History is defined as the study of past people, activities and things. Ancient cultures took so much time and their effort in order to teach their children the family history. Learning about the past thus helps individuals of all ages, races, backgrounds and communities to know whoever they are. Human beings live in a time where changes can occur frequently and very fast that is, progresses are made daily. Humans thus prefer to define themselves in terms of where they are heading instead of where they came from. However much our ancestors are not able to shed light on us through their experiences, history is still relevant. The times of our ancestors is so different from our time and some p[people may think that the past is outdated. This essay thus aims at giving the importance of studying the context of prior history, the participants in that history and the participants’ experiences. The essay will further describe the resources that can be helpful to a history student in studying history.
History reveals who we are. Studying the context of prior history is both necessary and helpful in revealing whoever we are in relation to cultures, countries and other people. When we examine the history of different participants and their experiences, we are able to have a clearer picture of their feelings, viewpoints and opinions within the certain timeframe. With history, one is able to know their origin and why they are based in a certain geographical location, religious practice and cultural and economic activity. It is the relationship we had with other people in the past that describe who we are and how we relate presently. The Vietnam history of the twentieth century if well understood is very important in revealing who they are today. Besides, many other nations too have their histories that help in their identification.
Studying history influences our present reasoning, perceptions and likes and dislikes. History mainly influences how we look at other races and their cultures (Mathison.S,2011). It is impossible to know where we are going if we do not know where we came from. Knowing nothing about history will not allow us to have an updated reasoning, perceptions and the likes since there must have been a change to move to present. With no historic documentation, an individual, group or a community is not able to know the past mistakes and thus avoiding such mistakes will be very hard. Knowing those who came before us with their struggles and successes also makes us have a different perception and reasoning. Studying history is thus important and can help us make informed choices regarding current events by affecting our perceptions and feelings and making them current. Such current choices are elections in countries, counties, states and even in organizations.
The study of context of prior history is to help humans carry on with life (Lee et al, 2009). There are several issues in life that matter so much and without their existence in the past, they would not be present today. Some of the issues in life that as humans we carry on with include family values, independence in all spheres, religious preferences and personal behaviors whether good or bad. Family values will help shape families and parents learn from the past mistakes and continue strengthening the achievements made in the past. Independence is great to humans and everyone would love to be independent. People with histories of dependence will fight hard to achieve independence whereas those with independence in history will even improve it. Religious preferences and individual behaviors too apply to have a change and continuity as per their history.
In conclusion, resources that can be helpful to a student in studying history are by use of books, links, websites and the historians themselves. There are several books that can be used by a student to carry out historical studies and most books are found in libraries and online networks. The links and websites are online and require internet thus internet can also be named as part of the resources. Historians are human beings who could be professors, scholars, researchers, the old, the adults and even our own parents. Some of the websites available for studying history are the American historical association (www.americanhistoricalassociation.com), classical association of Canada (www.classicalassociationofcanada.com) and very many others.
References
Lee, J., & Friedman, A. M. (2009). Research on technology in social studies education. Charlotte, N.C: Information Age Pub.
Mathison, S. (2011). Really new directions in evaluation: Young evaluators' perspectives. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass Inc.
