Why Study History? | 5 Minute Video
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2022
- Is it important to study history? Why do we need to know what’s come before us? Isn’t it enough to just “live in the moment?” Renowned historian Victor Davis Hanson explores these important questions.
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Script:
Why study history?
Ironically, this question is as old as history.
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Thucydides, the great chronicler of the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta, and the man many call the “first historian” said that “…I have written my work, not…to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.”
Thucydides hoped that what he was writing would help future generations understand what transpired in his day. If they could learn from it and make better decisions, his efforts would not be in vain.
More than two millennia later, the American social thinker George Santayana said much the same thing, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
But while knowledge of the past is a prerequisite to wisdom, it doesn’t give the historian a crystal ball.
We must be modest in our claims: studying history provides an invaluable guide-but only a guide-to current and future political, economic, military, and cultural challenges.
Just as it is dangerous to be ignorant of past events, so too it is equally risky to assume that history across time and space will repeat itself in exactly the same fashion. It never does.
Still, with the proper caution, studying history can warn us of dangers ahead.
For example, across the ages appeasing or ignoring enemies has rarely proven to be a prudent strategy. Usually, it’s disastrous.
The Greek city-states’ coddling of the Macedonian king Philip II, the weak Western democracies’ reaction to the aggression of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, and the indifference shown to the dangers of radical Islam by an affluent West in the 1990s make the point.
There is another-perhaps less recognized-value in studying history.
Every generation, none more than our own, suffers from a pernicious presentism-the arrogance that those now alive have created the most prosperous period in history. The result is that too often we judge a materially poorer past by the same contemporary standards of an affluent and leisured present.
Those who study history can avoid these fallacies.
Aside from the fact that the present is the beneficiary of the accumulated intellectual, moral, and scientific contributions of the past, proper knowledge of the hardships of prior ages teaches us the value of humility.
To take just one possible example, it might be an easy thing to chronicle what seems to us prejudices recorded among the wagoneers on the Oregon Trail in the 1840s. It is quite another to imagine how the trailblazers struggled to survive one more day in an age without effective medicines, labor-saving machines, or adequate shelter.
Studying history also confers much needed perspective.
It’s neither fair nor wise to attempt to apply the moral standards of today to say, the far more deadly 17th century when life, in the words of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
The COVID-19 pandemic seems to many like a public health crisis without precedent-until we take time to learn of the global outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus in 1918. The “Spanish flu” killed nearly 600,000 Americans in a nation of 100 million, with a worldwide toll of perhaps 50 million dead-and yet our nation and planet survived and learned from it.
One of the ways that I used to endure the tedium, dust, and noise of tractor driving was to remember that my farming grandfather covered the same ground with a team of horses. It took him two days of back breaking labor to cultivate four acres of land. I could do it in an hour-sitting down.
For the complete transcript visit: www.prageru.com/video/why-stu...
“History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” - Mark Twain
A phrase advanced in time by George Lucas. Beneficially quoting it, to keep it remembered.
Where in the video does he mention it?
In school, it wasn't so exciting (except I had a few teachers who made it fun), but now I realize that, if you don't learn history, you will fall into the same traps others did centuries (or just years) before.
@Lukas Lombardo ?
@@jeremygwoods Don't worry Jeremy, if this guy read Victor's book and chapter on residents he would know how ironic and uninformed his comment is. Manifesto Della Razza!
actually my friend, that is not true, I'm a history student and of the first things they teach you is that humanity is doomed to repeat it's errors once and once again
@@ruuki289 I think you're thinking of Winston Churchill's quote, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." That's what is taught. And if a society learns from history, these traps could be avoided, but people want to change history.
There are a lot of teachers who just aren't very good at teaching history. And in some cases, the education system dictates how history is taught - and often in a bad way. This causes many people to lose interest in history, or dismiss it completely. I never liked history when I was a kid in school. Now, as an adult, I have learned to overcome that, and am absolutely fascinated by it.
People often think they can not learn anything from the past. We think that we are so enlightened because of our technology . What could we possibly learn from the past? We can learn a lot about human nature. That is one thing that never changes. I for one like to read about disasters both domestically and abroad and read how our citizens in that time reacted to that situation.
We are teaching history the wrong way. We need to teach the situation that led up to the event. For example, WW2 people will just say Japan attack pearl harbor and wanted to rule the world. We need to look into the negotiation with Japan and their culture of how it led up to that event. So that if we see those events repeat today, we can act to prevent another pearl harbor.
victor david hanson shot me in the groin 27 times on February 19th 1987 in Steubenville, Ohio. honestly forgot about him until now. i had intercourse with his wife so he became insecure and lashed out.
We should learn from it. Not live in though. There are a lot of people living in the past
@@danieldenton5721 Agreed. I am not talking about living in the past though. I am talking about studying the entirety of human history. We can not live in the past regarding ancient Rome, for example. We have their writings and their beliefs though. What we can know is how people react to tragedy and social issues. What type of language they used. What their core beliefs were. Another example,there are Marxists on many of our college campuses today. You can trace Marxism back to it's founder Karl Marx to today. A lot of the same language and philosophy are being used today. The same assumptions are being made. Remove God from the country because government has the answers for all our problems. Divide us on basis of wealth or substitute something else like race or gender. This seed was planted in Russia before the Revolution. Inflation and food shortages were just a few things that pushed the people toward a new message. Lenin said all the right things. He said he was going to introduce a people's government. What he brought was hell. I am not saying we are even close to that. But I have always been a curious sort. I have talked to people who lived in tyranny. You will find a lot of Cubans out there especially in Churches across the US. They are very outspoken about the language that is being used in our current political climate. It seems eerily like what they heard in pre Castro Cuba. Hollywood and intellectuals loved Cuba and in some instances still do. Sounds familiar. This is just an example of what I was talking about.
@@joenewton3034 can you please stop?
History is by far the most interesting thing to read about. I do it daily and I'm just a history buff. What I get the most from it is appreciation. I might think sometimes I have it bad, but oh boy do I not.
What sort of history do you know?
@@pressftopayrespects6325 I'm nowhere near an expert on any era of History. I just find all of it interesting and I try my best to learn as much as I can. Sometimes I'm stuck on 20th century history and other times I'm more into the viking age, medieval age, or even earlier eras like the times with the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Here and there I even like to dive into more deep history, such as the origins of humans or Dinosaurs.
@@thorbeorn4295 Cool, prehistory is really interesting, Paleozoic and Mesozoic especially.
@@pressftopayrespects6325 Indeed!
Learning history is essential. To know where you were going you have to know where you came from. As a person as a family as a society. We need to understand why other major civilizations in history fell and not make those same mistakes.
Prager U whitewashes history, so, in the future, your children and grandchildren don't know they made the same mistake again.
@@nobodynowhere7163 No actually that would be your slave masters on the left. Go troll somebody else
@@Rocdog aww, you still SORE you lost the 2020 election, just like your master Trump is still sore. Move on SORE LOSER!
@Lukas Lombardo could you tell me the title of that video? I wanna watch it myself.
My husband and I had this conversation this morning. Our conclusion: "Those who learn from history are doomed to lose at the ballot box and be tyrannized by those who do not learn from history."
"It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes."
- Joseph Stalin
Grim!
@@bosse641 is that why US counted the ballots in Latin America 😂
please explain how?
@@bosse641 yk the way the system works is republican and democrats watch the ballot counting, in swing states, in red states, and blue states. even in my red county democrats still are there to observe counting.
When, at 60 yrs old, I contemplated seeking an on-line degree, I thought: What to study? I didn't want a trade, as in Medicine, Law or Engineering...I was "old" and I was not seeking a career.
I thought: study History. History of anything, or History in general. After all, History is anything (and everything) that happened before NOW. Wait, NOW. No, NOW! History is everything that has happened before now, whenever NOW is.
As much as we'd like to think, we, as people, haven't changed much over time. (I mean, people have changed over evolutionary time spans, but, since we began writing about our selves, not much time has passed and we haven't changed that much. So, learning from Ancient Greeks IS learning about ourselves, now. Learning from Romans IS learning about ourselves...
"The past is never dead. It's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.” -William Faulkner.
Such succinct and cogent thoughts shared here. I love the short punchiness of these short essays. Very persuasive and effective with a general population that has little time and even less attention capacity. Well done.
My friends & family admonish me for teaching my (homeschooled) 2nd & 3rd graders history "they shouldn't learn until middle school". I feel history is as important as math & reading, so I'm teaching as much as possible, asap.
@Lukas Lombardo yes, and a full on return to the Holy Roman Empire
I'm a history major (future high school teacher) and this is a beautiful articulation of why I love my field so much.
Hello teacher
I'm undergraduate student, can you give me advice in my subject?
I am a history major about to get my BA in May. They had a guest lecturer come and give a brief presentation on this subject ever seemingly every year. And I often quote the old saying that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, while those who do are doomed to live with those who don't.
Lena Paul majored in History, and now she's in everyone's internet history.
@@thereaction18 I have no idea who that is.
As fascinating and important as history is, it's very impractical as a college major. The job prospects for it don't look good at all.
If you don't mind me asking, what are your plans after college? What do you hope to do as a career?
@@mehdihatami3391 To be frank, that's part of why they give that presentation, to show the variety of what people who have gotten degrees in history have gone on to do (and that's just for my university). As for me, I'm still working that out. I'm looking for a job and will likely do grad school. More than likely, I will go into teaching.
@@thereaction18 ROFL!
There is an old maxim that states something to the effect - The farther you go back in time the farther you can see into the future.
One of my favorite contemporary conservatives.
History is extremely important as people are reminded of the journeys they took to get to where they are today, as well as learning not to make the same mistakes we made in the past.
I wish I would have had Mr. Hanson as one of my teachers. I would have learned a lot more. He is very interesting.
@@617Savanna For sure.
Studying history is not reading one source once and memorizing it. Studying history is a lifetime process. Keep questioning. Be open minded to new findings. Try different perspective. Put your conclusion to the test by peer review.
studying history will sometimes disturb you. studying history will sometimes upset you. studying history will sometimes make you furious. if studying history always makes you feel proud and happy, you probably aren’t studying history.
@Mobilis In Mobili
slavery is only one small part of americas racist and discriminatory past.
@Mobilis In Mobili
so because every other country was founded on bloodshed and inequality that makes it ok? america has whitewashed history, removing the negative and only remembering the good parts. christopher columbus is a good example.
@Mobilis In Mobili
yet the white western countries are the richest and most successful. people want to think that white races are inherently better while ignoring the fact that those countries exploited other peoples and countries to get that way.
teaching american history, in its entirety, is antiwhite. theres a reason you dont learn about the tulsa massacre or susannah alabama.
Unless, of course, you read about the Edward Jenner story when he invented the first vaccine against smallpox. Oh wait, antivaxxers here?
Most people would rather embrace a simplified, sanitized, heavily mythologized version of history, in order to not have to confront their own ignorance and biases as well as to avoid critically recognizing unpleasant realities. This is the nature of most of an misinformed population in general.
Or they know very well of history's unpleasant realities but still attempt to defend the myths by deflecting or intentionally missing the point. Instead of stubborning clinging to the more comfortable, familiar, erroneous narratives out of instinct and ignorance, they instead may be flagrantly disingenuous and simply trying to obfuscate and derail a factual conversation with loaded emotional, intentionally controversial and typical logically fallacious arguments in order to push an agenda that actual historical reality would contradict. This is the nature of pundits, politicians and hacks who misinform their following.
"The only thing we learn from history; is that we do not learn from history."
- Pat Buchanan
This Quote is from Otto von Bismark "What we learn from History is that nobody learns from History"
If we have learned anything from history, it is that we have learned nothing from history.
victor david hanson shot me in the groin 27 times on February 19th 1987 in Steubenville, Ohio. honestly forgot about him until now. i had intercourse with his wife so he became insecure and lashed out.
I learned that Lena Paul majored in History, and that's why she's puttin' it all out there on the internet.
@Mobilis In Mobili isn't the right literally banning books in schools
ngl sounds like every tyrant ever who hated opposition did the same
and if that isnt good enough i can just send a link to the bills themselves
My family didn't have money but we had lots of books. My father fought in ww2 and had many books of that era. My whole family reads everyday about everything. We are a balanced family in politics and beliefs.
I was struggling to feel motivated in my US History class, thanks to this video my eyes have been opened.
The way I heard it was:
"Those who refuse to learn the lessons of History are doomed to repeat them!"
I accept this as an axiom.
I literally took a break from reading a history of the Norman Conquest to watch this. Very apt indeed. VHD is awesome.
There are only two ways to learn anything: You either have to figure it out yourself, or someone has to teach you. We really don't have the time to learn everything on our own. Which means probably more than 99% of what we learn is history - we learn what someone in the past has already figured out.
I love history. All history. You can see how a nation rises and how they fall. I wish these young people would learn history. An understand that we aren't different from our past ancestors.
“The past is not dead.. in fact it’s not even past”
Words we can all begin to appreciate more and more today. The older I get, the more I realize just how much we are all intertwined over the decades seen and the decades to come.
One cannot change the past. By studying history, we can avoid falling into the various pitfalls that those we study did fall into. Are there unpleasant things that took place? Yes, just like there are unpleasant things today. We should avoid also trying to place 21st century context onto past events. Things that are so foreign to us now were normal and the standard back then. It takes courage and persistence to change a peoples view. Case in point, the tireless work of William Wilberforce eventually led to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in Great Britain. A work that was equally pressed upon by individuals such as Frederick Douglass and other brave American no matter what their skin color was. Be watchful and I suggest keep a record. A journal to write down things from your point of view. It will help future generations know what you saw and also know who you are.
Hanson may well rank above all the other authors/presenters featured on this channel.
My history buff brother liked Hanson's work, until a certain time when Hanson supported a certain person and some of that person's ideas. Then he dumped Hanson completely, to point of insult. Now my brother is awash in ignorance, intolerance, guilt, and can't even define "where does all this hate come from?"
This was a fantastic video! It taught me some valuable new ways to think.
It’s called education! Knowledge is power! My father strongly encouraged us to know our history.
A true intellectual is a person that can articulate their message in such a way that anyone can understand them. This is what makes men like Victor David Hanson and Thomas Sowell true intellectuals.
That is soooo true. Pure gold.
"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." - Frederick Douglass
"A land without memories is a people without liberties." - R.E.Lee
Without knowledge of our memories, we're doomed to see it again.
@Lukas Lombardo Will you drop it already! It's just a TH-cam comment! Just because I reference Robert E. Lee doesn't mean I side with the confederates, who lost everything because of their own pride and ignorance! Lee was a traitor and he was on the losing side, but he still makes a good point about learning from mistakes!
@Lukas Lombardo As long as it doesn't include gravesites and memorials, and museums.
Great video. I'm saving this for my high school classes. Thanks for sharing!
Nice touch with the Oregon Trail animation being played on a computer!
You are a national treasure. I hope you get to say everything you want to before you leave this world. Thank you for passing on your wisdom 🙏🏽
"Thus canon, the first and foremost as golden boy" - Rule Ni
VDH's "Dying Citizen" is a must read.
I am so thankful for history for he scold me about whether i should learn or not learn history, because of him i am a thing for history especially wars or major events across the globe
change is an ever lasting presence
So that we don't make the same mistakes, we learn from the past. Excellent video.
Regarding my own personal history on a smaller basis, I tell my boys that, yes, they will make many mistakes. However, learning from the mistakes I have made will save them from many pitfalls. So far, so good.
I love these short 5+ minute Prager U Videos on different subjects. And much-much more than the hour-long Podcasts (sorry Dennis). Except of course for the half-hour-long Fireside Chats😀, which I never miss!
Beautifully delivered
Great guest! Thank you
Thanks
Thank you for this reminder.
I try iterating this exact sentiment to the people close to me. Some get it to some extent, while the rest seem to have no idea what I am talking about. People do not emphasize enough on the importance of perspective in time…
very well done, the quotes are apt, the animation was perfect, and of course the narration by VDH superb. Thank You PragerU.
My favorite historian VDH
Always great to listen to vdh is a fine man a fine American sad to say we need more of him and more like him
Victor is one of my favorite humans.
I remember a quote Thomas Sowell stating the reason why America is struggling in education is because schools spend more time revising history to make America look like a bad country. An example is that schools keep on teaching how the American government had forced the natives off their lands, but ignore how natives would fight each other and try to steal each other's lands. I'm not saying that it was necessary for the government to do this, I'm just saying that the natives had a similar mindset to Americans. School is trying to make us think that the natives are the good guys and that the Americans were the bad guys. You shouldn't have that good guy and bad guy thinking when studying history, because in reality, everyone is human.
Splendid video. This video should be shown in every high school history class!!
Great Video. I'm learning a lot and keeping in mind what is truly important. Thanks
Truncated dynamism in this video.
Bravo!
I like learning about history
"Throughout history it has been proven time and time again that the most memorable and extraordinary individuals always defied the statistics."
"The past is not even past." This should be presented before every history class....and history should be taught again in junior and senior high.
This was purely wonderful!
America's founding and ideals were borne out of a rigorous study of history and keen insights to human nature. It's not otherwise apparent why we should want small government, a free market, a republic of states rather than pure democracy, etc.
The problem is that people seem to selectively remember or forget what is in their best interest. Plenty of historical data to suggest communism and socialism don’t work long term but that hasn’t stopped anyone from pushing that agenda here in the US.
I Love History !!
Another great piece by Victor.
Geo. Santayana: "Those who cannot learn from the Past are doomed to repeat it"! This about says it all...each generation must begin anew to define itself and hopefully with the learned wisdom from studying History's successes and failures. We are now going through a period where an active leftist minority seeks to rewrite history and refuses to teach young minds what really happened..not a good program-the result will be more pain and destruction.VDH is great, as usual! Thanks Prager U.
God, I love this. I rail against PRESENTISM all the time - and people don't even know what it is. Don't even know they are engaging in it. It is the ultimate in HUBRIS....
Thank you!
Hence what comes around goes around
Really helped me in school
Find yourself in a historical character. Learn all you can about them. This will develop a clearer focus, better resilience, and the comfort of knowing you've never truly been alone in your struggles.
A great little lesson; well worth the 5+ minutes!
Another reason to study history is to understand the present. You cannot understand the culture of a country without knowing the country's past.
One lesson from the past that people never seem to learn comes from ecology. People have constantly tried to change and control mother nature and the results have been strongly detrimental nearly without fail. Whenever you mention this to somebody trying to change or control mother nature, the response is always, yes but we know better than those people from the past only to have similar damaging results as they had in the past. Practically any attempt to modify or control nature can be used as an example. During the last half of the 20th century, people tried to manage the water flow in southern Florida (the Everglades) by dredging and diking. The result has been altered water flow patterns causing widespread ecological damage which has greatly reduced the size of the Everglades. People have been trying for the last 20 years to undue the damage without a lot of success. Another example is when people tried to wall-in the Mississippi River in order to try to prevent it from its natural meandering. The consequence was to greatly increase the size of the Mississippi flood plains to that the periodic floods that occur over and over again destroy a much larger area. You hear the same claims today regarding climate change -- "We need to control climate change." When you point out how trying to control nature has almost always led to very bad consequences, these people repeat the same old tired mantra again -- Oh, but we know better than those people from the past. Yeah, right. The climate is effected by dozens and dozens of known factors almost all of which are too poorly understood to even quantify, and yet you claim you know. If the past is any guide, this will not turn out well.
History is everything in life, there is no life without history!
I always say “when you read history, you read* a prediction of the future”
Great video 💕
Ive always been a history buff (specifically WWII) as I've gotten older I've realized presentism is a a very real thing. Even compared to my own parents especially in the digital age. My grandmother said herself she was racist against Americans of Japanese heritage (she saw pearl harbor attacked and lost her father at coral sea). It was after the lead pilot who led the attack on pearl came back and asked for forgiveness after becoming a christian did my grandmother do a total 180 in her life. Im grateful to have learned from her own historical experience, so that I can be more cautious on my own lifestyle.
Highly recommend his book: _The Dying Citizen_. I'm about a third of the way through and I'm learning so much and nodding my head even more.
This makes me glad I'm doing history for A-level
Hello teacher
I'm history student
Victor Davis Hanson is a national treasure.
victor david hanson shot me in the groin 27 times on February 19th 1987 in Steubenville, Ohio. honestly forgot about him until now. i had intercourse with his wife so he became insecure and lashed out.
Excellent
VDH and PragerU. It doesn't get much better than that!
I'd prefer ammonia and bleach tbh
@@botodin6979 Yes, that releases poisonous gas, as I recall. Well, that would end your ignorance!
@Mobilis In Mobili You conservatives say horrible things like this and then wonder when people don't like you.
4:41 I would think the sinking of the RMS Titanic is a good example of why one should favor caution over certainty.
History has a lot of meaning.
From the start to finish.
Of this world 🌍.
History means finding of fact
Wow.. I'm waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before I watch the video.. I once heard a phrase ya may have heard of “those who don’t study history will repeat it, those who do will see it happen” or something like that
Exactly.
I'll add that history needs to be applied to more then politics and such.
But also to our hobbies and skills. We need to learn from it and remember the difficulties forced on it in the past.
For Example (Wall of text time):
When I started doing digital art, I was restricted to using a mechanical mouse. I had to clean that thing nearly every day to to keep it working correctly. Not to mention fake natural line strokes on my art. A decade or so later, I could finally afford to upgrade to a optical mouse. It made digital work soooo much easier, and I became very good at drawing with a mouse. But I kept wishing I could afford a drawing tablet and became jealous of those that had one. I eventually got a tiny cheap one. But then I found to to difficult to look up at the monitor while drawing on the screenless tablet. I got better at it of course. But I wanted to improve and the tablet felt like a large obstacle as if it was the original mechanical mouse. It wasn't of course and was by far superior. It was the need to re-learn how to draw without looking DOWN at my hands, that made it seem primitive. And so I desired a screened tablet. It would take me over 10 years to finally be able to afford a cheap one (at the time $300+). It's by far better but I've found I barely ever use it. In large part to my new job being so demanding, that I have little time to invest in personal art. And although I always have a drawing pad and pencil with me, I now I find myself wishing I could afford the portable digital drawing tablets. It's a endless cycle of desire, wants, and needs. But I have to force myself to stop and look back at how I started in digital art. I've grown so much as a digital artist and learned so much over the decades. I need to look at my own history to learn stop desiring things I don't really need. To look at those past challenges and see how I over came them. I became very good at drawing with only a mechanical mouse. What do I need a portable tablet for? It was busy back then. How did I make time to complete those digital works? And how do I apply those lessons to my workflow today?
"Presentism" I will have to remember this flaw.
Those that don't study History are doomed to repeat it.
So refreshing to listen to balanced, logical and apolitical thought. It's too bad we don't get the same thing from the media.
If something feels apolitical, it's because it just lines up with one's politics.
Ty
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”-George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.
Thank you. You, sir, are a master Jedi of Truth!
Amen.
Thank you Victor....
Uncommon common sense
The one of the many current problems is that 1619 project and CRT are trying to rewrite history. The novel 1984 is the road map; "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past".
What part of history are they trying to rewrite?
The simplest and oldest answer in the book. You study history so that you are not doomed to repeat it.
I learned enough history to know when Prager U is right and when it is wrong.
To know that you really don't know what you're saying.
PragerU is the best thing ever
Word.
An excellent video!
Thank You 👍🏾❤💙💜❤
"Aside from the fact that the present is the beneficiary of the accumulated intellectual, moral, and scientific contributions of the past, proper knowledge of the hardships of prior ages teaches us the value of humility."
Who said that?