History

I just finished a wonderful little book by Margeret MacMillan called Dangerous Games; The Uses and Abuses of History. She has lots of great contemporary examples of using and misusing history, from the Chinese government's emphasis on their recent history of humiliation to promote nationalism to the oft-repeated justification of our policies by referring to the appeasement of Hitler or other bad guys (you can see a version now in right-wing attitudes about Afghan policy). At the end of the book she asks the question what can history teach us? Some quotes: "Since history relies on a skeptical frame of mind, whether toward evidence or comprehensive explanations, it can also inculcate a healthy propensity to question our leaders." It can teach us humility. "One of history's most useful tasks is to bring home to us how keenly, honestly and painfully, past generations pursued aims that now seem to us wrong or disgraceful." "History also encourages people in the present to reflect on themselves." "Bad history ignores...nuances in favor of tales that belong to morality plays but do not help us to consider the past in all its complexity." She also has a lot of interesting things to say about nationalism, a state of mind that has historically only recently existed, and how leaders use this impulse of group solidarity.