Why study History12th May 2025
TL;DR: History teaches you how the game was played and how it unfolded.
I’ve heard many reasons to read History—you need to understand our History (um, oke, but why?), History is just important (again, why?), History explains why the world today is the way it is (fair, but still not compelling enough).None of these worked for me. I got into History because I ran out of exceptional anime, TV shows, or movies to watch. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the mediocre ones. Hence, History. History promised a fertile ground to cultivate my curiosity and appreciation for good stories and characters.Most people don’t understand this, but the human world we live in is strangely paradoxical. Here’s an example.In the Roman Republic, the way to push for progress had been to propose changes to the system to benefit the common people, the populares. Doing so earned you the political points, and you can reach for more power so you can create more good changes. But the Senate, the advisory committee of Rome, has entrenched interests in the status quo and looks at you, who’s doing the greater good, as someone who is power hungry and must be eliminated, in danger of you becoming an emperor. This is the paradox. To bring good changes, you need to risk giving someone more and more absolute power. Some people want you to bring those changes, others don’t want to see you gather absolute power. How do you navigate this? That’s been the challenge that defined many great Roman leaders—Caesar being the best example.Studying History teaches you that there actually is a game—how to play the game and even take advantage of the game’s system. Caesar isn’t a singular figure. His political life is built upon the giants who played the Roman political game before. Caesar admired the great leaders of the past, studied where they failed and understood how to take advantage of the weaknesses of the game. Caesar will go on to master the game and ultimately demolish the Republic. His power consolidation made him an emperor, marking the final nail in the Roman Republic’s coffin.But after the Senate murders Caesar, why did the Roman Republic not go back to what it was like? Why wasn’t a revival possible? The reason a system, even one as magnificent as the Roman Republic, cannot be revived once it is dismantled is that the weaknesses of the system are now apparent. The successors within the system will exploit these. The system needs reforms so that it is resistant to these weaknesses and only then may a revival be promising. Otherwise, you are bound to ‘history repeats itself’, as the saying goes.Reality is stranger than fiction.
I’ve heard many reasons to read History—you need to understand our History (um, oke, but why?), History is just important (again, why?), History explains why the world today is the way it is (fair, but still not compelling enough).None of these worked for me. I got into History because I ran out of exceptional anime, TV shows, or movies to watch. I couldn’t bring myself to watch the mediocre ones. Hence, History. History promised a fertile ground to cultivate my curiosity and appreciation for good stories and characters.Most people don’t understand this, but the human world we live in is strangely paradoxical. Here’s an example.In the Roman Republic, the way to push for progress had been to propose changes to the system to benefit the common people, the populares. Doing so earned you the political points, and you can reach for more power so you can create more good changes. But the Senate, the advisory committee of Rome, has entrenched interests in the status quo and looks at you, who’s doing the greater good, as someone who is power hungry and must be eliminated, in danger of you becoming an emperor. This is the paradox. To bring good changes, you need to risk giving someone more and more absolute power. Some people want you to bring those changes, others don’t want to see you gather absolute power. How do you navigate this? That’s been the challenge that defined many great Roman leaders—Caesar being the best example.Studying History teaches you that there actually is a game—how to play the game and even take advantage of the game’s system. Caesar isn’t a singular figure. His political life is built upon the giants who played the Roman political game before. Caesar admired the great leaders of the past, studied where they failed and understood how to take advantage of the weaknesses of the game. Caesar will go on to master the game and ultimately demolish the Republic. His power consolidation made him an emperor, marking the final nail in the Roman Republic’s coffin.But after the Senate murders Caesar, why did the Roman Republic not go back to what it was like? Why wasn’t a revival possible? The reason a system, even one as magnificent as the Roman Republic, cannot be revived once it is dismantled is that the weaknesses of the system are now apparent. The successors within the system will exploit these. The system needs reforms so that it is resistant to these weaknesses and only then may a revival be promising. Otherwise, you are bound to ‘history repeats itself’, as the saying goes.Reality is stranger than fiction.- Caesar has some amazing lines. You’d listen to them and go, “Surely that must be from a fictional drama.” Here are a couple:
- Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.
- Let the die be cast.