Hist2: Why should History be important to you? And why is it to me? (v1.0)

 History should be important to you for at least two main reasons.

It gives you information and context and insights about who you are, your heritage, where you came from, who were your predecessors, how did they live and what did they do, etc. It is tied to your identity. My heritage is Indian, more specifically South Indian, and I am interested in south Indian history (much of the deep south is Dravidian as opposed to Aryan).  This is my heritage from birth. I am not just interested in recent South Indian history but also ancient south Indian history. I pay far less attention to north Indian history.

The second reason is to learn from history to shed light on today to better understand it. To me for this purpose ancient history is not useful since notions of right and wrong, customs, and economic realities are far removed from today and may not be very relevant. Also using the contemporary lens and notions of morality and thinking to judge the past is inappropriate and I have no interest in that. History is a long saga of carnage galore and subjugation of people. But though putting the way it was then next to the way it is today to see the progress in the human condition is teachable about the present. 

For me what is useful is American history mostly after World War II and the black civil rights movement and the aftermaths.  I believe the blacks through their struggles for more rights also conferred those rights to nonwhite immigrants like me who followed much later. We benefited from their struggles. I am also interested in the history since World War II because most of the major institutions that glue together the world today and current laws in the books arose after that as did the rule-based world order. As far as the ancient American history goes, I do study and appreciate the products of that period like the constitution, and the system of government, which are all very relevant today, more than the history behind it. I have an overall general knowledge though of American History (needed for citizenship test!!!).

There are other reasons too like a key consequential period that shaped world history that is interesting. Examples are the rise of Hitler, the rise of Mussolini, the rise of imperial Japan, the spread of the Mongols empire, the fall of the ottoman empire, the American war of Independence (was it in reality a world war?), etc. Human nature does not change and many of these periods are centered around a key individual and lessons from that could be used to project what could happen in the future and what conditions gave rise to that. 

Not everyone will agree with my selective utilitarian approach to history!! There are lots of people who believe all history is important and has teachable parts. I fudge it and spend much less time on it than I probably could with my approach!! It is efficient for me. 

History therefore is important. In school a lot is shoved down your throat and you cram it with hardly any insights or broader understanding (at least for me - I found history in school boring). I believe one should pick the topics you are interested in later in life and study it on your own to get more out of it. 

Beware of actors with agendas who want to rewrite history or whitewash it. History should be the unvarnished truth with all its ugliness and inconvenient facts and soaring moments else how else will we learn from it? Reading history should not be a feel-good exercise. Be skeptical of the agenda of anyone who tries to tell you a “truth” That person could have innocently read it somewhere else, so the chain goes back. 

You might wonder what makes a "true" American citizen. The history and heritage that is yours or the constitution, system of government, laws, and institutions that you follow and strongly believe in which is true also for immigrants? I believe it is the latter because America has historically been a country of immigrants.