Why Study History? Quotes

“History reminds us of the inherent weakness in the human condition and the very real possibility that our fellow human beings are capable of horrendous things. This should humble us, for “there but for the grace of God, go I.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“our natural inclination—our “psychological condition at rest”—is to consume the past for our own purposes or try to remake the past in our own images.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“By trying to understand the past on its own terms, the historian treats it with integrity rather than manipulating it or superimposing his or her values on it to advance an agenda in the present. Practicing good history in this regard is not easy. Humans tend to be present-minded when it comes to confronting the past. The discipline of history was never meant to function as a means of getting one’s political point across or convincing people to join a cause.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“The Tea Party movement and other libertarians have convinced millions of Americans that they have to answer to no authority but themselves. Many in our culture have come to define freedom to mean the liberty to do whatever one wants as long as it is within the bounds of the law. In a consumer-driven society, we as individuals have become empowered like never before. The wild growth of capitalism in the United States means that everything is a commodity—something to satisfy our every want and desire. We have been created for something more than this. Yet we continue to deride any quest for the common good as something akin to socialism or anti-Americanism.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“Historians should be in the business of practicing hospitality, and in the Christian tradition “hospitality” and “exclusion” are incompatible terms.[”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“Wineburg: For the narcissist sees the world—both the past and the present—in his own image. Mature historical understanding teaches us to do the opposite: to go beyond our own image, to go beyond our brief life, and to go beyond the fleeting moment in human history into which we have been born. History educates (“leads outward” in the Latin) in the deepest sense. Of the subjects in the secular curriculum, it is the best at teaching those virtues once reserved for theology—humility in the face of our limited ability to know, and awe in the face of the expanse of history.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“the late historian and cultural critic Christopher Lasch in his book The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. His description of the mechanics of democratic conversation is worth citing in full: The attempt to bring others around to our point of view carries the risk, of course, that we may adopt their point of view instead. We have to enter imaginatively into our opponent’s arguments, if only for the purpose of refuting them, and we may end up being persuaded by those we sought to persuade. Argument is risky and unpredictable, therefore educational. Most of us tend to think of it . . . as a clash of rival dogmas, a shouting match in which neither side gives any ground. But arguments are not won by shouting down opponents. They are won by changing opponents’ minds—something that can only happen if we give opposing arguments a respectful hearing and still persuade their advocates that there is something wrong with those arguments. In the course of this activity, we may well decide that there is something wrong with our own.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“Parker Palmer puts it, “Democracy gives us the right to disagree and is designed to use the energy of creative conflict to drive positive social change. Partisanship is not a problem. Demonizing the other side is.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“The sixteenth-century writer Montaigne once said, “Every man calls evil what he does not understand.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of this tragic event in the American past, democracy is no longer being threatened by secession, slavery, or a bloody civil war, but it is being threatened by our failure to resolve our differences in a civil fashion, work for the common good, and develop the kinds of social virtues necessary for our republic to continue to function.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“In the United States, self reigns supreme.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past

“The French visitor to America Alexis de Tocqueville, writing in the 1830s, described the connection between American individualism and historical amnesia: Not only does democracy make men forget their ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is forever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.”
― John Fea, Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past