Why History Matters

See below Historical Theory and Why it Matters

The study of history has gone through dramatic changes in the modern era. In the late 20th century history majors were dismissed as studying an irrelevant subject. Now, in the third decade of the 21st century the study of history has become a tool to hammer a given political opponent. The term “revisionist history” is often used by shallow students of the subject. Virtually all history is “revisionist” except for an event’s first reporting. Or, as Philip Graham quipped, “News is the rough first draft of history.”

Even people with zero understanding of history will be familiar with Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Yet, few outside of academia have more than a vague understanding of historical theory.  Any undergraduate historical theory class will teach that every generation writes its own history. This is not simply revisionism for its own sake. Each generation sees more events so the context is          continually changing. Historians are assembling a jigsaw puzzle with less than half the pieces. Edmund Burk said it well, ” We should suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided.”

So, let us dispense with overused catch phrases like, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. So too should we discount the idea that history is but a succession of moves by “great men”. Both of these overused generalizations have some utility but must be used with caution.

Cosmology aside, history on earth is liner. That is, humans in the 21^st century are dealing with dramatically different issues than centuries or millennia past.  When Julius Ceaser demobilize his legions there was ample vacant land. At the conclusion of Rome’s Third Civil War in 45 BCE, he simply selected an unpopulated area with arable land and built a city. I would recommend Gareth Sampson’s The Battle of Munda (45 Bc): for details. Founded as Acinipo, the locals call it, Rhonda Viejo. The well preserved ruins includ a still functioning amphitheater. Try and find an area to do the same thing now. I should add, this was not a one off situation. Western and central Europe are dotted with settlements created to hold ground for a given empire. An enjoyable read on the subject is John Grainger’s The Rise of the Seleukid Empire, 323-223 BC. Imagine a world where you didn’t need to win the hearts and minds of the public to rule land but rather, bring in people. So, while one can see some parallels between the collapse of empires, they are far from the same. 

Now, let us address the “Great Man” theory, as posited by Thomas Carlyle in the 19^th century. The idea that history is but a list of events driven by great men fell out of favor in the 20^th century. It has been replaced by the apparent interplay between the “great man/woman, coincidence and inevitability. One can debate which of the three drove a given event but many of history’s great men were actually just place holders.  

To focus, let us review Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon. Ask a casual observer of history and you will likely hear that Rome’s first emperor was in the Great Man category. He may have actually said, “Alea incta est” before crossing the Rubicon but, was it a seminal event?  Had Julius Caesar not brought his army into Rome he would almost certainly been arrested and likely executed. Then, the next Roman general would have brought an army to town not wanting to end up like Julius. Crossing of the Rubicon and the ensuing civil war fall much more into the “inevitability” area. 

One can go down the list of major world events and identify many such false Great Men and “Seminole Events. Clearly, Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor and navigator but, Europeans were going to bump into the new world without Columbus. After the fall of the Byzantine empire and the end of the Hundred Year’s War, Europe was in the age of exploration. All sailor knew the world was a sphere because they could see mast tops before ships. Once there was money to fund expeditions west Europe would “discover” the Americas. After all, it is well documented that Scandinavian sailors lived in what is now called Newfoundland. What made Columbus’ “discovery” seminal was its role in the European’s age of exploration but, in the end, it falls squarely into the inevitable category. 

Understanding what drives humans to do extraordinary things is well explored in the final third of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and should be required reading for all adults in the world today. He explores what drives 500,000 men across Europe to attack Russians. I’ll give a spoiler alert, it was not a great general and leader of men.

So, I look for Great Men in different places. Who stepped out of their environment and moved events? King Hezekiah of Judah fits this bill. Imagine his situation. The Assyrians had just conquered  Judah’s neighbor to the north, the Kingdom of Israel. The resulting influx of people fleeing Israel changed a small community of one or two thousand residents to a major center of nearly 15,000 souls. Imagine ruling a city/state where in the span of a few years your native population becomes a small minority of the whole. Rapid mass migration typically destabilizes peoples and governments fall. Disparate peoples lacking a common history and culture are difficult to govern.

A study of Isaiah and Chronicles helps us see how Hezekiah managed to overcome immense challenges and build the foundations for the western world. Historians, archaeologists and literary scholars have pieced together a fairly clear picture of major iron age event timelines.  I would recommend reading Israel Finkelstein’s The Bible Unearthed for starters.

Hezekiah instituted major religious reforms. He “…removed the high places, shattered the pillars, and cut down the Asherah trees” (II Kings 18:3-5). He stopped idolatrous practices, repaired the temple and fostered unity between Judah and what was left of Israel (II Chronicles 29-30. Hezekiah knitted together a common history to build a cohesive society. He was a great man, yet, he is not on such a list off the top of most modern people’s mind.

So, in the articles that follow you will see analysis from the perspective of history. You may find most pundits miss the mark when events are viewed with history in mind.

Please read and comment.

John @ rememberfreespeech.com