What good is studying/researching/doing history?

[FBM]

I mean, unless you're planning to make a career of it, it's not likely to ever contribute much of any value to your quality of life, is it? As far as I can tell, people - especially politicians - rarely use it to inform their decisions or behavior. What's the use of being able to spout off that the Norman Conquest started in 1066 or some such piece of data? You'd think that after all this time of doing history, we'd have come up with some sort of set of useful instructions on how to live well, both individually and as societies. I don't know of one, at least, not one that came from doing history.

I'm not saying we ditch it, only that I don't understand why it's considered to be anything more than a (legitimate) hobby, and why it's a part of core curricula, rather than an elective subject. I'm willing to be convinced, but at the moment...

[Bella Fortuna]

What good is studying/researching/doing history?

Really, none, unless you're planning on being a history professor. At least that's the conclusion I came to as a history major. I didn't become a history professor, so it's done me a lot of good.

[Pappa]

I think the standard reason to study history is to not repeat the mistakes of the past by repeating them. Plus, lots of people find history very interesting in its own right.

[FBM]

I think the standard reason to study history is to not repeat the mistakes of the past by repeating them.

But...we repeat them, anyway.

Plus, lots of people find history very interesting in its own right.

Yeah, some of it is interesting. But a required subject? Why? Schools could use that classtime for something actually useful. I'll bet there's some history behind the mandatory inclusion of history as core curriculum.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

TL Facepalm.jpg (5.55 KiB) Viewed 1695 times

[FBM]

What good is studying/researching/doing history?

Really, none, unless you're planning on being a history professor. At least that's the conclusion I came to as a history major. I didn't become a history professor, so it's done me a lot of good.

So why did you major in history in the first place? (If that's not a sensitive topic, that is...) Do you feel like a better person for knowing all that stuff? Wiser?

[FBM]

TL Facepalm.jpg

Wut? If the military actually applied the lessons of history, there wouldn't be any more warfare, would there?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

FBM, try this:

"One thing history teaches us in to never get involved in a land war in Asia."

[Gawdzilla Sama]

TL Facepalm.jpg

Wut? If the military actually applied the lessons of history, there wouldn't be any more warfare, would there?

History isn't intended to make people smarter. It's intended to help people make smarter choices. It can't MAKE them chose to not do dumb things.

Santayana is spinning in his grave right now.

[Pappa]

But a required subject? Why? Schools could use that classtime for something actually useful. I'll bet there's some history behind the mandatory inclusion of history as core curriculum.

Surely the secondary skills you learn from studying history are useful in a much wider way... learning to search for sources of information, assess the quality and validity of that info and combine it with other sources of information??? They're really useful to anyone really.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

But a required subject? Why? Schools could use that classtime for something actually useful. I'll bet there's some history behind the mandatory inclusion of history as core curriculum.

Surely the secondary skills you learn from studying history are useful in a much wider way... learning to search for sources of information, assess the quality and validity of that info and combine it with other sources of information??? They're really useful to anyone really.

The study of History is about analysis of events. You take pieces of information and make a coherent whole out of them. I was very good at reconstructing accident scenes because I could take testimony, photographs, damage reports, and the traffic code and determine how an accident happened. (I was the only one to figure out how a four year old ran over his own head.)

[FBM]

FBM, try this:

"One thing history teaches us in to never get involved in a land war in Asia."

I'll never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

TL Facepalm.jpg

Wut? If the military actually applied the lessons of history, there wouldn't be any more warfare, would there?

History isn't intended to make people smarter. It's intended to help people make smarter choices. It can't MAKE them chose to not do dumb things.

Santayana is spinning in his grave right now.

Even people who DO know history fuck around and wind up repeating it, anyway. I'm not knocking it as a hobby or intellectual exercise, but why claim it's useful when it so far hasn't proven to be?

[FBM]

Surely the secondary skills you learn from studying history are useful in a much wider way... learning to search for sources of information, assess the quality and validity of that info and combine it with other sources of information??? They're really useful to anyone really.

But you learn the same skills in science, English, etc...

[Bella Fortuna]

What good is studying/researching/doing history?

Really, none, unless you're planning on being a history professor. At least that's the conclusion I came to as a history major. I didn't become a history professor, so it's done me a lot of good.

So why did you major in history in the first place? (If that's not a sensitive topic, that is...) Do you feel like a better person for knowing all that stuff? Wiser?

My original major, which I had transferred schools to be a part of because it was very unusual and specific, was cancelled the semester I got there so I needed a new major. I enjoyed both history and English, so I double-majored in them. Unfortunately my decision was all from the heart and not the wallet - I was foolishly thinking of my own satisfaction rather than a future career. Silly, in retrospect.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

FBM, try this:

"One thing history teaches us in to never get involved in a land war in Asia."

I'll never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Another historical precedent.

TL Facepalm.jpg

Wut? If the military actually applied the lessons of history, there wouldn't be any more warfare, would there?

History isn't intended to make people smarter. It's intended to help people make smarter choices. It can't MAKE them chose to not do dumb things.

Santayana is spinning in his grave right now.

Even people who DO know history fuck around and wind up repeating it, anyway. I'm not knocking it as a hobby or intellectual exercise, but why claim it's useful when it so far hasn't proven to be?

Not everybody who studies history fails to learn from it. The military is said to "always be training to fight the last war." Without history they'd know nothing of the last war. And studying the events that transpired when they did that have lead us to try and avoid that silliness in the future.

But history isn't just about the wars, of course. "Heritage" is history, as is "legacy" and "culture". Those things all draw on the past to shape the future.