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The Importance and Benefits of the study of History

The European Union grew out of a particular understanding of the European past. This understanding among Post World-War II leaders was informed by the vibrant European tradition for the scientific and critical study of History as a series of events working together to produce a unique set of political opportunities. This historical tradition goes back to the eighteenth century when European intellectuals developed methods for evaluating complex problems in the development of historical societies, and their insights contributed substantially to the development of Europe as we know it today. A crucial part of their inquiry has been performed in the discipline of “scientific” history.

The practice of the scientific historian requires a series of skills that are not just aimed at the practice of “History”. Knowledge and ability in a large number of auxiliary disciplines is an integral part of the historian’s craft. These skills develop the historian’s ability to process and accurately analyse large amounts information with a high degree of complexity. The insights gained by academic enquiry into the shared European past has significantly influenced modern policies and has demonstrated that the Study of History can both be a force for European unity and for the continuation of conflicts in all regions of Europe. Professional historians thus play a crucial role in the development of political institutions and international understanding.

The profession of history has preserved and enhanced the dimension of time in European public discourse. Most modern European nation-states trace their origins to events in the past: the Scandinavians emphasise their Viking past, the British their empire and the Mediterranean countries take pride in their classical heritage. But in all these instances there is a danger that national pride may develop into national chauvinism and this is where the study of History on a foundation of critical analysis plays an important role as a counterbalance to national chauvinism, reminding the citizens of the new Europe of their common heritage and working towards breaking down stereotypes about race, ethnicity and religion.

The study of history in Europe is currently in good health though it serves different purposes in different countries. For example, the market for books and media presentations on historical subjects is remarkably buoyant and seems to be on the increase. In the English-speaking world the subject is extremely popular and receives a strong encouragement and investment from media publishers. According to a survey done by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2000, History was the fastest growing non-fiction book category with some 12 million books sold in the UK in 1998, the History Channel attracted some 4 million viewers a week, British museums attracted 11.3 million (adult) visits and 9.5 million (adults) visited stately homes.

The UK survey also identified a market for history which exhibited a remarkable difference in composition from the academic student population in general: 42-44 per cent was composed of the age group 35-54 and was generally already well-educated. This constituency is clearly one of “life-long learners” and one that in the future will keep the number of Students of History buoyant. Likewise, studies of events in the past or analyses based on the historical past continue to attract literary prizes in Italy, France and the UK, while fiction with a large element of historical content, such as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, has broken many—if not all—previous publication records.

The study of history brings together a number of desirable qualities in scholar. First of all, it maintains the linguistic diversity of the countries of Europe while developing a strong sense of the dynamic that has brought them together in the present European Union. It offers the opportunity for an informed discussion of the desirability and the historicity of the increasingly of the European project and it allows the present configuration to be compared to past models. It emphasises the desirability of a continuation of the old European ideal of a wide-ranging education while also pointing to new and innovative challenges, such as the new modes of discourse found on The Internet. This new medium is persuasive but in many instances based on the insights of the past. Some of the most influential websites, such as e.g. Wikipedia, include material that is chosen mainly because it is now out of copyright and thus threaten to remove from the public’s view the insights that have been collected over the past century. This is not to say that the scholarship contained in these sites is wrong but it is very noticeable that out-of-date material has become more common in public discourse, a development that can be attributed to the fact that a small number of websites have become opinion leaders.

Opportunities

The profession of history, in tandem with other humanistic sciences, can enhance some of the core values of the European scientific enquiry. There is a need that must be met for strengthening the central core of enquiry into the humanities. An understanding of the past is particularly important in the increasingly globalised world of the twenty-first century. The discipline has much to contribute not only in the traditional fields of political and social and economic history, but also in the analysis of modern sciences and the way in which they have developed their insights in numerous fields, such as e.g. medical enquiry or nuclear physics. The professional historian is trained to provide a longer perspective than that normally seen in the sciences and a historical analysis of scientific problems can often help to pin-point structural difficulties in the scientific process.

Historians have communication skills that make it possible for them to contribute positively to the growing internationalisation of European society. It is for example well-know to the profession–but little appreciated in public discourse–that European society has always been fluid and that large migrations have taken place throughout most of recorded time. Professional historians can thus contribute to public discourse on a number of levels, locally, regionally, nationally, supranationally, etc. And through their enquiry encourage openness and a deeper cross-cultural understanding. Despite the centrality of the study of history to European culture, the profession faces a number of serious challenges. Some of them are related to the Bologna process, others come out of separate sociological and demographic changes. The Bologna reforms are broadly welcomed by the profession, since they encourage departments to combine large lecture classes with smaller discussion groups, require students to work throughout the term rather than just cramming for exams, and provide for more advising and individual tutorials to students. All these reforms are beneficial to the student.

However, the implementation of the process has raised some problems. In many places it is being implemented at “cost zero,” which means that lecturers have more teaching hours, advising hours, and marking, and therefore they face decreasing time for research.

There is a continuing and on-going threat to the breadth of historical enquiry and in this connection the Bologna process may have an adverse effect. A well-trained historian needs not only to master several languages in order to analyse the past, but the historian also needs to have command of a number of auxiliary disciplines. Among the many specialisms that are of potential benefit are such seemingly arcane subjects such as Numismatics (the study of coinage), Diplomatics (the critical study of documents to establish their worth as sources), Sigillography (the study of seals and signets) and of course a large number of arcane languages (e.g. Church Slavonic, Latin, Greek, Old Norse, Old English and a large number of medieval and early modern dialects). The Bologna Process with its emphasis on goals and progression may speed up students’ progression through the university system at a cost to these specialised auxiliary disciplines which cannot provide high throughputs but nevertheless provide essential training and perspectives for the historical profession. It is also noticeable that the implementation of the Bologna process has been liked to other, un-related administrative reforms, such as the elimination of “less-popular subjects,” including courses on classical civilization and the middle ages. In short, the profession faces the problem that not only is it losing auxiliary disciplines, such as Numismatics and Diplomatics, but also central parts of the curriculum, such as ancient and medieval history

The time constraints imposed by the Bologna Process combine with funding pressures to produce another challenge to the profession. The so-called “serials-crisis”—a combination of above-inflation rises in the cost of serials, fluctuations in currency rates (and therefore fluctuating prices), the increasing domination of scholarly communication by commercial publishers, and the increasing concentration of commercial publishing caused by the continuing merger of commercial publishers—is making it increasingly difficult for scholars to access journals. The The Blackwells Serials Price Index, for example, reports a 184.3 per cent increase in the price of journals for the decade from 1990-2000 while library budgets in the UK have been cut by 29 per cent from 1996-2001. An inquiry into the problem was conducted by the UK parliamentary sub-committee on Science and Technology in 2003-4, but little change has resulted from its work. In the meantime, one solution that is offered to university libraries across Europe—on-line access to entire runs of serials—offers some relief with regard to the rising cost of periodicals, though in some countries taxation makes this solution relatively more expensive by imposing taxes on on-line subscriptions. Publishers offer a multitude of packages, many of which only allow subscribers access to periodicals as long as their institutions maintain their payment of subscriptions. In the sciences this may be of less importance, as these subjects do not need to maintain a long historical horizon. For historians, however, it is of grave concern to see that many publications are becoming increasingly difficult to access both for reasons of perceived value among universities and for reasons of rising costs of storage.

An accompanying problem is the increased reliance by students on new technology such as The Internet. Of course, this could also be listed as a “Challenge”, but there is a real need for the profession to come to terms with the new technologies and develop methods of teaching students how to critically use these resources.

We mentioned the increased popularity of history as “entertainment” above. This development is both a blessing and a curse. It is of course gratifying to see the subject being appreciated among non-practitioners, but there are a number of worrying aspects of this development too. Most important is a possible gradual erosion of professional standards. The new market for history which has manifested itself in the last decade-and-a-half applies different standards to the study of history. Currently the line is drawn between presenting professionally sound, well-researched essays in whatever media and the merely persuasive argument. The proliferation of conspiracy theories, such as those surrounding the Kennedy assassination or the suppression of the Knights Templar are extreme examples of this problem. But it is also clear that the profession faces another problem: the popularity of the non-fiction subject of history means that some publishers are aiming for high publication figures rather than academic rigour. This development represents a worrying trend that needs to be addressed by somehow ensuring that ground-breaking research is not subjected to the vagaries of the market or becomes subject to implicit or explicit political control.

The situation is different in different European countries. If one takes the example of television programmes, German television seems to focus on non-controversial aspects of the past, as does history programmes on Rumanian television, France continues the tradition of high-quality programming that was instituted under the leadership of Jacques LeGoff, while the situation in Britain is more diverse. The proliferation of independent production companies and the increase in choice brought about by cable, satellite and digital television channels has meant that one can find a wide range of programmes of very varied quality.

The profession also faces demographic challenge across Europe. This can be explained fairly simply: it has been projected that in five to ten years the population cohort that goes to university will be much smaller than it is now. This will mean fewer students at university level and hence lower incomes across that part of the university sector which relies on student numbers to bring in money, i.e. mainly the non-technical subjects, such as History.

Consequently the profession is being told to prepare itself for stronger competition and to think up ways to secure our income. This means attracting new population groups, such as mature students and life-long learners, to our subject. In principle this is a good idea since motivation is such an important part of academic study and mature students can be relied on to be a responsive group of students who can enhance the learning experience of the younger and less experienced (school-leaver) student who have not had the opportunity to gain the skills of rapid learning or the analytical skills to their older counterparts. But there is also a downside to this solution: although there is little doubt that mature students and lifelong learners can raise the level of discussion in seminars, the disparate skills that this new group of students bring to universities may necessitate a re-imagining of history is taught. This is a particular concern in connection with the Bologna process which is concerned with year-on-year progression.

Demographic change brings along the associated problem the reliability of government predictions and the relative value governments attach to individual subjects: for example, some three decades ago, the major discussion point regarding tertiary education in Denmark was the need for the system to have produce enough Computer scientists and engineers. The government’s solution was to encourage computer science as an academic subject and to make it easier for students to be accepted into engineering courses. This has now resulted in an over-production of University trained computer scientists in Denmark so that this group currently exhibits the highest unemployment among academics: some 25 percent! Surprisingly, the traditional academic subjects, such as history, now exhibit much lower unemployment while at the same time being unable to assemble a qualified field of applicants to recruit new university teachers in the subject.