why should we know history?

Question

why should we know the history of the past and the present

Answer 1

Hi Tracee: History requires a lot of memorization and may be difficult since it talks about events of the past. Yet, the importance of history is that anytime you want to understand the present, you look at the past. Much like defining yourself. A lot of what you are now is because of your past... so is humanity and societies. You cannot really understand them without understanding their past.

Answer 2

Well...the past affects the present...duh

for example, if I weren't to know history, i might conclude that we are supporting democracy in Iraq.

But i know that that perspective is soaked in White Man's Burden racism, and in 1992 in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman made an article stating that the best of all possible worlds would be an "iron-fisted military junta" in Iraq.

I also know that half a century of US interventions in the ME have everything to do with oil. Look at what happened to Iran in 1953. The US was willing to support Saddam even when he was gassing Kurds in 1988, because he would give them oil.

Paul Bremer is handing Iraqi money to Halliburton, and cutting the corporate tax rate to 15% from 40%. I found this in some Harper's magazine and in Failed States by Noam Chomsky.

Answer 3

Ozer is right... if you pay attention to the past you can better understand what is about to happen, and what is likely to happen in the future.
History doesn't "just happen to other people"... just ask anyone who was in the World Trade Center on 9-11, or a Jew who's family got out of Germany before WW2. Just ask anyone who's about to loose their house as the housing bubble colapses, just like the Tech Bubble, the 1929 Stock Bubble, the Dutch Tulip Bubble and the South Sea Bubble did before them.

If you know your history it is pretty easy to see that the world works in certian ways, and that these patterns tend to repeat themselves. (Kipling has a great poem called "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" about this.) So if you are bright enough to learn from the mistakes your forefathers made, you won't repeat them.

If on the other hand you choose to remain ignorant of how the world works... well then to be perfectly honest you are going to fall for any sort of lie any good looking politician tells you. There are lots of examples of this going on even today. Look at Zimbawe... it used to be one of the richest nations in Africa, but they elected Mugabe in 1980 and he has turned it into the poorest, most messed up, most corrupt, most opressed nation on Earth. Anyone with any knowledge of history could see this was going to happen, but most of the voters couldn't even read, much less read a history book... and look at what they got. The same thing is happening in Venezuela where Hugo Chavez just made himself President for Life.

So you can either learn your history and have some control over your life, or you can sit with the loosers wondering what happened and making up stupid conspiracy theories about how the world works.

Answer 4

As they say history always repeats itself. Takes for instance America. Look at the fall of the Roman empire this is the same was America is falling. By reading history, you do not make the same mistakes which Bush needs to read cause obvously cant handle America., Well by reading history you can basically predict what will happen in the future

Answer 5

there are many life lessons in history. its a good idea to look in the past and see what went wrong and try to prevent it from happening again . present history, not real sure, i just know that if we don't they might pass a law that we really wouldn't like

Answer 6

Maybe you should ask yourself: "Why should we be ignorant of the events in the past and in the present?" I study History to learn of the events, the peoples, the places, that occured before me, and are happening now, in order to not always be ignorant of such events.

Answer 7

- To avoid making the same mistakes.
- To learn to read the signs of something wrong "cooking" (dictatorships, inquisition, slavery, etc.) in the modern world.
-To know the reasons why any country, group of people, etc. has come to be the way they are.
- To grow a respect for all people, by understanding our connections and the way we have moved around the Earth. In a sense, we all come from many different places.
... well, those are just some ideas.

Answer 8

If we dont know history then how can we avoid the mistakes of the past? If we dont know history how could we ever truly know ourselves?

Answer 9

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. By learning our history, we learn what went wrong, and what went right, and we can apply the lessons without having to experience it first hand.

Answer 10

Paraphrasing a famous comment, those who don't understand the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them.