People often ask, “Why on earth should I study history?” History is a field that studies the past and its legacies in the present. It encourages students to take a long view of human experience and to look at the many ways in which things connect through time. Yet it is also a discipline that, like any other academic subject, requires a great deal of work to master. It involves ferreting out and interpreting what is left behind from the past, from the material culture of the day (which can range from oral histories to Hollywood films) to official records of government and empire. It also requires a lot of sifting through sources that are often contested and prone to bias.
The task of writing history is a profoundly difficult one, and the scholars who work in it struggle with the same question that everyone does: how to weave together all the disparate evidence, facts, and events that past actors have left behind. Historians try to be as careful and fair as possible, but they can never be neutral observers. They are, and always have been, participants in history as it happens. In addition to examining the available evidence, historians must also consider the influences of their own perspectives and the biases that infuse the evidence they examine.
This dichotomy of fact and interpretation is at the heart of what it means to study history. While Ranke piously believed that divine providence would take care of the meaning of history, Burckhardt and others have taken a more modern touch of cynicism. Nonetheless, those who pretend to dispense with a philosophy of history are merely trying, vainly and self-consciously, to recreate the Garden of Eden in their garden suburbs.
It is important to remember that the history we think we know has been shaped by the forces of culture, politics and self-flagellation, and that it is often the handmaiden of those who control its narrative. It should not be used as a weapon at the heart of the culture wars, but rather as a tool that can be wielded in service of more emancipatory ends.
In a world that is increasingly global and interconnected, it is more important than ever to understand how all the pieces of history fit together. Students who have a firm grasp on this can make a real difference in the future of our shared planet.
Historians often conceive of history as an unbroken chain, with each age building on the legacy of the previous one. However, this is not an entirely accurate picture. Historians have also shown that there are a number of important breaks in the continuity of historical change, such as the development of new technologies, changes in social or economic structures, and shifts in cultural attitudes toward gender, race, religion and other societal concerns.