What Kind of History Should We Study? The question of why we should study history entails several subsidiary issues about
what kind of history should be studied. Historians and the general public alike can
generate a lot of heat about what specific history courses should appear in what part
of the curriculum. Many of the benefits of history derive from various kinds of history,
whether local or national or focused on one culture or the world. Gripping instances of
history as storytelling, as moral example, and as analysis come from all sorts of
settings. The most intense debates about what history should cover occur in relation
to identity history and the attempt to argue that knowledge of certain historical facts
marks one as an educated person. Some people feel that in order to become good
citizens students must learn to recite the preamble of the American constitution or be
able to identify Thomas Edison—though many historians would dissent from an unduly
long list of factual obligations. Correspondingly, some feminists, eager to use history as
part of their struggle, want to make sure that students know the names of key past
leaders such as Susan B. Anthony. The range of possible survey and memorization
chores is considerable—one reason that history texts are often quite long.
There is a fundamental tension in teaching and learning history between covering facts
and developing historical habits of mind. Because history provides an immediate
background to our own life and age, it is highly desirable to learn about forces that
arose in the past and continue to affect the modern world. This type of knowledge
requires some attention to comprehending the development of national institutions
and trends. It also demands some historical understanding of key forces in the wider
