England? The queen of Shakespeare and our own Renaissance Fair? Or Jane Austen, one of the greatest novelists who ever put pen to paper?
In the last hundred years there have been some amazing people as well: Mohandas Ghandi, Albert Einstein, Teddy Roosevelt, Madame Curie, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Jon Von Neuman, Thurogood Marshall, Richard Feynman, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jerry Rice.
The history of these people’s lives, their deeds, will remain with us as long as our civilization survives. So long as libraries exist and people have the freedom to read books, the lives of these people can inspire us, years, centuries after they are dead. I am, and you are, the spiritual heirs of people like Ben Franklin, who more than any other person, set American on the path which we still travel today. A land of freedom and tolerance, a land where people openly seek happiness.
By learning history we can make sense of the world in which we are living. By studying history we can meet some of the greatest people who have lived. By studying history we can learn what humans can do.
However, as Aristotle said, everything in moderation. Too much history can hem you in. Make you fearful of the future, make you dream only of the past when there were parts of the world that were unexplored, when there were lost cities of gold, when barbarian hordes roamed the steppes of Russia. Too much history can make you forget that you have a life to lead here and now. But I’m not worried that you will become too wrapped up in history. As Americans we forget much of the past and dream about the future. It is who we are. It is a defining trait. Learn about the past, dream about the future. Everything in moderation.
10:44:09 PM 
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