Perhaps you have heard someone say, “How will you get a job by studying history?” or “Isn’t history just a story written by the winners?” These are cynical ways to look at the study of the past, and perhaps the world we live in encourages such questions. As a part of the humanities, the study of history can seem at best a hobby or even a luxury in a time when increasing emphasis is placed upon science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It can become even more tempting to view history in a negative light when media and political personalities hold up individuals, events, or symbols from the past to support their particular worldviews.
There is, however, value in studying history no matter if you are a student of the arts or of the sciences. As you have seen in this class, the study of history builds analytical, research, and presentational skills. No matter what profession you end up following, thanks to studying history, you now know how to think about subjects critically, how to question findings, how to investigate further, and how to present your findings to a wider audience. These are skills that are important in the classroom, in the boardroom, in the courtroom, and in the voting room.
In this learning block, you will consider the above points, and you will also think about how history can be used in both positive and negative ways in the public eye. We are all sums of what came before us, and the way that we live in the present is a result of our past. Understanding what has brought us to the present is an important responsibility of being a member of our modern, globalized world.
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