Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It?
score:2
Let's talk about maps. They help us navigate the physical world. If I want to find my way from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, a world map will not be of any use. Sure, the map tells me that Cincinnati is generally southwest of me, but I need to know relevant details like highways, bridges, and so forth. But maps can just as easily be too detailed. I could become overwhelmed with topographical information and names of irrelevant farmsteads along my journey. At some extreme, maps become worse guides to the physical world as they become more detailed. This is because a 1:1 mapping would just be an exact replica of the world. I'd need a map for my map. A good mapmaker doesn't just need accurate knowledge of the physical world: a mapmaker also needs to know what his users want to accomplish with that map so that he knows which details to include and which to omit.
Anyone who wants to boil down history into easily digested lessons and rules of action faces the mapmaker's dilemma. Treat history too broadly (like a world map), and you'll only be able to come up with useless bromides. Get too far into the weeds, and the specificity of each historical moment will make any potential lesson inapplicable to other situations and contexts. So in order to write a "useful" history, you'd need to know exactly which details are going to be useful to your reader and exactly which details are going to be needless distractions.
Unfortunately, this is a near impossible task. The problem isn't just that history is more complex than geography. More importantly, the needs of statesmen, generals, and entrepreneurs are less well-defined than the needs of a motorist. The problem is further compounded by the fact that political and economic landscapes shift faster than geographical ones. Taken together, this means that no one can write a definitive study that will unquestionably prepare a world leader for the next crisis.
Nonetheless, I wish that all powerful people had a better grasp of history. Why? The serious study of history can make you a subtler, more nuanced thinker. A cursory study of history will only leave you with pat generalizations that might well lead to disaster if followed schematically. In no way can historical events be reduced to a list of if/then propositions that anyone can follow in order to achieve success and avoid catastrophe.
Perhaps the most useful lesson to be drawn from history is epistemological humility: the longer you study a topic, the more complex and confusing you realize it actually is.
As for Hitler: rummaging through history for anecdotes that support an already chosen plan of action is nothing new. But history is full of narratives and anecdotes to chose from. Hitler's choice tells us more about Hitler than it does about the effects of studying history. Incidentally, maybe Hitler would have been better served by reading about Mithridates instead of the Mongols. Would hitler have been deterred by the story of a leader who indulged in some genocide before ultimately finding himself holed up in his stronghold, surrounded by enemies, and trying to take his own life? Or maybe Hitler would have just been comforted by the line "Mithridates, he died old." Again, that choice would say more about Hitler than it would about the value of history.
More post
- 📝 What is the oldest inscription of Yahweh found?
- 📝 What caused Yugoslavia to switch sides early in World War II?
- 📝 Were communists opposed to Jews in France?
- 📝 Did a US Territory Gaining Statehood by Itself Bestow Citizenship to Anyone Who Was Present?
- 📝 In the History Channel series the Vikings, who is Ragnar?
- 📝 Was Hitler hostile to Anglo-Saxons before he became hostile to Jews?
- 📝 Why does the amount of days in an year on average of the Gregorian calendar only have 4 decimal places (365.2425)?
- 📝 Harvard Architecture: How did Harvard Mark I separate data and instruction?
- 📝 In what incident did a resistance press leak cause a concentration camp commander demotion?
- 📝 What was considered utility clothing before WW2?
- 📝 In WW2, why did Germany sink allied supply convoys instead of capturing them?
- 📝 Where is Ernst Kummer's grave located?
- 📝 Did Canada or Mexico have an equivalent of Manifest Destiny at some stage in their development?
- 📝 When did Abu Bakr agree to lower taxes for the Arabs living under the rule of Byzantine and Sassanid Empire?
- 📝 What conditions have led to Abrahmism splitting into different religions sometimes, but not always?
- 📝 Was Frederick Douglass right that in his day 'religious slaveholders are the worst'? If so why would this be?
- 📝 How much contact did Sub-Saharan Africa actually have with the rest of the world since the beginning of civilization?
- 📝 Did 17th Cent. French Gentlemen Necessarily Use a Scabbard for Dress Swords?
- 📝 Were Allied high commanders that bad at the end of WW2?
- 📝 Did a forged seal ever seriously compromise a political or military operation?
- 📝 How prominent were taverns in medieval Europe?
- 📝 Who was 'Viscount Yi' and what did he do to survive in the court of a madman?
- 📝 How did people clean their teeth in the past? (Greco-Roman to medieval age)
- 📝 Hiring professionals to transcribe historical documents
- 📝 The boundary between New York and Quebec before the seven years' war of 1756‒1763
- 📝 When did subtractive notation become common for Roman numerals?
- 📝 Was there a particular area of Victorian London in which bookshops were concentrated?
- 📝 Is the word God (or it's equivalent) always as old as the civilization's earliest written texts?
- 📝 What was the reason for the Dutch attack on Venezuela in 1908?
- 📝 Why was Japanese Unit 731 immune from War Crime trials?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Why did Bierut threaten to murder families of those who did not join him?
- 📝 What are some examples of famous people in history who made big mistakes that they learnt from and this then led them to succeed?
- 📝 Were Hitler's anti-Jewish sentiments known at all to those who voted him to power in 1933?
- 📝 Which European Languages are not Indo-European?
- 📝 Why are the French and Indian Wars / Seven Years' War not considered WW 1?
- 📝 Are there precedents of 'I am not a racist' from US Presidents?
- 📝 Who discovered first that the Moon does not have its own light?
- 📝 Are there records of US slaves who practiced Islam following their import from Africa?
- 📝 Who are these red flag worshipers from these early maps?
- 📝 Are there any underground cities known except those found in Cappadocia?
- 📝 Who are the three men standing and what are they holding at this University of Paris Doctors' Meeting?
- 📝 Are there historical instances of settlers who were largely uncontacted and undisturbed after settling?
- 📝 Who was the last US president who did not start a war?
- 📝 Why are most of the world's oldest buildings in Europe and not in the Fertile Crescent?
- 📝 Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?
- 📝 How common are major cities not built by abundant water?
- 📝 Are there military commanders other than Khalid ibn al-Walid who have never been defeated?
- 📝 What are those X in top of the flag?
- 📝 When was it discovered that the stars are not all lying on the same plane?
- 📝 What happened to those ethnic Greeks who converted to Islam during the Ottoman empire?
- 📝 Can history shed any light on the "secret arts" of the Egyptian magicians who turned their staffs into serpents as claimed by Exodus 7:11-12?
- 📝 Who are the modern descendants of the Khazar people?
- 📝 Who are the people walking with Hitler?
- 📝 How can I properly learn the history of a country whose language I don't speak or read?
- 📝 Why are the historical large cities in the southern US not the large cities in the South today?
- 📝 Are there ancient Greek historians who wrote about Mycenae?
- 📝 What are these hats and the function of those wearing them (worn by the Russian imperial army at Borodino)?
- 📝 Who first said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."?