Being a student of history myself, I possess a slightly biased view. I think that the frame of reference in understanding our past setting is a powerful element in comprehending our current one. This is not to say that everything is repetitive, but that past history contains some relevant connections to today's setting. For example, in attempting to fully grasp the implications of the BP oil spill in the Gulf, one need only look back on the Exxon Valdez situation in the late 1980s to find some scope of environmental or economic impact. In our current battle against terrorism and government's role in it, understanding other moments where the political order has appropriated a mistrust of "the other" can help to shed some light on the situation. Finally, examining previous periods of economic constriction might help to give some level of understanding as to how the current economic crisis might...
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resolve itself.
Events tend to occur in patterns where humans are involved. History is the record of those patterns. By studying the history, then, we are able, often times, to accurately predict what will happen in the future, or recognize what is happening in the present because we can see the pattern taking shape.
The "layers" of historical evidence add up over time, and give us a clearer picture. As I tell my students at the beginning of each school year, "everything had to happen exactly right for you to walk through my classroom door today". We are the collected result of all the history that has gone before us.
Ideally, the lessons of our history help us understand what is going on in the world today and help us to cope with the problems that we encounter. For example, we can hope that history will tell us how to deal with problems that seem to recur. We might hope that we would learn how to deal with insurgencies in countries like Iraq because we have seen many countries try to deal with insurgencies like that.
The problem is that history is not clear -- it does not teach us unambigious lessons. Instead, every situation is a little different from those in past times. In addition, there are many possible historical lessons to be learned. Because of these problems, it is much harder for us to learn from history than it seems like it should be.