My choice to take history has been ridiculed by many during the first half of this academic year.
‘Why take history? – It’s about the past, you can’t change it however much you know?’
History is so much more than memorising facts and dates. It is more than recalling names of people and dates of events that happened centuries ago. The only way to navigate forward is to look at where we came from.
History helps us understand cultures and events today. The only way we can understand the present is by looking into the past. From Anti-Semitism to global terrorism, the only way to solve problems is to understand them and the cultures and peoples that interact with them. Studying history is much like correcting a previous piece of work so you can do better on the next one. By looking at the past, we can avoid catastrophic actions in the future. The policies that protect banks from collapse today were a result of economic crashes of the past. Maybe we will be able to recognise issues before they become disasters.
By studying history we can preserve the stories that are fading from living memory. Just like how forgetting the days before vaccines have allowed for measles to strike back on many occasions. Forgetting the horrors of a pre-antibacterial age has led to the delay in addressing antibacterial resistance. Perhaps the human cost of the world wars will serve as a warning long after the memory fades away.
Maybe this isn’t enough to convince you. But the skills from the studying history are becoming more and more essential in living in the internet era, a period of information overload. We all consume media in an ‘echo chamber’. We can surround ourselves with those whose opinions echo our own. The internet is a breeding place for all opinions and it is easy to begin to criticise those who do not agree with us. It is easy to dismiss people as blind or ignorant and especially so when all you hear is against them. History teaches you to look at everything with scepticism. It teaches you to be open-minded. It teaches you to know that there is always another side to the story.
