Why Should We Study History?

I am surprised by how rarely students ask me the question in the title. Maybe students have become so accustomed to taking “pointless” classes that they don’t bother fighting the system. (We educators have won!) Or maybe they see the value of history so clearly that there is no point in asking. (I can dare to dream, can’t I?) It is also likely that many are only interested in absorbing information that will be on the next test. But just in case some students ask in the future, I have worked out a few responses that go deeper than the obvious answer: “so you can get three units of general education credit.”

History is the study of humankind’s collective memory. All of our knowledge, whether personal or collective, is based on past experience. As individuals, we know that red lights mean stop, jumping off of a cliff can be painful, and politicians occasionally lie because of things we have been told or have personally experienced in the past. So if we lose our memory one day, then it will be difficult to function.

Now some would say that the analogy between individual memory loss and historical ignorance works better in theory than in practice. Obviously, if you forget that you should avoid dropping a hair dryer in the water while you are taking a bath, then things will not end well. But does not knowing about some famous date, person, or event from hundreds of years ago have any impact on your life? I do agree, believe it or not, that many historical facts in themselves are irrelevant. Historians, however, are not primarily interested in compiling and memorizing trivia. The goal is to draw more general, applicable meanings from all of the facts. And if history is done correctly, then you should gain a better understanding of how the world used to be and of how it came to be what it is today. The only way, after all, to learn about the present is to turn to the past.

This is not to say, however, that the “facts” are just irrelevant trivia. If conclusions about the past are not based on information that is as close to the truth as possible, then humanity will learn the wrong lessons. Details matter, but real history does not stop with the details. The problem is that many people confuse history with trivia. So as long as there are people who think that the study of history is nothing but preparation for winning money on Jeopardy, there will be some who see it as pointless. This is why history teachers must focus on raising and attempting to answer fundamental, meaningful questions and figuring out creative ways to relate the past to the present. This is more difficult, however, than asking students to memorize trivia. Too often, therefore, we end up with students turned off to the subject by lazy or unqualified teachers.

To be an informed citizen, a certain amount of historical literacy is required. When reading newspapers, magazines, books, or web pages that seek to be informative, references to famous people and events will inevitably be made. In most cases, the writer will not bother to define or describe well-known historical references. If the Cold War is mentioned in some kind of a publication that is directed to a reasonably informed audience, the writer will not say, “this, by the way, was an indirect and undeclared war between the Soviet Union and the United States.” The writer assumes that you know. Can you imagine a writer today bothering to stop and describe for readers the 9/11 attacks, Tiger Woods, Michael Jackson, or Hurricane Katrina? If an American has not spent several years in a coma, then he or she will probably know at least the basics about these events and people.

So a person without a certain amount of historical literacy will have a hard time getting the full meaning out of writings about history, politics, economics, current events, or many other subjects. History is unavoidably integrated into the study of virtually any subject, so historical illiteracy can contribute to a more general academic and cultural illiteracy. And if the ultimate success of our democracy rests with an informed voting public, historical and cultural illiteracy can be disastrous.

The study of history can help people develop certain types of thinking skills. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that there is something to be said for a well-rounded education. If people only want to take classes that relate to their field, then they should go to a trade school. A university education should still require people to take general education courses that force them to perform different types of thinking tasks and activities. If a history course is taught correctly, students are forced to read a certain style of writing, draw general conclusions, evaluate different points of view, organize information in meaningful ways, develop memorization techniques, and improve their writing skills. It can be difficult to measure how well students have developed these general skills, but I am convinced that forcing students to interact with historical material will help their minds develop. The same thing can be said when non-majors take biology, anthropology, music appreciation, astronomy, or any other number of subjects. People will by and large forget the details learned in general education classes. Certain thinking skills, however, will stick with them. Ultimately, this is what college (and education in general) is all about.

When you pull together the three arguments listed above, it all comes down to something very basic. People who get something out of a history class are less likely to be easily manipulated. So much of the battle over hearts and minds that we see in our country and world is a competition over which interpretations of the past will predominate. Whoever wins this competition will then have the greatest influence on our views of the present. In the course of this battle, history will often be twisted and misused to suit the needs of various powerful interests. After almost 17 years of teaching history, I am more convinced today than ever of its relevance. People who have absorbed to a certain degree society’s collective memory, gained basic historical literacy, and developed history-related thinking skills will not be so easily talked into questionable ideas. In a nutshell, studying history can make a person wiser.

Too often, education is seen merely as a means of getting job skills. In recent years, as our country has faced some tough times, it is clear that our main problem is not a shortage of job skills. Instead, it is a shortage of wisdom. God help us if a college education degenerates into nothing more than a job-training program creating workers who have little interest in or understanding of the circumstances that have shaped our world.