Why Study History?
Why Should Anyone Study History?
The study of history is the foundation of the liberal studies curriculum. It is a central part of a well-rounded college education regardless of whether you plan to become a journalist, teacher, lawyer, politician, librarian, archivist, or other professional. The creative and critical thinking skills, research skills, writing skills, and knowledge base gained from the study of history will prepare you for a career in whatever field you pursue.
History as Part of General Education and the Liberal Arts
To learn more about the vital role the study of history plays in a solid liberal arts education click on the following resources:
Peter N. Stearns, "Why Study History?" American Historical Association, "Liberal Learning and the History Major" Irv Solomon, "Value of a History Major"
History as a Profession
To learn more about the historical profession click on the following resources:
Melanie S. Gustafson, "Becoming a Historian: A Survival Manual for Women and Men" Barbara J. Howe, "Careers for Students of History" American Historical Association, "Why Become a Historian?" American Historical Association, "Historians and Archivasts: Educating the Next Generation" Tennessee Tech University, History as a Career links History-Related Internships in Southwest Florida H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine has a very useful resource for students majoring in history. H-HistMajor is a moderated Internet discussion forum of, by, and for undergraduate history majors.
Click here to visit the H-HistMajor website
Resources
Jules R. Benjamin, A Student's Guide to History.Eighth Edition. Bedford, 2001.
Blythe Camenson, Careers for History Buffs; And Others Who Learn from the Past.Lincolnwood: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Co., 1994.
Conal Furay and Michael J. Salevouris, The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide. Second Edition. Harlan Davidson, 2000.
Melanie S. Gustafson, Becoming a Historian: A Survival Manual for Women and Men.Revised Edition. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1991.
Barbara K. Howe, Careers for Students of History.Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1989.
Donna M. Neary, Designing a Career in Public History; Becoming a Professional Historian.Melbourne: Krieger Publishing Co., 1999.
Lee A. Smith (ed.) Career Opportunities for Historians.Pullman: Gamma Psi Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta, 1981.
Victoria Vincent, Great Careers for People Interested in the Past.Third Edition. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1995.
Various Opinions on the Value of History
"Those who do not forget the past are the masters of the future." Sima Qian
"To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people." Elizabeth Bowen
"History, a distillation of Rumour." Thomas Carlyle
"History is merely gossip." Oscar Wilde
"History is bunk." Henry Ford
"History is the myth, the true myth, of man's fall made manifest in time." Henry Miller
"All history is the record of man's signal failure to thwart his destiny -- the record, in other words, of the few men of destiny who, through the recognition of their symbolic role, made history." Henry Miller
"Acts themselves alone are history....Tell me the acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish! All that is not action is not worth reading." William Blake
"History is the propaganda of the victors." Ernst Toller
"The history of the world is the world's court of justice." Friedrich Von Schiller
"History is a relay of revolutions." Saul Alinsky
"We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it." Jose Ortega Y Gasset
"Modern history teaches us so nearly, it is so deep a question of life and death, that we are bound to find our own way through it, and to owe our insight to ourselves." Lord Acton
"If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason." Albert Camus
"History not used is nothing, for all intellectual life is action, like practical life, and if you don't use the stuff -- well, it might as well be dead." A.J. Toynbee
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana
"But what experience and history teach is this -- that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it." Georg Hegel
"History repeats itself. First as tragedy then as farce." Karl Marx
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
"History repeats itself; historians repeat each other." Philip Guedalla
"Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend." Francis Bacon
"The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen." Walter Bagehot
"We as women know that there are no disembodied processes; that all history originates in human flesh; that all oppression is inflicted by the body on one against another; that all social change is built on the bone and muscle, and out of the flesh and blood, of human creatures." Andrea Dworkin
From
The Devil's Dictionaryby Ambrose Bierce:
Clio, n. One of the nine Muses. Clio's function was to preside over history -- which she did with great dignity, many of the prominent citizens of Athens occupying seats on the platform, the meetings being addressed by Messrs. Xenophon, Herodotus and other popular speakers.
Historian, n. A broad-gauge gossip.
History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
From "On the Usefulness of History" by Voltaire:
The advantage consists chiefly in the comparison which a statesman or a citizen can draw between foreign laws and customs and those of his own country. This is what spurs modern peoples to emulation in the arts, in agriculture, and in trade. The great errors of the past are also very useful in many ways. One cannot remind oneself too often of crimes and disasters. These, no matter what people say, can be forstalled.
