Historical data include evidence about how families, groups, institutions and whole countries were formed and about how they have evolved while retaining cohesion. For many Americans, studying the history of one's own family is the most obvious use of history, for it provides facts about genealogy and at a slightly more complex level a basis for understanding how the family has interacted with larger historical change.
Family identity is established and confirmed. Many institutions, businesses, communities, and social units, such as ethnic groups in the United States, use history for similar identity purposes. Merely defining the group in the present pales against the possibility of forming an identity based on a rich past.
And of course nations use identity history as well—and sometimes abuse it. Histories that tell the national story, emphasizing distinctive features of the national experience, are meant to drive home an understanding of national values and a commitment to national loyalty.
A study of history is essential for good citizenship. This is the most common justification for the place of history in school curricula. Sometimes advocates of citizenship history hope merely to promote national identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and lessons in individual success and morality.
But the importance of history for citizenship goes beyond this narrow goal and can even challenge it at some points. History that lays the foundation for genuine citizenship returns, in one sense, to the essential uses of the study of the past. History provides data about the emergence of national institutions, problems, and values—it's the only significant storehouse of such data available.
It offers evidence also about how nations have interacted with other societies, providing international and comparative perspectives essential for responsible citizenship. Further, studying history helps us understand how recent, current, and prospective changes that affect the lives of citizens are emerging or may emerge and what causes are involved.
More important, studying history encourages habits of mind that are vital for responsible public behavior, whether as a national or community leader, an informed voter, a petitioner, or a simple observer. What does a well-trained student of history, schooled to work on past materials and on case studies in social change, learn how to do? The list is manageable, but it contains several overlapping categories. The Ability to Assess Evidence. The study of history builds experience in dealing with and assessing various kinds of evidence—the sorts of evidence historians use in shaping the most accurate pictures of the past that they can.
Learning how to interpret the statements of past political leaders—one kind of evidence—helps form the capacity to distinguish between the objective and the self-serving among statements made by present-day political leaders. Learning how to combine different kinds of evidence—public statements, private records, numerical data, visual materials—develops the ability to make coherent arguments based on a variety of data. This skill can also be applied to information encountered in everyday life.
The Ability to Assess Conflicting Interpretations. Learning history means gaining some skill in sorting through diverse, often conflicting interpretations. Understanding how societies work—the central goal of historical study—is inherently imprecise, and the same certainly holds true for understanding what is going on in the present day. Learning how to identify and evaluate conflicting interpretations is an essential citizenship skill for which history, as an often-contested laboratory of human experience, provides training.
This is one area in which the full benefits of historical study sometimes clash with the narrower uses of the past to construct identity. Experience in examining past situations provides a constructively critical sense that can be applied to partisan claims about the glories of national or group identity.
The study of history in no sense undermines loyalty or commitment, but it does teach the need for assessing arguments, and it provides opportunities to engage in debate and achieve perspective.
Experience in Assessing Past Examples of Change. Experience in assessing past examples of change is vital to understanding change in society today—it's an essential skill in what we are regularly told is our "ever-changing world.
Comparing particular changes to relevant examples from the past helps students of history develop this capacity. The ability to identify the continuities that always accompany even the most dramatic changes also comes from studying history, as does the skill to determine probable causes of change. Learning history helps one figure out, for example, if one main factor—such as a technological innovation or some deliberate new policy—accounts for a change or whether, as is more commonly the case, a number of factors combine to generate the actual change that occurs.
Historical study, in sum, is crucial to the promotion of that elusive creature, the well-informed citizen. It provides basic factual information about the background of our political institutions and about the values and problems that affect our social well-being. It also contributes to our capacity to use evidence, assess interpretations, and analyze change and continuities. No one can ever quite deal with the present as the historian deals with the past—we lack the perspective for this feat; but we can move in this direction by applying historical habits of mind, and we will function as better citizens in the process.
History is useful for work. Its study helps create good businesspeople, professionals, and political leaders. The number of explicit professional jobs for historians is considerable, but most people who study history do not become professional historians. Professional historians teach at various levels, work in museums and media centers, do historical research for businesses or public agencies, or participate in the growing number of historical consultancies.
These categories are important—indeed vital—to keep the basic enterprise of history going, but most people who study history use their training for broader professional purposes. Students of history find their experience directly relevant to jobs in a variety of careers as well as to further study in fields like law and public administration.
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Our schools Find a school Boarding. Admissions Admissions process Alumni. News Why is it Important to Study History? The Benefits of Studying History Entire societies, and the individuals within them, benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of history.
Develop an Understanding of the World Through history, we can learn how past societies, systems, ideologies, governments, cultures and technologies were built, how they operated, and how they have changed.
Become a More Rounded Person History is full of stories. Understand Identity Nations are made up of a collection of stories and legends. Become Inspired Those historical stories can also serve to inspire individuals to greatness. Develop Transferrable Skills History is a respected academic pursuit that challenges our intellect. How to Study History History is not about memorising a list of facts or dates. Still, there are plenty of effective methods for studying history, like these three: 1.
Connect Events Together History is shaped by a list of chronological events. Soak up Books and Films History is packed with incredible, real-life stories — many of which are told for a new generation in the form of novels and films. Educational Insights. Related news. Homework can be a divisive topic. Find out what boarding school is like and how it works, as well as the benefits of boarding school, with Nord Anglia Education. This article discusses the importance of online learning to both students and teachers.
News image Blog Educational Insights Technology is here to stay, so let's embrace it Education had stayed broadly the same for a century but now is the time to embrace the change forced upon us and see the positives it can provide, says Mark Orrow-Whiting.
Back to top. Please enter a real email address. Useful links. History tells you the story of how your nation, city, or community came to be everything that it is. It tells you where your ancestors came from and tells you who they were. Most importantly of all, it gives you the ability to spot and appreciate the legacies you may have inherited from them.
Global, national, and regional history books help us understand how other cultures affect our own. They encourage us to develop a greater appreciation for multicultural influences within our own communities as well — exactly why everyone should study African American history , immigrant history, and so forth, regardless of their own cultural background.
It goes without saying that change can be a difficult concept to understand. Each of us has a different experience with the rest of the world — an experience shaped by societal norms, cultural differences, personal experiences, and more.
We know when we as individuals crave change and why. History helps us better understand how, when, and why change occurs or should be sought on a larger scale.
Good citizens are always informed citizens, and no one can consider himself to be an informed citizen without a working knowledge of history. History helps us become better voters and more effective members of any type of society. It helps put us in a position to better inform others as well. History gives us the opportunity to learn from past mistakes.
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