History is Wonderful!
History is the pursuit of truth. Truth has an accepted importance in most socie es and I feel no need to explain this
importance to the intelligence of the School Magazine readership. Equally, the importance of truth would be too
great a topic to submerge in a paragraph in praise of history. Nonetheless, I must a empt to give a brief summary
of this value, in fear that whole column should lose all grounding and become meaningless. Truth is comfor ng in
that it removes confusion from life, but also in its simplicity as it provides answers to all answerable ques?
ons. Thus, it is clear that history is vital.
However, Leo Tolstoy states: “History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.” Tolstoy lived most of his
life in 19th century Russia, a place most standard grade historians will understand as somewhat oppressive, keeping
peasants beneath land owners in every way possible. The social hie rarchy was very structured, allowing li le or no
movement between the social classes, but this did not a?ect the recording of history. Granted, freedom of infor?
ma on in 1850 Russia was limited – as with most countries at this me – but the oppression did not include a 1984?
style daily rewrite of history to suit the current interests of the country. So what could Tolstoy mean by claiming a
lack of truth in history?
The word ‘pursuit’ holds the answer. As I have already said, history is the pursuit of truth and this makes most peo?
ple think of how historians have the job of ?nding out, for certain, what happened in the period of study. This is an
accurate descrip on of their task, but the nature of history makes it impossible: we will never again de?nitely know
the exact words spoken around a table in a mee ng 300 years ago, unless it was recorded very carefully and accu?
rately. S ll, we cannot tell whether a person recording the mee ng twisted the words of the speakers – even sub?
consciously – to support their point of view.
Because of this, historians’ jobs are made par cularly di?cult. Each source must be ques oned individually, and
treated with scep cism to weed out the bias and to reduce the exaggera on. I know, this sounds awfully like a his?
tory teacher preparing you for a ‘How useful…?’ ques on, but the historian’s job is one that deserves more credit.
To ?nd the truth despite the many hindrances obscuring the path is one of the most honourable feats achievable by
people. But ‘honourable’ is not always synonymous with ‘prac cal’. In 2013, it seems that science is so much more
useful to us than the reasons, for instance, that Britain became more democra c in the 19th century. What use can
history have in today’s world? George Santayana once said: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned
to repeat it.” To truly appreciate this statement, it is easier to think of the human race as one person’s life. During
the short days a person has on the Earth, they make thousands upon thousands of mistakes, and each one will add
to a be er understanding of how to deal with the situa on next me.
Likewise, if we imagine human history as the development of life from infancy to adulthood, we realise that a mis?
take made in the 16th century can build on our knowledge of life to this day. Yes, we’ve had two world wars but the
study of both of these should allow us to no ce vital signs which could warn us of any future movements towards
war. If we regard our past as our childhood years, and our present as our adulthood, we can use the knowledge
gained from all these mistakes know how to make the right choices every day.
So, our history is history. It’s over now and we could forget about it but I ask of everyone who reads this: Think of
our future. Please don’t disregard the events of the past but treasure what went well and learn from the mistakes
made. Search to ?nd the truth so that everyone can be illuminated as to the ways of the world. Trust me, dear
readers, history is wonderful.
By Delilah Fawcett