This blog post grew from an idea presented in my history class at Millersville this semester. The class is on America from 1877-1919, otherwise titled "The New Era." The class charts the developments in that particular time period that transformed America's identity in a single generation. The details are not relevant to this blog post, but the professor constantly emphasizes the "arc of history" and the importance of understanding the connections and ideas that link concrete facts and events. Yesterday in class, he made a reference to the loss of this understanding in the modern generation and its political and social effects. To paraphrase, the statement was something along the lines of "The realization that present problems come out of past developments, that history has usefulness, is vital to making informed decisions, whether political or otherwise."
This thought resonated with me as one of the reason why I want to be a history teacher. History is perhaps the most relevant subject of academia, yet it is often ignored, misinterpreted, or misused. The value of it to politics and government, economics and sociology, and many other realms of life cannot be overemphasized. The problems of today are merely extensions of problems in the past, perhaps different in form but not in substance. America can be viewed as one long debate about the relationship between individual, society, and state and between progress, problems, and government. Recognizing this fact and understanding the former manifestations of the debate is vital to effectively participating in the debate today.
For example, the major issue of the New Era was immigration. A major issue of today's political climate is immigration. Immigration both was driven by and fueled the transformation from rural agrarian individualism to urban industrial community. The problems that arose from such transformations are different than our current problems only in their particularities. Today we face a transformation from an urban industrial insular community to a global information-driven multicultural society. Immigrants and foreign countries both fuel and are driven by this shift. Understanding how America dealt with the shift back then (both successfully and not) can provide insights as to how to deal with our current shift. The problem is politicians specifically and society generally fail to look back to the past. It is hard to tell where we are going if we fail to see where we have been.
It is my sincere hope that somewhere out there are politicians that understand the importance of the historical perspective. I'm sure they are out there, but unfortunately they do not take center stage. Teddy Roosevelt captivated the masses by his appeals to history. What would happen if a modern Presidential candidate or Senator or Congressman would do the same? Perhaps he could correct some misperceptions about where we should be going by demonstrating effectively where we have been. I must confess that I am becoming more and more cynical when it comes to politicians. Therefore I have decided not to wait for one such as I have described to show up. I will take it on myself to shift the perspective of society from the classroom. After all, politicians reflect the character of the people. Thus I shall try to transform the people and hope that the government will follow. Time is short, but I must try. I shall continue chronicling my journey here, and I thank you for reading.
