Why Do We Bother to Study History? (Part One)

(Editor's note: This is the first segment in a three part series.) 


More than a few people have told me they hated history, until they came to relate its relevance to events in their own lives.  Why is the subject of history emphasized as extensively as it is in our K-12 secondary schools?  Why is it maintained as a core discipline in many of the nation’s public universities and most, if not all, of the nation’s elite liberal arts institutions of higher learning?

Why, on the other hand, is history taught so poorly, with an excruciating emphasis on the memorization of reams of facts and figures, absent any particular context or personal relevance?  More simply stated, why do we bother to study history?  What exactly is the point?

Let’s begin with human nature.  I am too young to remember Harry Truman, but the discussion should begin here.  My first connection to the name was as a young boy.  My dad used to refer to my maternal grandfather simply as “Harry S,” because, I was told, grandpa looked like Harry S. Truman.  It seemed that both men were rather short, appeared physically frail, sported closely cropped, gray haircuts, and also wore funny looking top hats.  No matter that my grandfather was of Italian descent, and had come to this country along with millions of other immigrants similarly situated in the early part of the 20^th century.

When my grandfather received this greeting, he just smiled.  For all I knew, my grandfather may have had no idea of who Harry S. Truman was.  Fine, I thought, but just exactly who was Harry S?  My young curiosity was piqued.

My next encounter with Harry Truman was when Chicago, the popular band, recorded a song on one of its albums which was simply called “Harry Truman.”  The song began, “America needs you, Harry Truman / Harry could you please come home.”  Okay, so here was another clue about this guy.

Although I did not understand its meaning then, perhaps it was just a coincidence that the Watergate scandal was about to break, forcing then-President Richard Nixon to resign the presidency in shame.  This was the same Nixon who grew up in the shadow of the infamous Joseph McCarthy, US Senator, R-WI, one of the key proponents of the communist “Red Scare.”  This was the same Nixon who, as Vice President to then-President Dwight Eisenhower, had attempted to label Harry Truman as soft on communism.  As it turned out, it was a futile effort simply to advance Nixon’s own personal cause.

Some may be surprised to learn that Harry Truman was the last American President who did not attend college.  Nor did my grandfather, for that matter.  But, Truman did have some good teachers along the way, perhaps the finest of whom was his mother.  Mattie Truman’s philosophy had been simple.  "You knew right from wrong, you always tried to do right, and you did your best.  That’s all there was to it."

One of Truman’s many biographers described the little farming town of Independence, Missouri, where Truman had grown up, as a town where people live a long time and have long memories.  Moreover, the people there all seemed to have something in common with Truman.  They had character.  Can we say that about the community in which we live?

(The second segment highlights Harry Truman’s self-education and how he came to concentrate on the workings, the continuity and the consistency of human nature.)

-Michael D'Angelo