There are two ways you can look at history. You can be a cardboard cutout of a student by half-listening to lectures, and dismissing history as a straightforward memorization of facts. Or, you can make yourself a junior historian, and gain the ability to think in a way as multi-faceted as history itself.
History is the study of living things. Studying how a branching phylogenetic tree leads to you is just like tracing how all of the events of the past led to the sum of us. Knowing facts and dates are important in this analysis, but ultimately, history is about being able to see how the tiny molecules of information fit together: how they bond; how events catalyze other events; how the environment affects the reaction.
Once our origins are pieced together, history begins to unify us as a society. It's our collective memory, which is vital for navigating the future. Much like a trajectory problem in physics, it can tell you roughly where something is headed, but first you need two points.
At the same time, history seizes the individual. It plunges them into someone else's perspective. Like a good novel, it takes them outside of their world, and shows them that people are people, through the ages. Occasional laughs and headshakes accompany the recognition of silly stock characters.
History is common thread that connects all that I am learning in my other classes. Because nothing learned is valuable without context.
History is the study of living things. Studying how a branching phylogenetic tree leads to you is just like tracing how all of the events of the past led to the sum of us. Knowing facts and dates are important in this analysis, but ultimately, history is about being able to see how the tiny molecules of information fit together: how they bond; how events catalyze other events; how the environment affects the reaction.
Once our origins are pieced together, history begins to unify us as a society. It's our collective memory, which is vital for navigating the future. Much like a trajectory problem in physics, it can tell you roughly where something is headed, but first you need two points.
At the same time, history seizes the individual. It plunges them into someone else's perspective. Like a good novel, it takes them outside of their world, and shows them that people are people, through the ages. Occasional laughs and headshakes accompany the recognition of silly stock characters.
History is common thread that connects all that I am learning in my other classes. Because nothing learned is valuable without context.
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