Heidi AtStathi Professor Warren

Hist 2001W

January 28, 2014

Why Study History? What is history, and why is it important enough to be deemed an area of study? The first answer that comes to mind summarizes the discipline as a guide to successful co existence with others, based off of the trials and errors of those who have already tested the limits. What happened to those who failed and those who succeeded? Well thankfully we have the study of history as a reference, interpreting the greatest mistakes of man so as to not be repeated by future generations, while at the same time defining what attributes lead to a successful society. History is simply the wise words of your mother telling you what is right and what is wrong. However, just like a child tends to neglect parental advice, humanity neglects the lessons history has taught us. The words of Cicero offer a similar analogy, stating not to know what has been transacted in former times is to continue always a child. There is much to be learned by studying history, all it takes is a willful student to shove their ego aside and learn the lessons granted only from experience, as we are lucky to have such accounts at our disposal. Some of the greatest minds that have lived offer similar, insightful perspectives on history even though their accounts fall on various locations of the spectrum. Nonetheless, it is clear how each fit into one another as though pieces of a puzzle. Samuel Eliot Morison depicts history through an artistic lens, claiming The historian can learn much from the novelist. Comparing reality and fiction in this sense dissolves the boundaries between the two considering an account of history is ultimately dependent on which perspective it is interpreted through, but simply ask what is a novel? It is a written account of a history through the eyes of its characters or narrator. The voice of Friedrich Nietzsche further accounts for the wisdom of the novelist, and what he can teach the historian. He states, Genuine historical knowledge requires nobility of character, a profound understanding of human existence, not detachment and objectivity. To illustrate an authentic history through a novel, the novelist must very well have a profound understanding of human existence. Additionally, to give birth to relatable characters requires an understanding arising from a noble character, one with a vibrant imagination, who can teach lessons of historical significance through tales of compassion and universal humanistic themes. The historian then, is not much different from the novelist as they both seek to take society on a journey of self discovery, after all History is the know thyself of humanitythe self consciousness of mankind (Droysen).