Why history is important by Nicholas

Why history is important by Nicholas - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

Many people find history to be boring and irrelevant because it is in the past. George Santayana, A Spanish-American philosopher and poet, said, " Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Without learning and studying history we will repeat the same mistakes we made in the past. If the roles were reversed and I could teach a subject, I would teach History to warn people from trying things that did not work in the past.

One example of a mistake that American's have learned from is the Volstead Act. The Volstead Act enacted the 18th Amendment, in 1920, which was the law that declared production, transport, and sale of alcohol illegal. At the time, people believed this was the right thing to do but they were mistaken. The ban on alcohol actually brought the crime rate up because people were stealing liquor and some would even go so far as to kill for it. Thirteen years later, Congress ratified the 21st Amendment which repealed prohibition. As a country, we have learned we cannot change everyone's morals. Just think of the chaos that would happen if Congress tried to ratify prohibition now!
As a country we have made some mistakes, but we have learned from these mistakes and have become a better nation because of them. History is made everyday, and that means mistakes are made everyday. Without learning from these mistakes, as George Santayana said, we are doomed to repeat them. History teaches us things we can apply to our lives daily.