What are the benefits of studying history?

aurevoirtori: What are the benefits of studying history?
i’m writing an article on the decline of history uptake courses for public examinations like GCSE’s and A-Levels.

For example, 7 out of 10 students expressed an interest in the subject but only 3 out of 10 chose the subject at GCSE.

if you could share your ideas on why history is important, beneficial or interesting to you. i’d love to hear from you.

many thanks 🙂

P.S. if you could include some statistics to your answer, i’d be overjoyed. but its not necessary!

Answers and Views:

Answer by JenBubz
Well I’ve picked History for my GCSE, and I’ve been studying it for about 1 month and 2 weeks now.

History is important because without it we don’t know what’s happened in the past. It’s also important because it opens up our mind and gives us more knowledge than we already have.

Because of history we are able to do things the right way. For example because of the holocaust we’ve learnt that it’s not right to do something like that. Yes, it took millions of people’s lives which isn’t a good thing but because of it, we know that the chances of that happening again are quite unlikely.

I think that history as a subject doesn’t get picked because there is a lot to learn. It’s not an easy topic but if your determined to learn about it then it becomes an easy subject.

I picked history because I’ve always enjoyed learning about things in the past. It’s a good subject because there’s always things to learn. History just doesn’t end. The things that happen in the present will someday turn into past. Which then as well all know will become history.

History has made our world today. If certain things in the past never happened our lives would probably somehow be different. The only way to understand what happened in the past is by studying it.

Some people just have a genuine interest in the things that went on in the past. Like me. Most people say if we don’t learn about the things that happened in the past, it’s doomed to be repeated. Which is very true.

Answer by JC
Everything in the present is like what it is because of something that happened in the past. If you do not understand history, you cannot completely understand today.

For example if you have no idea about the Six Days War in 1967 names mentioned frequently in Middle East news: Jerusalem, Golan Heights, West Bank of Jordan River… will not mean anything to you.

History is a mirror so we can see ourselves.

Answer by komodo_gold
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -George Santayana

History is important because it allows us to examine how people lived in the past, and why they lived that way. And hopefully it’ll allow us to not have a repeat of the bad stuff.

For instance, many people thought that World War 1 was the “war to end all wars”. But all it really did was kill a lot of people, and didn’t really achieve anything. And as a result of the aftermath, in which Germany was punished severely, it allowed someone like Hitler to take over and start the Second World War, which caused even more millions of deaths. While there is still fighting going on around the world today, it’s no longer on the scale it was back then largely because people still remember what happened.

When nuclear weapons were dropped on Japan, the world saw how devastating they were, and although many were built, there hasn’t yet been another nuclear attack because people remember how bad it could be.

When 9/11 occurred in the US, Osama Bin Laden claimed that he was doing this for a variety of reasons, one of which was to help oppressed Muslims everywhere. Yet in Kosovo, the people there were holding pro-US rallies. And guess what? They were Muslims, which NATO helped to protect against Serbian aggression. How could bin laden be saying that he was helping these guys by attacking one of the countries that helped these Muslims out?

Studying the past also allows you to get an idea of why people act the way they do. China was once a proud country, full of technological advances such as paper and gunpowder. But then they started to fall behind due to a string of bad leaders and civil wars, and soon was exploited by countries such as France and Britain (such as the Opium wars).

Once they regained control of their country, they wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t be pushed around so easily anymore, hence why they generally act hostile towards things the US wants. For instance, they felt the US was going to invade China after beating back the North Koreans during the Korean war, so they sent about 300,000 troops into North Korea to push back the US and UN forces. And this also explains why the US never sent ground troops into North Vietnam a few years later, lest the Chinese and Russians get involved and send their ground troops in, and World War 3 starts.

Had the Vietnam War not of happened the way it did, I wouldn’t be here today typing this message. My people, the Hmong, were recruited by the CIA to help fight communist forces in Laos, since the US couldn’t legally enter the country (North Vietnam wasn’t supposed to either, but they did anyway, utilizing the Ho Chi Minh Trail to send supplies to communist forces in South Vietnam). The CIA trained them to fight those troops using the trail, and also to help rescue American pilots that got shot down. The US gave food and supplies to help the Hmong people do that.

When the US pulled out of Vietnam, they also withdrew support for the Hmong in Laos. As a result, the communist forces took over South Vietnam and Laos, forcing many Hmong to flee the region into Thailand, where they were picked up by a variety of countries, one of which included the US.

And had my parents not of been able to get to the US, I would’ve never been born, or at best, I’d be a refugee in Thailand or else hiding and fearing for my life in Laos due to communist backlash.

So those are some of the reasons why history is important. The things people did in the past affect our lives today, and it helps to understand why people do things the way they do.