The question is often asked why one should study history. The initiators of this inquiry are usually students, but educators, administrators, politicians and parents are equally curious. This question is entirely reasonable for the answers are not easily discernable. In other disciplines, the rationale is often more self-apparent. The purpose of medical training, business, and engineering seem readily obvious. The practical applications of historical knowledge and skills are more obscure. One can argue that the need for historical knowledge is relative; students delight in noting that an individual can be happy and prosperous without such a knowledge. Granting the point, that argument does touch at the reason for studying history. Survival and material prosperity are not the sole aspirations of a person’s life. Human beings desire a quality of life incorporating a sense of understanding and belonging which is met by the study of history. Knowledge of the past gives one’s life context; it is the answer to many of the “why” questions. Business, engineering, and medicine can tell a person how to be profitable, creative, and healthy but do not provide a reason, the “why”, to do all those things. Studying history provides insight into life’s deeper meanings which is why history uniquely encompasses other humanities: political science, philosophy, and theology. The study of history provides guidance to humanity and in a very real way, a sense of identity.
Inexorable bound to the question of studying history is the question of learning from history. George Santayana’s famous quote regarding the consequences of failing to learn from history is probably the most oft-cited remark supporting the idea of learning from others’ experience.[1] Contemporary historians are quick to point out several fallacies in this response. The primary objection is that each past event is the culmination of an inestimable amount of factors which cannot be duplicated and thus repeated. Therefore, each event is a solitary episode and any “lesson” derived is interpreted and highly subjective. One can derive as much “lessons” from Aesop’s fables as from history, so the argument goes. A former professor of mine once remarked that no “Truths” existed in history; only small observations (“truths”) exist which a provide sense of intellectual fulfillment. Ironically, these types of pronouncements coming from historians undercut the very reason for the study. If history is all subjective, unknowable, and at best only offers anecdotes on life, the criticism of the rationale for studying history is fully justified as well as the resulting abandonment of it as an essential study. If history is of no more value than fiction, why not study fiction which is simpler to understand? This point of view is a key reason history courses are vanishing from public education and often where such classes remain the emphasis is on the minutiae and the isolated. However, the study of history is much more and has more to offer.
In his article Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, Sam Wineburg offers an excellent answer to the question. Self-admittedly not unique, Wineburg sees the value of historical study in how it humanizes each of us in ways not possible in other disciplines.[2] Wineburg is very careful to note the limitations and fallacies of historical inquiry such as interpreting past events with a contemporary mindset or selective reading for personal expediency. Even so, he makes the broader point that human beings derive a necessary sense of identity be linking themselves with those who came before. Moreover, the study of history helps us understand the finiteness of our own existence which gives our experiences meaning according to Wineburg. This point is well-stated for it reinforces the value of each individual in their uniqueness. Human beings are not carbon-copies of each other and by examining other lives we see other similarities but also the shared differences. Wineburg arguments led to his best point of all which is that studying history leads one to self-examination particularly our own flaws and contradictions. Victor Davis Hanson, well-known classical and military historian, noted this aspect as well. Studying past lives, one observes cowardice when bravery was required and heroism when every reason existed to cower and flee. In this manner, history provides examples of life worthy of avoidance or emulation. [3]
To the objection that past historical events cannot teach life lessons for the present, one must consider that all of life is built on past experiences and deducing useful examples from others. We learn not to touch a hot stove because we or someone else in the past did so and was burned. We do not have to re-learn the lesson every time we cook a meal. We find our way to work, treat ailments, and assess productivity, all based on what was learned in the past. A teacher grades a student utilizing his own experience and previous knowledge. Prior knowledge gives instruction on how to cope with current situations without the need for absolute similarity. The two stoves are not the same but touching a hot burner today will cause an injury as surely as it did forty years ago. The task of identifying what lessons can be derived from the past and how to apply those lessons is the task of the historian and requires all the skills that good historians must possess: inquiry, analysis, lack of bias, communication and love for the truth.[4]
The study of history provides for a richer and more meaningful existence. Christians especially hold to this truth for it is the work of Christ, two thousand years ago, which gives life purpose and hope. Living only in the moment without a referent to the past, life becomes shallow, repetitive, and of dubious value. In this sense, the study of history is more than just helpful; it is essential for a healthy human being.
[1] James L. Gorman, "Why Study History? Virtue Via Dialogue," Fides Et Historia 51, no. 2 (Summer 2019): 157, http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/2359326458?accountid=12085.
[2] Sam Wineburg, "Historical Thinking and other Unnatural Acts,” The Phi Delta Kappan 80, no. 7 (March 1999): 490, www.jstor.org/stable/20439490.
[3] Victor Davis Hanson, “Why Study War: Military history teaches us about honor, sacrifice, and the inevitability of conflict,” City Journal, Summer 2007, https://www.city-journal.org/html/why-study-war-13029.html
[4] Gorman, "Why Study History? Virtue Via Dialogue", 159; Michael Edmondson, "Why Study History?" OAH Magazine of History 9, no. 4 (Summer 1995): 46, www.jstor.org/stable/25163043.
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