Why Study History?

I started Portraits of Liberty in March of 2020. Two years on, I have finally hit my fiftieth episode, quite the occasion, considering I thought I would run out of ideas by now. But thanks to people’s kind comments and feedback, I have always been motivated to seek out more historical figures who advanced the cause of liberty. Doing this show has reinforced my belief that liberty is not the result of any particular culture or race but a universal urge in human nature that defies all empty dogmas. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for listening. It really does mean the world to me.

For a bit of a celebration and a bit of a change, I am going to do something different. Usually, I try to steer away from expressing my personal opinions. The figures I cover are worth doing justice, and sometimes giving your own personal opinion doesn’t fit that goal. But for this episode I am throwing objectivity to the wind and discussing my opinion on a topic near and dear to me, warts and all. Since this is a history podcast, I thought it would be fitting to give my answer to the question of why read about history at all?

Usually, this question is answered by either one-​line aphorisms or over-​written poetical forwards for academic books on historical topics. For me, these answers tend to be underwhelming, yet still overly zealous about the purity of studying such a hallowed subject. While the idea of knowledge for its own sake sounds romantic, the prospect of such a reward only attracts academics, not the vastly more populous general public.

It is easy to say we should be knowledgeable about a topic. Every discipline’s disciples promote the idea that their subject must be understood, whether it is economics, sociology, or history. But we live busy lives full of obligations. All too often, those who have the leisure to study do not understand how privileged their position is and how the average person’s life is not conducive to pursuing academic tomes decoding niche knowledge.

Though history might not be the most profitable degree or most thriving university department at the moment, pundits from all sides of the political spectrum agree on the value of the past. Whether it is a Republican paying lip service to the Founding or a Democrat arguing for the importance of critical race theory being taught at schools, the discipline of history still plays a significant role in public discourse.

In polite company, we all affirm the importance of being informed, but in reality, all of us fail to live up to this standard. Thanks to increased accessibility, there is a vast array of knowledge out there. One could spend the rest of their life in a library reading books at random and still not have an iota of all human knowledge. For most of us, a rigorous academic debate is a chore, and we have more pressing obligations to our families, friends, and careers. That is why I want to give a sales pitch for the layperson to explore history, from a liberal perspective, of course.

In my opinion, history makes one more acutely aware of freedom. My favorite philosopher Cicero once wrote, “To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child.” While this might sound a bit harsh, there is an element of truth. We live in the most prosperous, peaceful, and tolerant age humanity has ever seen. This might seem hard to believe, thanks to the frenetic pace of modern news outlets, but don’t be fooled. There is a tendency to view history from the perspective of the so-​called greats. The conquerors, generals, and politicians, those in power who made big decisions throughout history. But this approach ignores the plight of the other 99.99% of humanity.

Strip away the grandeur of the past, and what do you really see? For every picturesque description of old morality, there are a hundred stories of cruelty, barbarity, and poverty. For most of history, our forefathers lived in squalor, filth, and ignorance. The famously pessimistic philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued that in a state of nature without government, life would be nasty, brutish, and short, but on the contrary, compared to our conditions today, our ancestors lived in a Hobbesian world.

But not just a miserable world but a static one. For most of recorded history across the globe, economic growth was pitiful. The vast majority of people knew their place in the world. Men would take up the occupation of their fathers, who inherited the same from their grandfathers, and so on. To illustrate my point, take two historical figures, my previously mentioned favorite, Roman Cicero from the 1st century BC and Thomas Jefferson from the 18th century. Though close to two thousand years elapsed between the pair’s lives, many similarities remained. If Cicero stepped into a time machine and emerged in Monticello, he would see a world not so dissimilar from his own. Slaves would be working in Jefferson’s fields, similar to the countryside of Rome. The primary method of rapid transportation for the wealthy was horses and carriages, a technology present in Cicero’s time. After a night of chatting with Jefferson, Cicero would then observe Jefferson writing by candlelight. For as much changed between the Roman Republic and the Founding, many fundamental facts of life stayed the same. Today we assume the world moves forward and that as time goes by, progress is incrementally made. It might be surprising to find this is a relatively new belief. In a world of hierarchies and dogma, little changed; everyone knew their place in the great chain of society. Of course, there are examples that contradict this trend, but the broad trend persists.

But imagine now if Cicero and Jefferson stepped into another time machine together to travel to the year 2022. They would be in awe of modern technology, our instantaneous communication, stores of knowledge larger than any library that ever existed at our fingertips, and our widespread prosperity would easily befuddle the greatest minds in history.

Our current comfort blinds us to the massive strides we have made. Remember Cicero’s slightly harsh wisdom, “To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child.” Without knowledge of what came before us we cannot accurately appraise our current standards. A lack of historical knowledge can manifest in the sphere of politics as a lack of imagination. With little to compare our situation to we become slaves of the present and cannot break out of current trends of thought. Economic and political circumstances matter, but ideas are just as important. The Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti observed that “Barricades of ideas are worth more than barricades of stones…A powerful idea, waved before the world at the proper time, can stop a squadron of iron-​clad ships, like the mystical flag of the Last judgement.” Both for better and worse, ideas shape peoples, cultures, and nations. At its best, inquiry into the past is an exercise in empathy. We strip away our current way of viewing the world and try to immerse ourselves in the mind of another era. In this process, we critique the past and present. By seeing the shortcomings of others, we can accurately assess our own. When studying medieval history, I noticed how few questioned the legitimacy of monarchy, and it was viewed to be the most effective and harmonious form of government despite all the evidence to the contrary. At first, I pitied the medievals, but eventually, I realized that we are not much better. Today democracy often, regardless of form or efficiency, is idealized much in the same way monarchy was upheld for centuries.

The often-​overlooked second President of the United States, John Adams, likened history to a boudoir, an octagonal room of full-​length mirrors often found in Aristocat’s homes. He explained that young aristocrats, when in poor humor, would retire to their boudoirs where whatever direction their eyes turned, they could not look away from their ugly, angered expressions. This sight would eventually convince the young aristocrat to suppress their anger after seeing the unsightliness of their features. For Adams and many others in the Founding Generation, history functioned as a faithful mirror that allows us to view our best and worst moments.

The American Revolution was an establishment of a new order for the ages, a kind of government unlike any that had preceded its existence. Despite the novelty of their undertaking, the Founders constantly reassessed and debated the history of various nations and eras, especially ancient Rome. Patrick Henry is known for his famous speech where he exclaims, “give me liberty or give me death”, but he began this speech with a cautious warning saying, “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience.” The message was clear. No one could move forward to a new era without understanding what came before their time.

Technology moves rapidly while our political culture languishes in the past. Illiberal forces on the right wish to return to an idyllic traditionalism, while liberal forces on the left insist upon the validity of socialism despite constant failures. Much of our political angst, in my opinion, stems from a lack of knowledge or appreciation of liberalism’s place in history.

The rights we enjoy today, freedom of speech, religion and assembly, our right to private property, and a fair trial and due process are not the results of impersonal historical forces. They were bequeathed to us thanks to the efforts of people who sternly believed no one was born with the right to command or control another. We call these people liberals. While academics have done their best to tarnish the reputation of liberalism, it is undeniable that liberals have done more than any other group to secure individual rights than any other political movement on the globe. Today the socialists and communists paint themselves as the heroes of history, but the reality, as authors like George Watson have pointed out in the Lost Literature of Socialism, the early socialists were deeply reactionary, unlike their liberal counterparts that looked toward a better world freed from the shackles of the old one.

The separation of powers, the separation of church and state, the secret ballot, and even the very idea of a constitution, all of these ideas stemmed from liberal thinkers, a long lineage of people who questioned dialogues about political authority and obedience in favor of individual rights, the greatest gift humanity has ever received.

Today most governments are republics, but if you ask the average person what a republic is, as I have done, you will be met with a blank face. There was a time when the world was not inhabited by republics but by absolute monarchs and despots of the worst kind. Republics, a symbol of the secularism and constitutionalism of the enlightenment, are now mere words in the popular imagination and often words divorced from any genuine meaning or sentiment.

Sadly many words lose their meaning, including the word liberal. Today in America, liberal denotes a supporter of the Democrat party meaning true liberals must now use the awkward title of classical liberal, a comparatively stuffy term. The two world wars coupled with the Great Depression imploded support for what we now call classical liberalism; thanks to figures such as Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Patterson, appreciation for liberal values was kept alive.
Much of the history of liberal achievement has not been lost but simply ignored.

What we have today is a rarity in human history. History is a testament to the fact that freedom cannot exist without some form of political power, but political power can definitely exist without freedom. Like the air we breathe, we don’t appreciate freedom until we have noticed its absence and are already gasping for air.

For a liberal-​minded person, history is a cautionary tale of freedom’s fragility. But history also provides records of the experiments and innovations that helped best preserve freedom. History can provide both warnings and recommendations in equal measure. If we disown history, we are at its mercy without a guide or comparison for our undertakings. You might not care about history, but that doesn’t change that we are all slaves to the past.

Beyond politics, reading about other cultures and nations has imparted upon me personally a sort of optimism. No matter how dire or desperate, there have always been those who break with the accepted wisdom of their time and question power. When I was younger in college, I was a firm adherent to the idea that individual rights and limits on power were innovations belonging to the western intellectual tradition. Now that I have read more widely, I can safely say I was wrong. These are not the heritage of a particular culture but a universal impulse, one that surfaces from time to time regardless of cultural norms or widespread persecution.

Lastly, history teaches us character. One thing I have noticed while doing this podcast is that many trailblazers were unpopular. They were harassed and insulted by the powers that be of their time and were rarely given peaceful lives. The people I have covered on this podcast tend to share some common traits, a devotion to their conscience, a penchant for self-​education, and an ability to turn legal and economic issues into moral crusades.

Learning about history has been such a big part of my life. Ever since I was a child I obsessed over ancient Greece and Rome. Playing the video game Rome Total War cemented my life long love of Rome and convinced me at a young age that I wanted to be a historian. So thank you to everyone who listens, you help me pursue my childhood dream which is a privilege and an honor. I hope you have enjoyed hearing my thoughts, I promise I won’t drag them out too often. Next time we will be back to usually Portraits content, I will find an underappreciated liberal figure, talk about how they made the world a better place, but it was nice to have a brief little change for once. Thanks a mil for listening and I will see you next time.