Why History?

I confess I have a great love for history, especially American history.  Important dates from the past rattle around my head like marbles in a jar.  (So that’s what that noise is when I shake my head…)  Sometimes the most seemingly mundane things fascinate me, like tracking down old railroad beds, or digging around in some old, musty courthouse records.  History for me is of great interest, and is great fun.

However, it seems that many people today do not see the relevance of studying history.  What’s so interesting about dusty old history books, anyway?  What could we possibly learn from previous generations?

On a recent television drama, a young man and his girl friend were sitting at a kitchen table studying their homework.  The boy lamented, “Aw, why do we have to study history anyway?”  Astutely, his girlfriend replied, “So we don’t make the same mistakes over and over again!”  George Santayana put the same thought more eloquently many years ago when he stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  The value of studying history is learning from the mistakes of the past and hopefully avoid blundering down the same dead ends as our forebears.

But this reason alone is not why history fascinates me so.  It is the human stories that, to me, are so compelling.  Those long-dead men and women from the distant past were once living, breathing, loving, laughing, and sorrowing human beings just like us.  I wonder, why did they make the decisions they did?  What made them do what they did?  How did they feel?  What made soldiers charge into the face of certain death, or why did pioneer families trek west into an uncertain future.  What gave Rosa Parks the courage to resist an unjust society, or how did Lindbergh manage to fly solo across the Atlantic?  To me, this is what makes history come alive.  It is not just facts, figures, and dates that tell history’s story.  It is the people.

My wife enjoys watching reality TV shows that display the interplay between people and how they react to their surroundings.  I personally have no use for reality television, but as I think about it, what draws my wife to these shows and what draws me to the study of history is not really very different.  In each case, it is the fascination of studying how people interact with each other, how they react to their environment, and why they do what they do under difficult circumstances.  Ultimately, in either case, it is the study of us, of human nature.

So, think about it.  If you view history as uninteresting or irrelevant, think again.  Try taking in a special event at your local historical society or tour a well-known (or not so well-known) historical location.  Try to envision what it might have been like to ride a streetcar through town, or build a prairie homestead with a few simple tools and your own wits.  Who knows?  You might learn something.  And if you’re not real careful, you might even enjoy it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some old railroad beds to track down.

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