We learn
from history that we learn nothing from history.
--George Bernard Shaw
Shaw, the playwright, clever with words, suggested that humans keep
repeating the same mistakes over and over again. His clever comment also exaggerated a vision of history as
essentially useless.
The History Department at Adelaide University, Australia makes an
observation that takes Shaw to task:
"History gives you back your past.
In the same way as individual people need memory to shape
identity and plan for the future, communities need history to give
dimension and meaning to the present.
Without an understanding of the past, the present doesn't make
much sense."
What then is history? Except
for this very instant and a vast image of unknown tomorrows,
everything else is history. We
all live and breathe and think in the realm of history.
As human beings possessing memory, we function by using our own
and others' experience.
Where else but in history can we find the evidence needed to contemplate
and analyze how societies function?
People need that knowledge simply to run their own lives.
Wherever we are today obviously came from whatever we did
yesterday.
It's worth considering what a number of serious thinkers have had to say
about the value of history. The
English philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "History is invaluable
in increasing our knowledge of human nature, because it shows how
people may be expected to behave in new situations.
Many prominent men and women are completely ordinary in
character, and only exceptional in their circumstances."
The American philosopher George Santyana wrote, "Those who do not
remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While history may teach us, as Shaw commented, that we learn
nothing from history because we keep repeating our mistakes, Santyana
observed that without it we're condemned to repeating past
mistakes.
"History can be a cure for prejudice and provincialism,"
wrote
Professor Gerhard Rempel of Western New England College.
"There is nothing wrong with healthy patriotic pride, but
there is something pathological about parochialism, self-righteousness
and blind nationalism. These
types of social diseases have twice led to world wars in this
century." It seems
that one or two world powers are currently suffering from this type of
social disease.
Professor Rempel added, "Learning that your own national way of
doing things is not the only way (and certainly not the norm for other
people) and learning that the behavior of other people in other times
and places is not particularly bad or unworkable because it is old or
foreign is an essential revelation for any person who pretends to be
educated."
Does this mean that we all need to sign up for history courses or raid
the local bookstore or library for masses of world history texts?
Does it leave our education in history to guesswork?
The answer to both those questions is NO.
What is really needed, useful and interesting about history is now
available on the Internet. However,
before getting into where those sources can be found, let's look at
what we really need. Among
the varieties of history that specialists have enthusiastically
explored in recent decades, three levels have the greatest importance
for most of us.
First is family, local, neighborhood history usually transmitted orally
when children start to experience the world outside their homes.
Second is national history where political power is
concentrated in our time. Last
is global history, since intensified communications make encounters
with all the other peoples of the earth increasingly important.
One of the reasons why it's so important for expats to befriend locals is
that it's the only way to become aware of the local events that have
influenced the thinking and behavior of the community in which they
live.
The last two levels fit the years when young people start to pay
attention to public affairs and prepare to assume the responsibilities
of citizenship. They're
also the levels found represented well on the World Wide Web.
To find national histories, simply type the name of a country, like
"Greece" and "history" into a search engine like Google
and you'll come up with a number of websites providing the national
history.
If you want to find information on a particular national event,
type the name of the event into the search engine.
For example, "The American Civil War" or "The
French Revolution" or "The bombing of Hiroshima" or
"The Peasant's Revolt."
One of the best places for brushing up on British history is
the Britannia
site. The material has been organized according to
"Monarchs", "King Arthur", "Church
History", "Timelines", "Documents" and
Biographies".
Another important use of national histories involves travelers learning
something about the past of the places they intend to visit.
If I were about to visit India or Turkey or China for the first
time, I'd certainly take the time to look at their histories on the
Web.
Turning to our hosts in the Arab world, extensive historical coverage of
"Islamic Philosophy Online can be found at
muslim philosophy. The
site contains hundreds of full-length books and articles on Islamic
thought.
Moving next to global history, "Top
20 World history" provides comprehensive coverage by both
period and location. It
also has links to its choice of the top 20 history sites on the
Internet. The first of
these, World History Archives, is particularly notable for its
dedication to learning history from a working-class and non-Eurocentric
perspective.
For an interesting approach to world history, visit "The
History Channel." Apart from a "History of the World Timeline and a
topical search facility, the site has a number of online exhibits
including multimedia presentations.
The Net's "Educational
Resource Center," originally established as a collection of
links for students, parents and teachers, is an incredibly useful site
for history buffs. The well-organized site provides a detailed site map on the
home page. The major
sections include General Resources, American History, Ancient World
History and World History. Surfers
need only scan the titles on the page for the period or type of
studies they're interested in.
Click, for example, on "The Aztec" and you're taken to a page
of links with categories of information arranged by Major Databases;
Rulers; Aztec Life; Aztec Empire; Spanish Encounters; Manuscripts,
Books and Photos; Aztec Language; Aztec Gods and Religion; Aztec
Calendar and Misc. (related) Topics.
Paul Halsall of Fordam University has created another exceptionally
well-developed history website. His
"Internet history
sourcebooks project" includes sourcebooks on Ancient,
Medieval and Modern History.
The site also has subsidiary sourcebooks on African, East Asian, Global,
Indian, Islamic and Jewish Histories along with History of Science and
Women's History. As a
specialist in Byzantine History, Professor Halsall has created
extremely comprehensive studies of Byzantium and extensive links to
related sites.
History World
not only has 400 separate histories and 4000 tagged events, they have
timelines, specialist articles and very interesting online history
quizzes. Delving into a
number of history websites definitely improves your performance on the
quizzes.
In summary: first, the study of history does not lead to exact prediction
of future events. Though
it fosters practical wisdom, knowledge of the past does not permit
anyone to know exactly what is going to happen.
Second, as acquaintance with the past expands, delight in knowing more
and more often becomes an end in itself.
History offers innumerable heroes and villains.
Reading about what people did in far away times and places
enlarges our sense of human capacities both for good and evil.
Third, studying alien religious beliefs, strange customs, diverse family
patterns and vanished social structures shows how differently various
human groups have tried to cope with the world around them. Broadening our humanity and extending our sensibilities by
recognizing sameness and difference throughout the recorded past is
therefore an important reason for studying history, and especially the
history of peoples far away and long ago.
Thus the basic reason to learn history in general is that people, more or
less, are the same. Technology
might change, the geopolitical realities of the world might change,
but people tend to do the same stupid things over and over again. There’s no reason why we need to stay in the same rut
repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Must a playwright like Shaw be right as well as clever?
