History is good think with.

We might assume that history is the study of true events, and in this way, the task of the historian is to accurately (and objectively) determine what happened in the past. But in fact we are more concerned with the 5 Ws: Who? What? When? Where? and Why?

Taking for granted that we want to ascertain the first 4 Ws to the best our ability on the basis of the available evidence, we need to parse the 5th W further in order to better understand the value(s) of history. In one sense the 'why' points to causation (historical causes), and this is famously what Thucydides unlined as the main and most important task of the historian, to uncover the aitia (causes) of historical events. But to this we should add the notion of significance, i.e. 'why does it matter'. And this is the inspiration for your capstone project for this course: the production of a blog post or podcast on a historical parallel.

History as cyclical?

Consider the saying 'history repeats itself'. This idea actually comes from Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 1, chapter 22, section 4 (or in the disciplinary convention for citation 1.22.4).

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Lisle, Robert. “Thucydides 1.22.4.” The Classical Journal, vol. 72, no. 4, 1977, pp. 342–347.

But does history actually repeat itself? Is to anthropinon, meaning literally 'the human thingy' and often translated as 'human nature', actually stable, essential, unchanging?

There are any witty sayings on that riff on this theme:

History is philosophy from examples.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus fl. 30–7 bc Greek historian: Ars Rhetorica ch. 11, sect. 2

History is the sum total of the things that could have been avoided.

Konrad Adenauer 1876–1967 German statesman: attributed

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

Maya Angelou 1928–2014 American writer: ‘On the Pulse of Morning’ (1993)

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

W. F. Hegel 1770–1831 German idealist philosopher: Lectures on the Philosophy of World History: Introduction(1830, tr. H. B. Nisbet, 1975) introduction

Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in world history reappear in one fashion or another. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.

Karl Marx 1818–83 German political philosopher: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852) sect. 1; see Hegel

Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce? No, that's too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.

Julian Barnes 1946–  English novelist: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters (1989) ‘Parenthesis’;

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

G. Wells 1866–1946 English novelist: The Outline of History(1920) vol. 2, ch. 41, pt. 4

These sayings (and others) are collected in the Oxford Essential Quotations.

Historical Parallels

There is a world of difference between scholarly historical inquiry, meaning studying evidence and writing history, and thinking with history and engaging with the broader public. This is the purview of making the study of history relevant, and it is open to both use and abuse. The object of this assignment to contribute to the broader, public discussion about why history matters. In order to do this, you will have to make some choices, do some research, share your work, learn from your peers, and publish your contribution through our site.