Why Study History?

Judaculla Rock, Cullowhee, NC

Ask a freshman college student that question and you’re likely to be told, “Because it’s required.” That’s a fair enough response when you consider the perspective of a student that is short of twenty years of age. What John W. Bohnstedt described as “present-mindedness” makes the Vietnam War no more relevant to them than the Civil War.[1] Those conflicts are stored away in a vault labeled “Pre-Me” along with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, the assassination of Kennedy, and Prohibition. Some students today get almost no exposure to history until they attend secondary education. The timeline of events prior to their birth is compressed into a dot that is devoid of relevance to their personal lives or world events. It is little wonder that the instructors of the American History and World Civilization courses required by liberal studies standards have difficulty sparking freshman interest.

But spark it we must because the cost of failing to do so is so incredibly high. It is hyperbole to say that our students are the leaders of tomorrow because most of them will not be. The best we can hope for is that they are the voters of tomorrow. However, preparing young minds by giving them a basic understanding of the historical background that shaped current events is still an awesome responsibility. Without an appreciation for the interlocking chain of events of human history and how they worked to form the present, they will be ill prepared to make decisions that will mold the future. Or, as Winston Churchill so eloquently stated in his tribute to Neville Chamberlain, “History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.”[2] The man had a gift for clarity of thought that gave him the ability to express profound ideas in ways that not only stuck in the mind, but touched the heart.

However Churchill was more than the British equivalent of Mark Twain. He is a perfect example of why it is important to study history. During World War II when England stood virtually alone against Hitler’s relentless victories in Europe, he convinced his nation to persevere against nearly impossible odds. The Nazi wolf was literally at England’s door and the Luftwaffe was poised to deliver a knockout punch. Churchill’s stubborn rhetoric rallied the public and turned their darkest days into their “finest hour.” While their beloved London was being indiscriminately bombed, the British refused to yield. It is impossible to understand the passions boiling in Great Britain today over Brexit without a knowledge of Churchill and how he epitomized the independent spirit of the country that still endures.[3]

Of course, there is the argument that history should be studied for its own sake. While I certainly agree with that sentiment, it is a hard sell to a young student that just wants to get the mandatory courses out of the way so that they can get on with their “real” studies. In his 1948 essay on the importance of history, Alfred D. Low had a somewhat romanticized view of the history student and how their studies prepared them to be better citizens. Low stated that “the history student has studied the technique of sifting truth from false-hood…attained a certain aloofness from the daily strife which makes him a wiser and better participant in public life”.[4] While his word choice may seem a bit archaic to our modern ears, there is no denying the truth of his statements. Without an understanding of history, we lack the ability to interpret the present.

It has been said that human history is a history of warfare. However, I think that true value of history is what lies behind these conflicts. You cannot define a people’s history by examining battlefields alone; you have to look at the society that produced the motivations for those battles, the foot soldiers that fought them, and the generals that led them. The battles can be considered the bold headlines, but the real story is in the smaller print that follows. You need to know the stories of the loved ones left behind and understand how war and the peace that followed changed the lives of the widows, widowers, orphans, and sweethearts that lost someone. To truly know history, you have to look beyond the headlines and get an understanding of the people, great and small, that were involved or affected by the grand events that made it into the history books. It is less important to know how many died on each side in any particular war than it is to know what it was that caused them to take up arms in the first place.

I believe that it is imperative that we study the past so we can better understand the events that molded the world we live in today. Hopefully, that understanding will give us the knowledge and wisdom we need to make the decisions that will create a better tomorrow. History is much more than a simple record of who did what when, it is the study of why they did it, and how it impacted the generations that followed. I return again to Winston Churchill who said, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”[5] He knew that every event back through antiquity was linked to those that followed and thus inevitably connected to the shape of things to come. A clear vision of the past is essential if we are to avoid blindly stumbling into the future.

______________________________________ [1]. John W. Bohnstedt, "Why Study History?," The History Teacher 4, no. 4 (1971): 64, doi:10.2307/492600.

[2]. Winston Churchill, “National Churchill Museum,” Neville Chamberlain, 1940, Westminster College, 2019, https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/neville-chamberlain-speech-1940.html.

[3]. Adam Thomas, “From Depression to Victory: A Record of Growing British Determination during the Battle of Britain,” Air Power History 63, no. 1 (2016): 8-13, https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=116136955&site=eds-live&scope=site.

[4]. Alfred D. Low, "Why Study History?," The Journal of Education 131, no. 9 (1948): 271, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42799702.

[5]. Winston Churchill, “BBC America,” 50 Sir Winston Churchill Quotes to Live By, New Video Channel America, 2015, http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2015/04/50-churchill-quotes.