Why Ancient History Matters
David Miano
Why Ancient History Matters
In the hustle-bustle of this revolving world, it can become quite easy, and
perhaps superficially justifiable, to overlook the importance of history or to
think of it as a mere school requirement or skill set needed for a niche job.
Chances are that your first experience with history was in a classroom, and
that you didn’t have a choice to be there. Whether you wanted to or not,
history was fed to you, and you had to complete the course successfully in
order to get a passing grade, so that you could graduate. The fact that you
were forced to take those courses may have instilled some resistance
automatically, and if you had an uninspired
teacher, History may indeed have become
your least favorite class.
Why did they make you take those courses
each year? Surely someone who plans to
go into a career in business, or medicine,
or law, or pretty much any vocation except
history teacher, has little use for the
subject. What possible reason could there
have been for their requiring you to take
history classes?
History and Good Citizenship
The most common justification for putting history in school curricula is that it
helps prepare a person to be a good citizen. And yes, history can do that to
a certain extent. It fosters responsible public behavior by encouraging
thinking habits that see the value in what community leaders, public
advocates, and informed voters do. Moreover, it provides perspective on
how societies interact, how and why changes in society emerge, and how
lives are affected by these changes, all of which inform responsible
citizenship. Unfortunately, some have used history curricula for the sole
purpose of promoting national identity and patriotism, without any devotion
to the proper study of history. While the ends help promote good citizenship,
it can be dangerous to use history only as a tool for this purpose without
understanding the nature of the subject itself. To know and admire history’s
heroes involves a knowledge of the full historical context they lived in, warts
and all, in order to see clearly how they changed that world for the better.
It was the ancients who taught us how to do history properly, appreciating
the necessity of an honest, critical, searching character in historical study.
They realized it was important not to settle for myths and legends, which
comforted people, but to know the past for what it really was. In the
introduction to his own work, the Greek historian Thucydides writes: "The
absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its
interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact
knowledge of the past as an aid to the
interpretation of the future, which in the
course of human things must resemble if it
does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I
have written my work, not as an essay which
is to win the applause of the moment, but as
a possession for all time."1 When you study
history, you too can make it a “possession for
all time” personally by studying the subject Thucydides
critically.
I can tell you, as a historian myself, there is plenty of good reason for people
of any age, to learn history, in addition to encouraging good citizenship. And
no matter what career you are in, or plan to be in, history will be of benefit to
you.
Myths about the Study of History
There are some old myths about why history is important, which I would like
to dispel right now. One theory you may have heard is that history repeats
itself. If that’s true, some say, when we study the past, we therefore can know
the future. By golly, knowing the future will give you a leg up in planning out
your life.
1
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, Chapter 1
(https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/211thuc.html ).
I hate to break this to you, but history cannot be used prophetically. There is
no telling the future from studying the past, because although there is
repetition in history, events never play out in the exact order or in the precise
way that they have previously. So I do not put much stock in this history-as-
a-soothsayer hypothesis.
You may have been heard the old adage that we study history so that we
won't repeat the mistakes of the past. The popular phrase of George
Santayana is often repeated in support of this idea: “Those who do not
remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Sometimes this is given as the
chief reason we should study history.
I say no. Students have been required to learn history from a young age for
many decades in this country, and there does not seem to have been any
corresponding improvement in decision-making because of it. No matter how
much history we are forced to take, we still keep repeating the same
mistakes. The knowledge has done us little good, and it may be simply
because we are not willing to take the word of other people on a subject—
we want to try it for ourselves. I can’t help but be reminded of the old Saturday
Night Live sketch with Tom Hanks, where one person takes a drink of curdled
milk and warns the others in the family about it. Each member of the family
decides they must also take a drink to be sure what he said was true. And
so I believe that seeing history as a way to correct errors amounts to no more
than wishful thinking. Surely there is a better reason to learn history than this.
The Best Reasons to Study History
This is not to say that people cannot learn anything from the past. On the
contrary, most everything people learn is from the past. I mean, how can you
learn from the future, right? And by the time we learn from the present, it is
already in the past. So yes, we learn from the past. History doesn’t truly
repeat itself, but since people are people, history shows us people’s
responses to various circumstances. The study of history may even teach us
to anticipate problems, as our forebears may have experienced problems
similar to ours, but unless we are the most eloquent and persuasive speakers
the world has ever known, the value of this study rarely has an impact on the
forces that dictate which way the world goes. It is difficult to move large
groups of people with history, especially with all their biases and prejudices.
But you can move yourself. So the learning is not so much in order to prevent
the world or your country from making future mistakes, as it is to develop
knowledge of ourselves and the human condition. The practical aspect of
historical study is individualized. Through this research, we make other
people’s experiences our own. In this way we touch other times and places
and add knowledge gained by others into our own life experience.
Let’s say we want to weigh a current issue in the news and ascertain where
we should stand on that issue. Research of current data will definitely give
us some knowledge to assist in this process. But is that enough? Truly
understanding how people and societies function is vital for such research,
and this requires us to dig deeper into
the past. In fact, only history provides
us with an extensive evidential base
that demonstrates how societies
react under certain conditions. We
need to study this evidence in order
to apprehend how people behave
and how societies operate, why they
operate that way, and whether they
should operate that way. And
certainly we can never know the causes of present conditions without looking
back in time.
Think of history as a chain. Each event or series of events is linked to
previous ones. We can say this, because every occurrence has a cause, and
that cause comes from the past. It is thus possible to say that everything that
happens now is linked, through succession, to things that happened long
ago. All events are connected with one another through time. This is true not
only in the case of events, but also with language (you speak in words
invented by others long ago), technology (as inventions are built upon past
ones), and biology, as we are all genetic descendants of past people.
We thus can say that the past can reveal much about the present. And this
is why study of the subject is a key to understanding ourselves. History tells
us where we come from. This is not simply in the biological sense. It tells us
where we come from even in our minds. How did I—individually and
personally—get to be who I am? Only history can help me answer that
question.
Most of us have not had an original idea in our entire lives. This is not
because we are not intelligent, nor is it because we lack vision or the ability
to innovate. It is chiefly because others have beat us to the punch. There are
always those will be innovators and originators, but more often than not,
someone in the past thought of it first. And that is why it is important to learn
history, because it helps us to examine the foundations of our beliefs.
“History is not the story of strangers, aliens from
another realm; it is the story of us had we been
born a little earlier. History is memory; we have to
remember what it is like to be a Roman, or a
Jacobite or a Chartist or even - if we dare, and we
should dare - a Nazi. History is not abstraction, it is
the enemy of abstraction.”—Stephen Fry2
The ancient Greek philosophers taught that it was not enough to know
something. You had to know why you knew it. Thales is purported to have
summed up the highest virtue in the phrase, "Know yourself," which he may
have learned from the Egyptians. To know yourself means to be aware of
what it is that makes you who you are.
2
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2006/jul/09/featuresreview.review
Let’s say you had the opportunity to commit a crime without being caught.
Perhaps it is something relatively small, like running a red light or purposely
not reporting some income on your tax return. In the case of the red light,
maybe there is clearly no one, much less a police officer, for miles around,
and with regard to your income for the year, you got paid for a job in cash
and know that the IRS would have no knowledge of this. You know that if
you broke the law in these cases, no one would be any the wiser. Would you
do it?
Or, let’s say it were something more serious. Let’s say the chance presented
itself for you to steal a large sum of money without penalty. Maybe you are
walking late at night through a sparsely populated and poorly lit territory, and
you spot an old lady, whom you know to be wealthy, walking slowly in front
of you. She is carrying a wad of cash and counting the bills. You know that if
you ran by and grabbed it, she would not be able to stop you, nor to identify
you. Would you do it?
Whether you answer yes or no, your response will carry a considerable
weight of baggage. If you were asked why you answered as you did, your
answer cannot escape a history question.
Let’s say your response was: “Hell, yeah, I would take that money and run.”
Well, why do you believe that? You might say, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world.
Everyone has to look out for #1.” Or, perhaps, “I have a greater need than
that woman. I have children to feed. She would barely miss it.” Whatever
your reasons, you must acknowledge that your opinion on the matter was
not formed in a vacuum. You have that opinion because you learned it from
somewhere. Maybe you heard one of your parents reasoning in such a
manner while growing up. Or you heard it from some friends. Or you read it
in a book. The point is, you did not originate the idea. You got it from
somewhere else, and it appealed to you. Ideas have a history. They undergo
a process of development. They change, are modified, and are distributed.
They could be forgotten for a while, but they might reappear years, decades,
or even centuries later. No matter how much you may wish you were an
island unto yourself, such is not the case. Your upbringing, your culture, your
associates—all of them have shaped who you are. That comes from the past.
And those sources got it from their past, and their sources from their past,
etc. We are traveling back in time.
The same for an opposite response. Let’s say you answered: “No way.
Stealing is wrong! I would never do that, under any circumstances.” Why do
you believe stealing is wrong? You might say, “It’s in the Bible. ‘Thou shalt
not steal.’ And I hold to that standard.” Well, where does the Bible come
from? You’re already into a history question.
No matter how hard we try, our past is inescapable. We are part of it, and it
is part of us. No one is beyond history’s jurisdiction. If we have no
understanding of history, and by that I mean the actual historical context in
which something is conceived and brought into being, our understanding of
ourselves will be two-dimensional and incomplete. If we do have an
understanding of history, we shall know where we came from, and thus know
ourselves. History provides us with important frames of reference, a sense
of identity, and a clearer idea of our own aspirations. It will allow us to build
upon a firm foundation and to change and adjust without losing our balance.
As James Baldwin put it:
“History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not
merely something to be read. And it does not refer
merely, or even principally, to the past. On the
contrary, the great force of history comes from the
fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously
controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally
present in all that we do.”3
And perhaps the examples above reveal another facet of the study of history:
it provides a path for moral contemplation, a vehicle through which to test
our moral sense. If we can describe the past accurately and explain it well,
but can’t judge its value, we gain much less from it. The study of history can
increase our understanding of the world around us and enhance our
awareness of what is going on in it. When we consider the ethical dilemmas
and complex issues that persons from the past faced, we are provided with
inspiration to weigh our own moral decisions. The questions they asked
themselves we also can ask, and their solutions we can either apply or reject
in our own lives. But the knowledge of what happened to them can make it
easier for us to make good decisions. Some call it “history teaching by
example,” and the lessons history provides can be quite valuable. A good
3
James Baldwin, The White Problem in America (Chicago, Johnson, 1966).
instructor will not answer these moral questions for you, but allow you to use
history to answer them for yourself. No two people have to come out of a
historical study with the same conclusions about how to live their lives. But
that’s okay.
Ancient History Has Meaning for Us Today
Why study ancient history? Isn’t that at further remove from ourselves? Have
you ever heard people dismiss a piece of information with the words, “Oh,
that’s ancient history”? The implication is that something that happened a
long time ago has far less relevance for those of us living in the present than
something that happened recently. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Ancient history has had far more, not less, impact on our modern lives than
recent history has.
Don’t believe me? Perhaps you have heard people play the “what if” game
of history. What if the attack on 9/11 was thwarted before it happened? What
if the Nazis had won World War II? What if JFK hadn’t been shot? What if
Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election? You’ll hear people making big
claims about how our world right now would be different. Those are nothing
compared to how our world would be changed if we play the ancient history
“what if” game.
What if Constantine had lost the Battle of the Milvian Bridge? If so, the
Roman Empire might never have become Christian. Christianity influenced
the Western World more than any other force. What would the world be like
today if it had never become Christian? What if Alexander the Great had
never been born? Not only would a massive empire never have been forged,
but more importantly, Greek influence upon Egypt, the Near East, and India
would never have occurred. This would have changed the development of
art, architecture, and literature in that part of the world, and not have allowed
the formation of many new ideas and movements, including Mahayana
Buddhism, which has millions of adherents today. What if Carthage and
beaten Rome in the Punic Wars? Among other things, we wouldn’t have
many of the institutions we have today, and we likely would not be speaking
English. The further back in time we go, the more impact events will have
had on today.
The scientific method used
today that impels modern
progress was born out of
ancient Greek philosophy,
beginning with Thales 2500
years ago. Many moral and
ethical values held very dearly
Greek theater
today come from the precepts
written in ancient Israel 2500-
3000 years ago. Our plays, movies, and TV shows have their basis in ancient
Greek drama. The concept that the people can govern themselves in a
democracy was born in the work Cleisthenes of Athens c. 500 BCE, and
representational government, which we still use today, did not originate with
the American Founders, but with the Roman Republic long ago. Yes, ancient
history helps us to put matters into context, to see the different ways that
antiquity has been reinvented by later generations, because it has provided
diverse cultures with a conceptual framework for articulating their present.
So we owe a great deal more to our ancient ancestors than many people
assume. Profound influences on various aspects of our lives—social
patterns, forms of government, philosophical ideas, law, art, architecture,
entertainment—can be traced back not merely centuries, but millennia. The
legacy of the ancient world is enormous and immeasurable. Ancient history
matters because it offers insight into questions that are asked even in our
modern society. There is not much value in describing the past without also
explaining why it is that way, and such explanations cannot truly be made
without taking ourselves back to ancient times.
Many artifacts of the ancient world
are still around us: the pyramids of
Egypt, the acropolis of ancient
Athens, the Colosseum of Rome, the
tomb of the First Emperor of China…I
could go on and on. If we truly wish
The Colosseum in Rome to appreciate these, if we don’t want
them merely to be something cool we
passed once or saw a photo of, we need to know something about them—
how they came to be.
Unfortunately, historians as a group generally focus most of their attention
on recent history, as if the roots of our culture extended only a short distance
backward in time. In college history surveys, you will often find World History
courses divided around the year 1500, so that an entire semester is devoted
to the last 500 years, allowing the instructor some time to cover the important
aspects of that period. Mind you, a semester is still rather short to give due
consideration to the subject, but now think of the first part of that World
History course. In one semester the instructor has to cover the period from
the beginning of civilization (around 4000 BCE) to 1500 CE. That’s 5,500
years—eleven times the length of time covered in the second part of the
course. Why is it so lopsided? Well, this is largely because there are far more
historians of recent history teaching in the colleges than there are of ancient
history, and so they end up getting their way. But it truly is a travesty.
Our heritage is much older than 500 years. If we are to know our roots, if we
want to follow the links of the chain all the way back, we are doing ourselves
a disservice to spend all our time in the last 500 years. Those are very
shallow roots. Do you wish to grasp how your life is part of a vast, unfolding
record of human achievement? Then take a long view of your connections,
and you will not be disappointed.
Suggestions for Further Reading
• https://www.historyrelevance.com/
• http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/why/
• Bloch, Marc. The Historian’s Craft. Translated by Peter Putnam. New York:
Vintage Books, 1953.
• Carr, Edward Hallett. What Is History? New York: Vintage Books, 1961.
• Drolet, The Postmodern Reader: Foundational Texts (London, 2003).
• J. Evans, In Defence of History (London, 1997).
• Fea, John. Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past. Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013.
• Gunn, History and Cultural Theory (Harlow, 2006).
• Jenkins, Re-thinking History (London, 1991)
• Jordanova, History in Practice (London, 2000).
• Lerner, Gerda. Why History Matters: Life and Thought. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997.
• Stearns, Peter “Why Study History” https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-
membership/aha-history-and-archives/archives/why-study-history-(1998)
• The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies, ed. A. Munslow (London, 1999).
• Thompson, P. The Poverty of Theory (London, 1978).
• Tosh, John. Why History Matters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
• Wood, Gordon S. The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History.
New York: Penguin, 2008.
