Why study history?

Some answers according to Adam Gopnik:

What history generally “teaches” is how hard it is for anyone to control it, including the people who think they’re making it.

The historical question to which ISIS is the answer is: What could possibly be worse than Saddam Hussein?

Studying history doesn’t argue for nothing-ism, but it makes a very good case for minimalism: for doing the least violent thing possible that might help prevent more violence from happening.

What history actually shows is that nothing works out as planned, and that everything has unintentional consequences.

History, well read, is simply humility well told, in many manners. And a few sessions of humility can often prevent a series of humiliations.