Why Study History?

If the emphasis on history is too strong it can be harmful.

Sometimes history is the only thing transferring issues to the future. Sometimes when dragging history along we also drag along old problems that may no longer be so valid in the modern context.

Also, too strong emphasis on history can be obstructive to the act of free thinking and true innovation.

But I generally approve of history, since it is important for the reasons you mention.
I just like to keep these objections in mind.

Cyracuz

You are correct. Anything can be overdone.

Studying history - at university - can't be overdone, I think.

When I was at school, we learnt it at history classes - usually two or three hours per week. (This was changed after I'd left school - pure coincidence :wink: : during the last two years at grammar school, you only have history classes, when you choose histoyr as "major field of study".)

I've noticed when studying history that I made my exams and looked for working papers mostly about themes/topics, which either I knew already or which interested me most ... which fortunately always went quite well. (Especially, since I don't know any Greek at all)

I love learning about history.
In my spare time, I do alot of research about different empires, wars, and cities.

My biggest question / problem if you will, is just knowing that history is only written by the conquerors.
To me, there is always alot left out.
Those who have died can not tell THEIR part of the story and the winners will fill in the slots of information based on their views only.

I always wondered how some things would read now, if we were able to hear all sides of a war.
What differences would there be? Would these differences be significant enough to warrant new laws? Would they change our current society?

History is written by the winners. But nowadays, when one is interested by the other side of the story, there's plenty of means by which you can achieve a rather good level of understanding.

Doing your own research and drawing your own conclusions can be very gratifying, as already said..

Some researchers even achieved to modify actual history books.

absolutely.

As my latest 'learning extravaganza' was the native americans' religious beliefs.

One of the things I kept running into was ( excuse the crude description ) the white mans version of the dances and dress. Incomplete pictures of body painting and ritual clothing , and stories of their dance and belief all tainted with the thoughts that they were heathen because they were not of christian belief/background etc.

I stepped off the beaten path when it came to written history by going into specific indian nations websites, stories and folklore.

Things sure were alot diffrent then what you would gather from regular history books.

History is neither written by the winners nor by the conquerors - but by people.

What's written in (some) history - that's a bit different :wink:

"Historians are backwards-looking prophets." I forget who actually said that, but I think it is an accurate statement indeed.

Of course the statement that we study history to learn from it is hardly ever true -- society as a whole has not "learned from its mistakes."

There are a few good reasons to study history, however. First of all, it teaches you how to think. Comparing systems of thought and ideas of historiography will help your ability to think.

History also teaches you just what it means to be human. While possibly an exaggeration, I have a history teacher that is fond of saying "All people have a dark side; you just don't know it." We watched the movie "Night and Fog" (French movie about the Holocaust) and at one point someone said "How could they do that?" Studying history shows you just what human beings are capable of doing. Regardless of how disturbing it is, by being human, the things that other humans have done throughout history become possibilities for us. This makes the study of history all the more important.