Refer to the Oxford University Dictionary “History is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs.” As Peter Stearns quoted “People live in the present. They plan for and worry about the future. History, however, is the study of the past. Given all the demands that press in from living in the present and anticipating what is yet to come (Peter Stearns -1998)
We, as human, are learning and experimenting from the first day that we were born. We learn from our past failures but though those failures we learned the valuable lesson as well. History is pretty much leaning social success and failures of the past of any nations and cultures.
Napoleon to Mao Zedong admired and used strategies that advised by Sun-Tzu from the Art of War in 5th Century. As Peter Stearns quoted “Understanding the operations of people and societies is difficult, though a number of disciplines make the attempt. An exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. How can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace-unless we use historical materials? How can we understand genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs play in shaping family life, if we don't use what we know about experiences in the past? Some social scientists attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behaviour.” (Peter Stearns -1998)
The ancient writer Cicero presents an argument for why history matters: “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” (QHTA)
Refer to the above; history is the bridge between the human past to the success of any nation’s future. If we do not know what is happening in the past, we could not manage and make the right decision in future as Tony Mayo quoted in the Harvard Business Review “An appreciation for history and an appreciation for the present do not have to be mutually exclusive. Though this balancing act can be difficult, leaders who make the effort to learn from the past and understand the present context will make better decisions. The tougher part for many will be recognizing that they are not as unique as they think they might be.” (Tony Mayo -HBR)
Reference:
Oxford Dictionaries | English. 2019. history | Definition of history in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/history. [Accessed 16 April 2019].
Why Study History? (1998) | AHA. 2019. Why Study History? (1998) | AHA. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/historical-archives/why-study-history-(1998) . [Accessed 16 April 2019].
Queensland History Teachers' Association, QHTA. 2019. Why Study History - QHTA. [ONLINE] Available at: http://qhta.com.au/why-study-history/ . [Accessed 16 April 2019].
Harvard Business Review. 2019. The Value of Leaders Learning from History. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hbr.org/2007/12/what-i-learned. [Accessed 16 April 2019].
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