The Importance of studying History

[BettyO]

Recently at work, I have been somewhat ridiculed for having a "history degree" and studying history. I've been told by my "superiors" (if you want to call them that!) that my degree in history is meaningless and irrelevant since it does not fall within the "hard sciences"; i.e. engineering, math, etc. Irrelevant, huh? Really? I especially like what I found on this wonderful UK site - quoting historian Patrica Corfield.... (here is the URL: http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/r...ters.html) Irregardless of what my coworkers think - history DOES matter - very much!

See if you agree!

Historians are often asked: what is the use or relevance of studying History (the capital letter signaling the academic field of study)? Why on earth does it matter what happened long ago? The answer is that History is inescapable. It studies the past and the legacies of the past in the present. Far from being a 'dead' subject, it connects things through time and encourages its students to take a long view of such connections.

All people and peoples are living histories. To take a few obvious examples: communities speak languages that are inherited from the past. They live in societies with complex cultures, traditions and religions that have not been created on the spur of the moment. People use technologies that they have not themselves invented. And each individual is born with a personal variant of an inherited genetic template, known as the genome, which has evolved during the entire life-span of the human species.

So understanding the linkages between past and present is absolutely basic for a good understanding of the condition of being human. That, in a nutshell, is why History matters. It is not just 'useful', it is essential.