Department of History

History 394 Home Page

PLEASE WRITE OUT A PARAGRAPH IN WHICH YOU FILL OUT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS, GIVING A JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS PHILOSOPHY OF STUDYING HISTORY. IF YOU DON'T LIKE ANY OF THESE, MAKE UP YOUR OWN!

1. The reason we study history is because "those who don't study history are doomed to repeat its mistakes," as George Santayana famously said.
2. We study history not so we don't repeat its mistakes, but precisely because "the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there." In other words, history is at its most vital and interesting when we study it in its integrity and don't turn it into a simple moral for our time. At any rate, we rarely know what "lessons" of history to apply to a given situation, since the "lessons" of history are contradictory.
3. We study history in order to learn useful lessons for the present. As a nineteenth-century philosopher wrote, the purpose of studying history is to change our own histories.
4. The idea that the purpose of studying history is to learn "lessons" is inaccurate; as the writer Adam Gopnik has suggested, "History does not offer lessons; its unique constellation of contingencies never repeat."
5. History provides a story of human progress that, if not unbroken or unmarred by tragedy, is nonetheless inspiring, and thus provides hope that there is something besides random chaos to human existence.
6. We study history to learn how little our individual lives have any control over events--that is, it puts ourselves in perspective. As a nineteenth-century philosopher said, "Men make history, but they do not make it just as they please."
7. The study of history teaches us profound lessons about God's dealings with humanity, and about God's design for our lives and our civilization.
8. The study of history teaches us profound lessons about the long and not yet totally successful struggle of humans to free themselves from the clutches of superstition and religious dogma.