Do you want to understand how others live, or solve puzzles and chase down mysteries? Know more about how our world works and why? Become a better and deeper thinker?
There's a simple (though not necessarily easy) way to accomplish all of these things: Study history.
Everything has a history, and is the product of thousands of years of ideas, customs, and discoveries. Even our most mundane daily tasks came from somewhere, and often have surprisingly radical roots. Handwashing, for example — we take it for granted today, but doctors once ridiculed the idea or took offense at the suggestion that they could spread disease. One early outspoken advocate of hand hygiene, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, died in an asylum after his angry colleagues had him involuntarily committed.
The study of history offers broad range of transferable skills, from better critical thinking to sharper research instincts and greater awareness of the world around us. Many of us know that World War I ended on Nov. 11, 1918 — the date and time aren't in doubt. But amateur historians and scholars alike still seek and analyze primary sources and debate why the Great War started and ended as it did. Could the Treaty of Versailles have offered more favorable terms to the Central Powers? Would that have prevented greater conflicts to come? What would it mean for modern geopolitics?
The philosopher George Santayana famously said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Through the study of history, we can develop greater empathy, understand changes and patterns over time, and appreciate our world as it is. Understanding the past is a path to a brighter future, but it requires that we keep an open mind and remember that the history is much more than rote memorization of names and dates — it's a journey to seek truth, and it never really ends.
