Why is world history important?

Question

Why do i need to know about the neandrathals and etheopians.. everything like that in general..the persians and all the ancient stuff you learn about in history when will i ever need to know about that..?
(10th grade world history)

Answer 1

History is important to me because WE ARE the past: we are the sum of all the events--good, bad, and indifferent--that have happened to us. This sum product guides our actions in the present.

This is true not only for the individual (imagine what would have happened to you had your parents never met, or had your parents raised you with different values), but for large societies as well (how would the U.S. be different, for example, if it had lost the American Revolution, or if the Spanish had founded the colonies of North America that became the United States?). In both cases the United States as we know it would not exist.

The only way we can understand who we are and how we got to be that way is by studying the past. Similarly, the only way we can understand others is by studying their past. If we don't understand what made them who they are--in terms of how they think and act--we will make all sorts of mistakes in our interactions with them. Think of how you treat people differently based on how you know them. The same is true for countries when it comes to diplomacy. Our failures in Iraq were borne of a limited understanding of who they are (because we haven't taken the time to truly study and understand their past).

"We study the past to understand the present; we understand the present to guide the future." -- William Lund

Answer 2

It is hard to understand what is happening in the world today if you do not understand the past and what led up to it. It is also very difficult to try to CHANGE the world if you do not understand why things came to be, what has been tried and failed, what works, what doesn't. Pretty hard to grow up in a vacuum where no knoweldge of the past exists. It also serves to (hopefully) make you less of an ethnocentric person - by learning about other countries and cultures and why and how they came to be - you see that your culture is not the only one out there... as far as being a requirement rather than an elective - it is an elective after high school. Part of k-12 education is to give each student a well rounded education in many different areas of study - hopefully we all then can have a basic knowledge sort of on par with the knowledge most other people have. it gives us a common starting place, at least within our own society.

Answer 3

the old when will I ever need this? First I will say, are you thinking about having the American dream? (the house, spouse, and kids) Next of all History teach us about the mistakes the world has made and keep the world from repeating them. Remember Gulf war one, that was to stop Saddam from becoming a second Hitler. If only someone whacked the nose of the Japanese or Hitler we would not have WWII. also history teaches us about were we are from and what we have learned in are world. History is the master subject because every single subject has to talk about its roots and its founders. Without history we will wonder about who we are.

Answer 4

We are living in an age when people from many different cultures mix together to do a wide assortment of productive things. If we are going to be successful in solving problems together, we need to understand one another's heritage. The roots of our values and our world view are in the knowledge we have of our own story and the records of others. While seeing how people met and solved difficulties long ago is helpful when we try to take on challenges, it is not all that studying history is good for. Historical knowledge breeds respect, appreciation and sometimes love for others. I wish you well as you continue your inquiry into the story of humanity.

Answer 5

Because as in america and most developed nations the civilization in place today is the result of many earlier ones. plus humanity has always had a need to know where we came from and why. for example you can find the remnants of the same civilization on europe, asia and africa. in most jobs of today you will probally never use this knowledge but it is knowledge none the less and by the time your an adult you are expected to at least be familuar with most of these cultures.

Answer 6

So you will know the mistakes they made and not repeat them.

And then you can sit around answering questions like these to show everyone else how smart you are. :-)

Answer 7

because you just need to
what happened back then was important and you need to know it so you can understand things around you