The document discusses several key points about the importance and value of studying history:
1. Without an understanding of history, a society lacks context, shared memories, and a foundation for decision-making.
2. Studying history helps us understand how people and societies change over time and how our current society developed.
3. Examining the past provides insight into moral issues and contributes to our sense of identity.
4. Historians must wrestle with biases in the historical record to uncover an accurate account of the past.
2. The Consequences of No HistoryNo remembrance of past eventsNo sense of context or shared memoriesNo relationshipsNo sense of identity No coherent structure for a value systemNo foundation for decision makingA nation that forgets its past has no futureWinston Churchill
3. Why Study History? Peter Stearns (AHA)History Helps Us Understand People and SocietiesHistory Helps Us Understand Change and How the Society We Live In Came to BeImportance of History in Our Own LifeHistory Contributes to Our Moral UnderstandingHistory Provides Identity
4. The Historian-Wrestler With the Angel of Death (Boorstin)Historian is a discoverer and creatorLimits of Discovery 1. Bias of Survival of the Unread 2. Bias of the Survival of the Durable 3. Bias of the Survival of the Collectibles & Govt Data 4. Bias of the Survival of the Printed and Self-Serving 5. Bias of the Victorious Point of View
5. History Speaks to UsPericles Funeral Oration: Fix your eyes upon Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her and when you feel her greatnessremember that this greatness was won by men of courage, with knowledge in their duty and with a sense of honor in actionTheir mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men is where their glory remainsFor the whole earth is the sepulcher of famous men and their story is not graven only in stonebut lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other mens lives.
6. Reflections on HistoryHistory is a nightmare from which we are trying to awakenJames JoyceStudy history, study historyin history lie all the secrets of statecraftWinston ChurchillWe cannot escape historyAbraham LincolnThose who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat itJose Ortega y Gasset
7. A City Upon a HillThe uniqueness of the American experienceA gathering of nationsThe creation of a new civilization, a new hope, a New IsraelConsciously created nationA nation of contradictionsA nation of individual liberties