(This post is the first of a 3-part blog series, excerpted from a work-in-progress by Rachel Brewer. Comments and feedback are welcome and may be directed to brewer@providencestl.org)
“We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up and by their great stature add to ours.”
Bernard of Chartres, 12th C.
To study history is to study humanity’s past. Every phase of human life and every human interest in the present has a background and previous development which may be historically considered. We study the history of English literature, for example, or we may take courses in the history of architecture, in church history, in the history of medicine, or in the history of education. These are specialized branches, each devoted to a particular department of human affairs. History in the broad and general sense includes all these particular “histories” and many others. It aims to understand and to picture the entire life of the various peoples and culture groups of humankind throughout long ages. While historians are particularly concerned with what can be learned from surviving texts and documents (written history), our understanding of the past is also informed by other fields such as archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and genetics.
Historical Categories—Human activity, and therefore history, may be conveniently subdivided under five captions: political, economic, social, religious, and cultural. Political history, of course, covers wars and the affairs of kings and of other forms of government, as well as legal development. Economic history traces the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth in the past, the business of the world, its trade, industry, and agriculture. Social history deals with family life, classes, manners and customs, dress, diet, and the like. Subjects such as the rise of the Papacy, the spread of Islam, or the Protestant Reformation, belong primarily to religious history. The history of culture includes the progress of art, literature, learning, and education, and traces those two supreme products of hand and mind, the fine arts and philosophy. These categories are not mutually exclusive, however. Taxation, for instance, is both political and economic. Slavery is both a social and an economic institution. Almost any event produces effects in more than one of these five fields. Human life is one, and all such divisions of it are more or less artificial, but they are also rather helpful. History is sometimes grouped with political science, economics, and sociology; together they are called social sciences in distinction from the natural and mathematical sciences. But history may be equally associated with literature, philosophy, and art; they cannot get along without history, nor can history amount to much if it takes no notice of them. History is one of the “humanities” as well as a social science.
History is the Story of Humanity—For some people, an interest in and excitement for history is something that comes naturally; others struggle to see what could possibly be so interesting or useful about it. Some have no active dislike for history, but simply find other subjects and fields of knowledge far more interesting. Some who might be led, by the right guide, to enjoy history are instead presented with such a dry and tedious account of events, names, and dates that any natural inclination withers away, replaced by dislike or disregard for the subject. The 19th-century, British historian Lord Acton once pointed out that history should not be “a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.” Learning about history does require that we remember some specifics (i.e., the “names and dates” part of it), but history is a story—the story of human beings across time and space. We may find other subjects more interesting, but few subjects could be considered more important. Another 19th-century historian, Thomas Carlyle, believed that “history is the essence of innumerable biographies”; he recognized that history is made up of the experiences, reasonings, beliefs, actions, and passions of our individual lives.[i] The study of history cannot, therefore, be separated from the study of humanity, and if we recognize that humans are complex spiritual and philosophical beings, then our study of humanity will require us to consider the Why of history and not simply the Who, What, When, Where, or How.
Asking “Why” Questions—If you are to spend any great amount of time doing something, it is helpful to understand why you are doing it. The fact that countless people, much more knowledgeable, wise, and accomplished than we, have insisted on the importance of knowing history ought to be reason enough for us to begin our studies. After a point, though, if we are truly learning to become wise and responsible individuals, learning to ask “why?” in an honest and respectful way is part of our development in that direction. But I will warn you now: Why questions very rarely have simple answers! Humans prefer quick and easy categories—yes or no, right or left, up or down, this or that—but most things in life (and all people) are more complicated than that. The question Why should we study history? is no exception, and before we can hope to reach any answers, there is some contextual territory we must first survey.
History in Decline—For centuries, history was considered central to a good education, but it has been increasingly pushed aside for more “practical” and “marketable” studies in fields like science, math, and computer technology. You may have encountered—either online or in person—comments along the lines of “Why should we care about a bunch of dead white guys? We know more today than any of them. After all, we have Google, and George Washington didn’t even know that dinosaurs existed!” (This is actually true: George Washington died in 1799 and the first dinosaur fossil was discovered in 1824!) Such lines of reasoning are not only flawed and ignorant, but also dangerously arrogant, especially when they become popular.
Cyclical Views of History—Scholars through the ages have suggested various reasons to study history, and some of those reasons depend on theories about time itself. Hindu and Chinese religions, for example, teach that time passes in cycles which alternate between opposites, in a circular pattern rather than along a straight line (think of the yin and yang design). In this view, the course of history also moves in recurrent cycles, specifically a recurrent birth-death-rebirth cycle.[ii] In the 19th century, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, influenced by Indian philosophy, proposed the idea of an “eternal recurrence,” which is “the unconditional and infinitely repeated circular course of all things.”[iii] Nietzsche, an atheist, concluded that existence is ultimately meaningless and inescapably repetitive. He insisted, however, that instead of despairing at this “most abysmal idea,” people should fully embrace life and create their own purpose.
Patterns in History—The idea of cycles and repetition in the course of history is not unique to eastern philosophy and its admirers; similar ideas are found in the writings of those who hold to a “linear” view of time (continuous forward movement along a line). The western (Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian) understanding of time is certainly linear, but there is also a recognition that life cycles are foundational to the natural world and human experience. From a Christian perspective, God exists outside of linear time but has set all of creation to operate along a continuous pattern of seasons: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22, ESV). Every agricultural society since the dawn of time has revolved, in some way or another, around the yearly farming cycle.
In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon acknowledges such constants when he says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (ESV). The 18th-century French political philosopher and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, put it another way: “History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.”[vi]
While Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was unsure of the exact nature of time, he acknowledged that humans perceive time linearly.[iv] At the same time, he proposed that city-states follow a cyclical pattern of degeneration and regeneration. This theory has been more widely accepted by scholars in the Western tradition because it provides a model for understanding the patterns historians observe in the rise and fall of societies, civilizations, and empires. Greek historian Thucydides saw human nature as remarkably consistent, and his philosophy of history reflects the belief that this consistency produces recurrent patterns of cause and effect. In his History of the Peloponnesian War, he stated his hope that the book would “be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it.”[v]
Lessons from History—So, one of the reasons we study history is to learn from the mistakes and successes of the past. We are inspired by the strengths and virtues of people who came before us, while also learning to avoid their weaknesses and vices. In other words, we study the accumulated wisdom of the ages so that we might make wise decisions ourselves.
History Reveals Origins—A related answer to our question is one that most historians would agree on: We study the past because it provides the context we need to understand the present. Our world is increasingly complicated and bewildering. You might, at some point—upon observing something in the news, on social media, or in the culture—find yourself frustrated and wondering, How did things get like this? Usually, the answers to that question lie a bit further back on the timeline; so, to study the process of history is to learn the origin of things.
Human Nature and History—One of the reasons Aristotle sensed repetition in the development of societies is that there is a single, common component in all human history: humans! Though the concept of a fixed, metaphysical human nature is controversial in modern, materialist philosophy, a more historical and spiritual understanding of humanity holds that humans, regardless of time or place, possess fundamental emotions, behaviors, and tendencies. It would be impossible to offer a complete list of human traits, but a few examples could include love, envy, greed, compassion, generosity, fear, ambition, selfishness, self-sacrifice, self-preservation, empathy, creativity, both rationality and irrationality, etc. So, if human nature remains essentially unchanged, we should be able to learn more about ourselves and our world by studying the people who came before us.
History Should Be Interesting—Of course, nearly everything else does change. Art, music, fashion, architecture, technology, politics, speech, traditions, values, and manners are constantly evolving from generation to generation, and this provides additional color and detail to the kaleidoscope of human story. History may be hard, but it ought to be interesting! Unless life itself is dull, unless heroes and writers of the past were tiresome personalities, unless the most painstaking and inspired works of the leading artists are of no interest, history should not be tedious. Polybius, the great Greek historian, spoke scornfully of the mere bookworm historian who lacked human experience and spent all his hours “reclining on his couch,” studying documents from a neighboring library and “comparing the mistakes of former historians without any fatigue to himself.”[vii] History is an amazing story, containing in its pages more drama and excitement, mystery and discovery, horror and happiness, love and pain than we can really comprehend.
(Click here for Part 2 of this series.)
END NOTES
- Cover photo is the British Museum in London, taken by the author.
- While most of the text featured here is my original work, the project from which this chapter originates is, essentially, a massive revision and expansion of the book History of Medieval Europe (1917) by respected historian Lynn Thorndike, which is now in the public domain.
- [i] Carlyle, Thomas. 1830. “On History.”
- [ii] Toynbee, Arnold Joseph, John Jamieson Carswell Smart, et. al. 27 April 2020. “Time.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, https://www.britannica.com/science/time (Accessed 9 Dec. 2020).
- [iii] Frederick Nietzsche. 1908. “Ecce Homo.” Basic Writings of Nietzche. Walter Kaufmann (trans. & ed.), New York: Random House, Modern Library Edition, 2000.
- [iv] Aristotle. Physics, iv:10-13 treats the subject of time.
- [v] Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.22. Translation by Richard Crawley.
- [vi] Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1856. L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution.
- [vii] Polybius. Histories, 12.27
Ms. Rachel Brewer is enjoying her ninth year of teaching and her fifth year at Providence. She teaches upper school British and American Literature, Rhetoric, Senior thesis, and Medieval History. Rachel has her BA in History from Southern Illinois University and her MA in Medieval Archaeology from Cardiff University in Wales, U.K. She has enjoyed making her home in St. Louis and attends Trinity Church Kirkwood.
