Nowadays, discussions regarding the usefulness of history as a subject and its application in modern life, rise. While some people believe history is useless, others argue that it is crucial for the world’s social, educational, and political development.
Opinions regarding lack of relevance of history can be based on a statement “Winners write history”. This widespread sentence refers to the lack of objectiveness in historical documents such as statutes, charters, even letters. It is true that information regarding historical events could be manipulated by higher social strata. For example, Japanese “Comfort houses” are considered a newly discovered crime committed by Japan in the World War 2 towards women from the occupied countries (Korea, China, Philippines). This crime was discovered later than many other violations committed by Japan and other countries, and Japanese government still does not admit it. This means that history is not an objective science field, and relies heavily on a relationship between oppressor and oppressed. This means that position of those individuals who deny the relevance of history can be understood and rephrased as “Why would I trust the story written by oppressors?” However, a contrary opinion is more popular.
Individuals who consider history a crucial lesson for modern society may argue that the objectiveness of certain events, especially major occurs like elections, wars, extraordinary crimes, can become objective truths if they are studied enough, and, as a result, get confirmed or refuted. Taking history seriously can lead to development of independent academic research that would be able to discover more details regarding unsolved historical mysteries. Widening research teams, filling them with people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, would most certainly make a great step to better understanding of the past. This perspective may also consider history studies as lessons that could be looked at, analyzed and considered for the future. This way of thinking is close to mine.
My opinion is similar to the second example I provided. I think that studying the past, even though it is not objective and may be biased, is vital for understanding the modern world. History as a subject is significant in terms of education, politics, and other aspects of people’s daily lives in the twenty first century, and should be studied carefully.Some people think history has little or nothing to offer, while others say the study of the past helps us understand the present. Discuss both views and give your opinion.