Matt,
 
            There are so many possible answers to your query, "Why study
            history?" that it's hard to know where to begin.
 
            For one thing, it's often useful to know what happened in the
            past.  "Where did I put my car keys?" is a good example of a
            historical research problem that leads to an immediate practical
            benefit when answered.  "What was the original intent of the
            authors of the Constitution?" is a historical question that
            judges and lawmakers frequently ask to help them in their work.
            Study of the past makes it easier to cope with and understand the
            present; those who are dismayed by the current popularity of
            anti-immigration sentiment may take comfort in the story of the
            rise and fall of the Know Nothing party, for instance.
 
            Studying the past can teach valuable lessons, although this
            reason is often overstated or misused.  See Neustadt and May,
            _Thinking In Time_, for the benefits and limitations of history
            as a direct guide to present action.  The book is full of stories
            of intelligent, aware people using their knowledge of history to
            avoid the mistakes of the past, only to make other mistakes.
 
            As some of your colleagues point out, history is also for
            entertainment.  Anyone who ever was fascinated by a grandparent's
            description of his or her childhood, or watched an old war
            newsreel, or toured a castle, or found a box of letters in the
            attic, knows of the entertainment value of history.  History
            includes everything that ever happened to anyone; it is a
            mystery to me how "educational" writers have traditionally
            managed to compile dull textbooks out of such rich material.
 
            Studying history is also a good way to learn critical thinking.
            How do we know about the past?  What constitutes valid evidence
            of what happened before?  How much should we believe what other
            people have said or written?
 
            The reason for studying history that I find most compelling is
            that it instills a sense of proportion, of judgment.  Studying
            other eras and other cultures gives you an idea of who you are,
            and what your country is.  It is not so much the idea of learning
            specific lessons from the past as it is recognizing that there is
            a past, and there will be a future, and we occupy only a portion
            of that continuum, not its end or its pinnacle.  In a Doonesbury
            cartoon one baby boomer says to another earnestly, "I think this
            is the first generation to really care for its children."  Anyone
            whose historical awareness goes as far back as his or her own
            childhood laughs at that statement.  But people profess equally
            self-centered, ignorant ideas all the time, because they lack the
            historical understanding to differentiate that which is unique
            in their experiences from that which has happened again and
            again.
 
 
 
 
 
 
            I hope that you receive many other answers to your important
            question.
 
            Gerry Prokopowicz
            Historian, The Lincoln Museum
            Fort Wayne, Indiana
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