Why Does History Matter?

For most people, history is dull, boring and irrelevant. That attitude usually begins in a history class where the past becomes a slog through dates and events, often presented in the most boring way possible. Traumatized by dull lectures and duller history books, people routinely abandon the study of history. That is such a sad waste.

Understanding history is vital to our understanding of the world we live in today. First, history is full of role models, both good and bad. Second, history is our guide to understanding and (hopefully) avoiding the mistakes of the past. We should screw up in new ways so that our descendants have more choices when they study us.

Role models are easy to find since history is the written record of people and how they lived. History is full of heroes and villains unmatched by any video game, anime story, or movie. But it can be difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys in history because no one is ever all bad or all good.

A perfect example is George Armstrong Custer, the subject of almost as many books and movies as Adolf Hitler. Custer was a spoiled brat who managed to get an appointment to West Point where he apparently spent more time with women of a certain class than studying for exams. A recent biography hypothesizes that he was infected with syphilis while at West Point, the symptoms of which led to the dire consequences at Little Bighorn.

George A. Custer

Custer was cited for bravery as a Union Army general of cavalry troops during the Civil War. He was also a self-promoting braggart. In 1868, troops under his command attacked a peaceful Cheyenne encampment in the “battle” of the Washita, leaving the Indians without food or shelter in the middle of winter. In 1874, he led a military expedition to survey the Black Hills, an area sacred to the Lakota. Based on his fictionalized account of the expedition, whites swarmed the Black Hills seeking gold, in violation of several treaties with the Lakota (enforcement of the treaties continues in court to this day).

In June 1876, he ignored his orders, failed to do adequate reconnaissance and attacked an encampment at Little Bighorn (known to the Lakota as the Greasy Grass). Within hours, Custer was dead, along with most of his command, including a brother and a nephew. His widow, Elizabeth “Libby” Custer spent every day until her death in the 1930’s blaming everyone except her husband for the debacle. She even served as an advisor for a movie about Little Bighorn.

Or consider Vlad Dracul, of Wallachia, who committed unspeakable crimes against his subjects. But Vlad the Impaler is also a hero in eastern Europe because he successfully fought off the Ottoman Turks. As a result, Wallachia (now part of Romania) remained relatively peaceful while territory conquered by the Ottomans ripped itself apart in the 1980’s shattering into Muslim (Bosniak) and Orthodox Christian pieces.

Vlad Dracul

People are too complex to be simply good or bad. But history is written by the winners who want to present themselves in the best light possible while also demonizing their real and perceived enemies. That’s why every knucklehead out there wants to fight about what “history” is contained in the history books. The current battle revolves around whether women and minorities should get equal billing with white men when telling the story of our country.

Therefore, it is wise to always consider an author’s background and purpose for writing a book. A perfect example is the English translation of a biography of Oswald Boelcke, a World War I flying ace whose aerial combat tactics are still taught today. The original biography was written in the early 1930s so it harps on Oswald’s loyalty to Germany and obedience to his parents (traits that were important to Nazi control of Germany). Ignore the book’s Nazi propaganda and learn about the guy who taught the Red Baron how to fight.

The other reason to study history is to have a guide to understand our world today. Nothing happens in a vacuum. For every threat or opportunity that we face today, there is a parallel situation in the past. Looking at these past parallel events enables us to avoid making the same stupid mistakes – if we’re smart enough to figure it out.

In 2008, the American economy imploded under the weight of consumer debt. The consumer loans were packaged into bulk sales and sold as (mostly unregulated) securities. But overloaded consumers couldn’t keep up with debt payments and defaulted on the underlying loans, mostly mortgages. That meant the bulk sale “securities” didn’t provide sufficient dividends to cover the loan payments of investors who had borrowed to buy shares in the bulk sale “investment” products. The market crashed.

Then Bear Stearns, a New York based investment bank, collapsed. From Main Street to Wall Street, financial institutions suddenly didn’t trust each other because it was impossible to tell who was still solvent. Since the U.S. has the largest and deepest securities market in the world, it didn’t take long for the panic to spread to bourses around the world.

Fortunately for the U.S. and the global investment markets, the Federal Reserve was led by Ben Bernanke, a man who studied history. His PhD thesis examined the causes of the Great Depression of the 1930s and how the U.S. government’s reactionary (i.e., stingy) policies prolonged the financial mess. He applied the lessons learned to ensure that the financial collapse of 2008 didn’t turn into a 1930’s financial mess.

Ben Bernanke

For those workers (like me) who lost their jobs and whose 401(k)’s never recovered, it is heartbreaking. However, it could have been so much worse. After all, the 1930’s crash led directly to the rise of protectionism with high tariffs which further impoverished consumers and political populism which culminated in the rise of Hitler and the destruction that followed World War II. Bad policies cause horrific outcomes.

Why does history matter? We can’t live in the present or make plans for our future without understanding how the past affects our choices.

As you celebrate the holidays, I encourage you to stop by your local public library and pick up a book (not yet banned by the morals police) about an historical person or event. I guarantee it will be worth the investment of your time.

Happy holidays! Happy reading!