WHY STUDY HISTORY? WHAT’S IT GOOD FOR? 1. Good history should exist if for no other reason than that bad history already exists. People often use history-telling for political ends—selecting or skewing to make some (facile) contemporary point. Good history can bring clarity. 1/7

2. History can lead to humility. Knowing the details of epoch-changing figures of the past puts our own achievements and self-importance into perspective. Moreover, the shameful deeds of the past should cause us to wonder what blindspots future generations will see in us. 2/7

3. History can make us more sympathetic to difference, helping us to see things from the perspective of people whose ways of thinking/living were radically different from ours. Studying 6th-c Byzantine or 9th-c Saxony is like visiting Rangoon or Turkestan. 3/7

4. History can inspire us to do great things, partly because heroic figures of the past provide a model of bravery and aspiration, and partly because examining world-changing events helps us to believe that, despite everything, dramatic change is possible. 4/7

5. Studying history can enhance objectivity. Like the natural sciences, history first deals with facts, literary / material remains of the past. Historians constantly fret about bias, but they are always striving to discover what was true/real. 5/7

6. History invites us to draw from a much deeper well of human experience and wisdom. It is the ultimate democratic opinion-poll. The student of history listens to the best ideas not just of our “blip” but of the centuries and millennia. 6/7

In sum: to correct bad history, to foster humility, to make us sympathetic about difference, to inspire us to greatness, to enhance objectivity, and to drink from the wells of wisdom—that is what history is good for. 7/7