History is often characterized as the study of “what-really-happened-in-the-past.” It’s an inescapable fact, however, that all historical events are already in the past. That is why the discipline of history is a complex intersection of truths, biases and hopes. It is a field in which people fight about what the past means, and to whom it matters.
The study of history involves trying to understand and communicate the complexities that make up our collective human experience, and how those experiences have interconnected over time. It is, therefore, a difficult and frustrating subject to teach. Historians try to avoid a simple, purely factual approach because humans are so prone to imposing their own sense of significance on the world around them. One event, even a single moment, can take on thousands of different meanings when all sorts of people impose their own sense of what it meant to them.
This is why history often makes people angry and defensive. It is also why many people struggle to find a place for it in their lives, and why all modern nations encourage its teaching in some form or another. Identifying how an individual or group might have interacted with larger historic changes is the most obvious use of history. This is how a family or a political unit, for example, establishes identity and confirms their place in the wider social structure.
Beyond this, historians seek to help their students discover the connections between past and present. This is the deeper purpose of a historical education, and it is how the discipline will remain relevant to the future.
It is also a subject that, like the discipline of sociology, helps us to understand the nature and limitations of human beings. This is especially valuable in a world where globalization, economic inequality and the rise of extremism are making it harder to maintain traditional societies in the way that we have come to expect.
A final point: it is an important subject for developing the ability to think in terms of a timeline and a narrative. It is an important skill for any professional, whether in business or politics, because it allows you to consider how the decisions made today may be impacted by those that were made in the past. It is also a useful exercise for individuals because it forces them to consider the implications of their own choices and to question what they might be like if they were made differently. This can be a very challenging exercise to undertake, but it is one that everyone should have the opportunity to attempt.