Our Predicament, and How History Can Help

Javier Ergueta

September, 2011

Our predicament:

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You too may have noticed the world you’re waking up to is in

kind of a mess.

In just the last century:

• World Wars I and II

• The Cold War

• 9/11

• Global warming / “weirding”

How the heck did it happen?

Where do you look for answers…

• A scientific theory?

• A mathematical theorem?

• A work of art?

• A religious doctrine?

To explain how the tiger got in the bathroom…

…The Hangover rewinds the action and traces a causal

chain of events.

“If you would understand anything, observe its

beginning and its development.”

– Aristotle

“The past is the present, rolled out for understanding.”

“Those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.”

– George Santayana

There are just three small problems with regard to most

Americans and history.

They don’t know it.

They don’t care.

• “History is bunk”– Henry Ford (the Steve Jobs of the early

20th century)

• “We Americans don’t need to study history…we make it.”– Donald Rumsfeld, Sec. of Defense, 2001-7

• “You’re history.” [You no longer matter.]– Popular saying

They don’t even know what it is.

• “History is so boring, because it’s all about memorizing names and dates.”– Common student objection

“To praise a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect

for using well-seasoned timber or properly-mixed concrete in his

building. It is a necessary condition of his work, but not his essential

function.”

– E. H. Carr

What is history?

“History is a series of arguments to be debated, not a body of data to be

recorded or a set of facts to be memorized. Thus controversy in

historical interpretation is at the heart of its value.”

– Prof. Robin W. Winks

In short, history is:

• A conversation whose goal is understanding the past.

• Not primarily an area of study, but a dimension of all other studies!

History: part of every subject!

• “History differs from the other disciplines in having an approach and not an area of its own.”– Leonard Krieger

• “History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.”– Lord Acton

Properly understood, history begins with the

Big Bang.

Different subject disciplines (AOKs) feed into a single

narrative by specializing in different kinds of evidence.

Key events, and the new sciences that focus on their effects:

The Big Bang – Physics

Era of Supernovas – Chemistry

Birth of the solar system – Geology

Life appears – Biology

Primates appear – Archaeology

Language appears – Linguistics

Modern humans appear – Psychology

History is the only practical way that we can bring all knowledge into a single coherent framework.

But this can only really happen in one place…

…between human ears!

Information is but the building materials of knowledge.

Learning only happens when these are assembled into a

sturdy, useful structure.

You have to make it happen.

Where I can help:

• Propose stimulating new information

• Point out connections

• Suggest possible frameworks

Focus of this course: 4 levels

• H. of Germany, Italy, Russia, Egypt, Persia

• H. of W. European, Russian and Islamic civilizations

• H. of Western Afro-Eurasia

• H. of humanity

My own effort at a unifying account…

• Some central branches

• And a good part of the trunk!