Portfolio: Final Exam

“Why [consider history]? Simply because I am interested in the past? No, if one means by that… a history of the past in terms of the present. Yes, if one means… the history of the present.” Michel Foucault pointedly says that studying history for the sake of knowing what happened in the past is of no use to him. But instead the point of studying history is to learn how to act in the present. Foucault was a French historian and philosopher who challenged the way people thought of and saw the subjects of life. In this quote the reader sees that he has challenged himself with this question and he is now challenging us with it; why consider history? To learn about the awesome feats and accomplishments of men of the past? To know about the failures and oppressions of rulers and monarchs of the past? Many people today do not realize the reasons with which they consider the past and I believe Michel Foucault found this all too true and troubling. In a sense Foucault is restating the fact that learning something just to learn it does nothing if you don’t put it into practice. Over and over again I have seen the truth of this statement in my everyday life and it inspires me to ask myself why I appreciate and consider history and how I am affected by my own views.

History relates to my life for numerous reasons from day to day. For my history class I consider it in order to debate and discuss on the right, the wrong and the sometimes senselessness of it all. However I have found that much of what I learn in History 101 relates to my own life as well. For instance, as we were discussing colonial lifestyles for my second essay with Carolyn I noticed a cultural belief which I myself uphold today but I know few others who do. In colonial times members of the opposite sex would never show any sort of displays of affection whether it be hugging, hand holding or kissing in public. Married couples would not even so much as kiss in front of others; it was considered improper. Today people from puberty up do not think twice of joining themselves at the hip with the opposite sex and displaying their affection for them in the most public of places. I absolutely despise this behavior and when I learned that a few generations ago I would have been overwhelming agreed with it helped me to see I was not the first to think along such lines.

Considering history has benefited me in ways that are too numerous to count. History helps me understand why people act like they do. I take what has happened in the past and connect it to my own life and realize that the proverb is true, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” History tells me how others in the past have responded to problems they have faced and how it worked for them. By this I can know how to respond to those same problems. Therefore the things that I take out of history are largely the things that I can relate to my own life. Because of this while taking History 101 I did not get every fact and event ingrained into my memory because they aren’t all useful to me.

If I were to answer Foucault’s question by saying ‘I consider history just to know what happened in the past’ then my learning in History 101 would have been less motivated and less in depth. I have found that since taking History 101 much of history relates, in some way, to my own life today. Because of this it has fascinated me all the more and has made me want to ask more questions and learn more about past revolutions, governments as well as cultural beliefs and mindsets. Much of what we have learned in Ben’s class involves past governmental structures and how they either failed or succeeded. For example the English Monarchy of the 17^th and 18^th centuries was very power hungry and controlling towards the American colonists who considered England their motherland. England’s abuse of their authority over the colonists caused the colonists to rebel and start their own government that would not and could not abuse its power over them. As I learned about how our government started I began to get more of an understanding of not only how it works today but why it works the way it does. This really interested me because it will help me to better understand how to vote in the upcoming presidential elections.

By learning about the history of how America was founded I have learned how much of history actually pertains to modern life. I also have a better understanding of why things happen the way they do in American government as well as in American culture. As I consider history it means nothing to me unless I can connect it to my life so that I might learn something from it. History is about more than just knowing what terrible event happened 200 years ago. It’s about why it happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.