Why History is Good for You
The musical Hamilton entered the world stage as an exclamation point behind the statement that history can be cool. Years later, I still enter the lottery for Hamilton tickets every day in the hope of winning a chance to take my family to this biggest phenomenon in historical storytelling of our time. Along with all history-loving parents and teachers, I rejoice to see kids taking ownership of the American founding story as they sing the songs at the top of their lungs, and celebrate the fact that this unique product remains in such high demand.
Nonetheless, even Hamilton fever can not hide the sad truth that apart from the ticket booths of broadway, the history market is soft at best. Our political leaders seem keen on proving that it doesn’t matter, the number of history majors is in steady decline, and the general level of history knowledge — whether US focused or global — is at an all-time low. “Forsooth!” my fellow history lovers cry, as they rally to boost the value of history by touting its critical relevance for our country’s survival and by warning repeatedly and insistently that those who ignore it are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
That argument for history seems fundamentally lacking. It’s like saying that cooking is something we need to learn so we don’t poison ourselves and our friends. Or that math is something we need to master so we don’t get ripped off in a store. Or that we should exercise so we don’t get flabby, disgusting bodies. Pitching any activity as a risk-management strategy to avert something horrible isn’t a particular appealing approach. It’s seems like the kind of marketing strategy someone would come up with who wants to make sure no one buys the product.
Good sales pitches make you long for the effect of the product being praised. They make enticing promises, like Exercise makes you powerful. Math helps you solve problems. Cooking can help you enjoy a deep sense of community. History, even if it is not presented in the form of hip-hop, can actually do all of that. It can help you be your best self, learn how to solve problems, connect with other people and find joy and meaning. This is the promise of history that we should start marketing with passion and gusto.
By history I don’t mean litanies of dates and facts. I mean the stories of human movement and settlement, of suffering and solutions, of ingenuity and imagination. That kind of history gives people power. It gives you the power of belonging, by helping you grow roots that go deep into the rich soil of time where they tap into values and traditions that feed your soul. It gives you the power of empathy, by opening up your eyes to other peoples’ stories, and allowing you to connect to their hopes, dreams and needs. It gives you the power of innovation by leading you into the inner workings of complex systems — be they industries or infrastructures — where you can see how they evolved and could be changed. It gives you the power of imagination, by introducing you to how human beings have thought beyond their present state, and crafted visions for the future that have carried entire armies, both militant and peaceful ones, to wage battles for progress. It gives you the power of changemaking, by showing the different ways in which people have inserted themselves into the course of history and exerted different kinds of leadership and ingenuity to chart a new path.
Small wonder, then, that a disproportionate number of people who have taken on leadership positions in the world have a passion for history. While history majors are only 2% of college graduates, they constitute 38% of Supreme Court Justices, 25% of presidents since World War II, and 6% of CEOs of Fortune 100 companies. Their ranks include a wide range of characters, from HP’s Carly Fiorina and YouTube CEO Susan Wojicki, to Ashoka’s Bill Drayton, Conan O’Brien, Martha Stewart, Malcolm Gladwell and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Others, like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Oprah, Tom Hanks, Wynton Marsalis may not have majored in history, but they draw on its power as they inspire others to build a better world.
It obviously hard to say what is the chicken and what is the egg, i.e. whether you develop a powerful changemaker identity because you have a relationship with history, or whether you have a relationship with history because it reinforces your already existing identity as someone with a right to lead. But it is clear that history is a powerful tool to inspire leadership and a commitment to community. Too often when we talk about leadership and leadership skills we do so in a vacuum — focused on skills and capacities but without human context. But it is history that gives you that context and a reason to embark on the journey of a change agent. Not only does it satisfy — and expand — a deep sense of curiosity about the world which innovators and leaders share, it also provides a bumpy, four-dimensional map of where we are today and where we could go. It is this form of history as a source of personal power that comes alive in religious settings, where teachers celebrate the stories of leaders from Moses to MLK to build a shared understanding of the the power of love and leadership in the face of adversity. This is the history used in private settings by parents, who take their children to historical sites, tell family stories, watch movie or read books with them, to convey a sense of personal values, human connection and obligation to a higher calling.
To be sure, it still matters very much whose history is told and from whose perspective the stories are recounted. We are just starting the process of engaging more broadly with aspects of our history that explain the mindsets, systems and structures behind current power imbalances and the painfully lived reality of injustice. We are adding new stories, bringing in richer perspectives and working our way to a narrative of a shared commitment to humanity. But the history our children are fed in school is still a story of the existing systems of power. It is, therefore, not surprising that it is often children of parents with high levels of education and economic security who become obsessed with history. They get to see in it a narrative that bolsters their sense of control over the system and an inspiration to continue to shape it. Whether it is that sense of entitlement to lead or a lack of economic insecurity that drives rich kids to be history majors is not clear, but it is striking that the average profile of a history majors is whiter, richer to start with, and richer down the road than the average. This, in turn, reinforces the problem of history not being written or taught by a more diverse set of voices and not able to engage a more diverse set of young people.
We no longer live in a world in which only elites have power. Everyone has the power to be a changemaker. Read Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timm’s new book if you don’t believe me. For all people who want to tap into that power, who want to empower themselves and their children to dream big, love others and co-create systems that work for all, I recommend the exhilarating, infuriating and energizing hobby of time-travel in history. Find the books that connect you with your deepest humanity. Watch the movies that set your heart on fire. Explore the rich stories that are being collected and shared around the country in oral history projects. Record your own story of migration and belonging. If you want to fight the power, have the power, live the power, feel the power: consume and share those civic nutrients that come with history and let them fuel your changemaking game. It’s about time.
Originally published at medium.com on April 23, 2018.
