Why does history teach us of the past?

Answer 1

There are multiple answers to this question: 1) History is taught to help people better understand people, 2) to keep people aware of past problems, potential problems, awareness of attempts at solving specific problems and to inform people of outcomes of situations, solved or unsolved, based on the method(s) used to attempt to accommodate or correct specific problems.

In short, knowledge of history is used in everyones everyday lives and it is history that motivates a person to think a certain way about, react to, or choose the manner in which they carry on daily, based off of that individual's conclusions to past events.

If people had no knowledge of the past, choices and decisions would be much harder, take much longer and would be made without a feeling of confidence in such decisions ongoing.

Contrary to today's historian's thought, history does repeat itself to scarily similar events. The location, climate, number of people (and various other details) may change, but in the end, situations can be judged by, compared to and/or handled in similar ways as earlier events. History teaches us so much more than definitions, events, culture, etc. It incorporates all aspects of life and, if we let it, can reveal our truest thoughts, emotions and concerns while helping guide us down the different paths and junctures a lifetime will offer.