why do we study history?

Answer 1

Historical study is important for several reasons.

First, it allows us to catalogue the happenings in the world, and the things that people do during them. It is important that events that occur are at the very least documented in some way. I think that most people would say that events like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the atomic bombing of Japan, and the Battle of Hastings were important enough to write down when they happened.

Second, academic analysis of events in history and the major players in them provide incredible insight into the WHY questions that often baffle most people. Its all well and good to know WHEN Hitler rose to power in Germany before the 2nd World War even HOW it happened, but to really be able to answer WHY, one needs to really look at the situations at that time and break them down through study and thought.

Third, to best be able to understand how we got to where we are now, we really (really) need to look backwards to see what happened that may have led us here. For example, there are many who think that the reasons that the Western World (the U.K., Spain, and the US, etc.) have been targets for terrorist attacks may have roots in the history of the foreign policies of western nations. Only through careful examination of history can we begin to guess why things are the way they are now.

I think that history is an immensly interesting area of study, and not just academically. Reading about history can be fascinating and entertaining. And no matter what you are interested in: sports, war, exploration, religion, cartoon animation, food, literally everything has a history to it (yes, even history itself has a history). Need proof, just look at most of the popular movies, they are usually based around something that has happened in the past - be they fictional stories of real events (e.g. Saving Private Ryan - WW2) or depictions of actual happenings (e.g. Titanic, the most successful film of all time).

Answer 2

for many reasons.
1. it's entertaining. and often so fictionalized that it's not much different than 'pure' fiction. it's time travel too, whether 'real' or not.
2. governments push patriotic lies, i.e. propaganda, on their subjects to keep them in line. only the winners' history is recorded. the losers' stories often die with them.
3. supposedly we learn from history. maybe a few reflective people do, but basically each generation - and each individual - makes its/his/her own mistakes.

Answer 3

Because history repeats itself

Answer 4

Well, because history has a tendency to repeat itself and because if you don`t know how your own country came to be, you`re garenteed (sp?) to sound like a moron.

Answer 5

so we know who people are and what to expect from them. history repeats itself, for example a person kills another over land and then gets killed as a result, this happens time and time again. say then that you want to kill someone for their land, if you know history, you know not to do this, but say you don't. you might just kill that person and as a result you are killed.

Answer 6

So we have a better understanding of why the world is the way it is. It helps us to understand people's attitudes about themselves and the rest of the world.

Answer 7

So you can learn what went wrong in the past and not repeat it

Answer 8

Because he who does not know his history is doomed to repeat it. [Georges Santayana]

Answer 9

to make our world better, if we dont learn from our past then we are doomed to repeat it.

Answer 10

so we can continue repeating the same mistakes.