Should I learn about history?

[john1]

I became really curious about this question when I got a youtube ad from Hillsdale college about a free WW2 course. The ad was super interesting, so I clicked it and went to their website. I never heard about Hilldale, so I did a bit more research about it and found out they were a Christian school founded on Judeo christen values; that gave me a lot of PragerU vibes. This got me to wonder if they would tell the truth in the WW2 course and if they would be biased or not. This got me to wonder even further if any of the histories I learn from is biased or not. And it got me to wonder if history is really necessary at all or if it's just a waste of time. I have always been interested in history and learning about the past. I love learning about WW2, the civil war, the founding of America, medieval Europe, and about Napoleon. But recently I really wonder if learning about what one dead old white guy did to another dead old white guy is really helpful to me or just a waste of time. I could really get lost while watching history youtube channels like oversimplified, epic history tv, extra credits, whatifalthist, etc. 

 

I find that watching and learning about all these things opens my mind and makes me sound smarter. But should I be doing better things with my time? One of my main concerns now is that I will watch some biased or inaccurate documentary or video that will mess up my judgment and perception of reality: something like PragerU. If I should continue doing what I'm doing, I have some additional questions:

1. What parts of history should I learn about? I don't want to get stuck in the minutia/facts of things.

2. What are some good quality youtube channels, courses, or documentaries that you guys recommend? Is there any history taught by someone at stage yellow or turquoise?

3. What's the end goal of learning about history? what exactly am I trying to achieve by doing all of this? What am I trying to learn/accomplish by spending hours each day watching documentaries, reading books, and taking notes on all of them?

 

Thanks for reading all of this! I really want to hear your guys' advice on this.

[SonataAllegro]

5 minutes ago, john1 said:

1. What parts of history should I learn about? I don't want to get stuck in the minutia/facts of things.

Broad trends and patterns, relationships between and within nations and the complexities of their interconnection, understanding the many causes and effects of every action as a vast butterfly-effect network, and understanding the history of humanity as the drive to answer two questions: 1) What is true? and 2) who should lead? 

 

8 minutes ago, john1 said:

2. What are some good quality youtube channels, courses, or documentaries that you guys recommend? Is there any history taught by someone at stage yellow or turquoise?

Think about what history is from each of the SD stages (it will look different depending on the model you're using).

At stage purple/red/blue history is the history of my tribe, my family, my race, my religion, and how my personal story fits in with that. It will be extremely biased toward supporting the validity of that worldview (calling the Civil War the "War of Northern Aggression").

At orange, history becomes about finding "objective" truth, discovering the facts of what happened using evidence and logic to fill in the missing details of the "one human story" that we ascribe to (notice how even the idea of having a history textbook, as though all of human history could be summed up in one book, is deeply blue/orange).

At green/pluralist, we care less about details and "facts" and more about understanding from as many perspectives as possible - primary sources and their validity and biases become more valuable than the distilled compilation of a modern voice. We understand that all perspectives on history are biased and that we never hold the full picture. The notion of "history" is seen more as your own understanding of other people's perspectives.

At yellow, the sword of uncovering bias turns inward and realizes that it is YOUR own biases and limitations that define what you're willing to accept as your personal story of where you and your ancestors came from. Studying history becomes indifferent from the self-science that we do here; after all, you've constructed your whole identity around what you were taught happened before you were born.

At turquoise, what need is there for history other than to play along with the silly game your fellow humans are playing? You're imagining it all!

But there is good value in studying the most biased perspectives because doing so IS what gives you a less biased worldview. I highly recommend immersing yourself in all the SD mega threads and trying to contemplate yourself holding a purple worldview, a blue worldview, an orange worldview, etc. Rather than see people as following a prescribed mold defined by their stage, see the richness and diversity of even the lowest stages and how from those perspectives, reality appears very convincingly to be what they believe it is - that if you were in their place, having grown up in the same society with the same values, YOU would hold all their same convictions.

 

8 minutes ago, john1 said:

3. What's the end goal of learning about history? what exactly am I trying to achieve by doing all of this? What am I trying to learn/accomplish by spending hours each day watching documentaries, reading books, and taking notes on all of them?

An unbiased mind and full compassion for every single human and non human that you share this planet with?

Don't think of history as this monolithic tome of facts that have occurred in the past. Think instead as a process of endlessly wondering, "what factors have shaped the world around me? This person, this building, this idea, this tradition, this war, this grass, this elephant, this universe. Don't hold a distinction between the history of people and the history of the universe (what we call "science"). And don't think that there is any one way of understanding the truth of what has happened, or that you ever could -- the point is that you are aligning yourself with the process that the universe is doing at every moment - wondering what the hell it is.

[Late Boomer]

@john1 I minored in history in college and I got a lot out of it. It was from a basic state university in the 80s and I believe the professors at least tried to be objective. I think you can find sources that get close, or try. I think that's the best you can do. I only recently came to the understanding that ALL history is biased, influenced by the culture of the historian. See Leo's video on the social matrix.

[Leo Gura]

The thoughtful study of history develops wisdom.

[john1]

9 hours ago, Husseinisdoingfine said:

Right click image to save onto your computer, read books one by one.

This seems like a really good list, but are all of these good books? There are 66 of them, just want to make sure they're worth it. Also, what do you recommend I do if I want to learn about one particular topic that's not on that overview. How should I find a good book on the Japanese Edo period for example?

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The thoughtful study of history develops wisdom.

When you say a "thoughtful study of history" what does that mean exactly. I don't imagine it's a study of dates and places of certain events. Do you mean studying wars and events in the past and then learning about them and learning what mistakes they made? Should I seek out books on the matter, or should I find a course, or should a youtube video suffice? And exactly what wisdom am I trying to get by studying history. Am I just trying to learn from the mistakes of the past? Or is it something else?

 

Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate them.

[Leo Gura]

27 minutes ago, john1 said:

When you say a "thoughtful study of history" what does that mean exactly. I don't imagine it's a study of dates and places of certain events.

Of course not that.

You must deeply contemplate the psychology, sociology, and epistemics that shape all historical events.

You are studying how human minds work and learning lessons about how your mind works.

There are no books or courses on this kind of contemplative practice. It's something you must bring yourself into every historical work you read or study. It's a desire for a deep understanding of the forces driving mankind.

[Rilles]

 

Yes! Check this thread I made on history, learning World History changed how I think about everything.