
Introduction
With GCSE choices on the horizon, choosing subjects can feel like rejecting your best friend! It is a time of year when there are interesting conversations.
One might enjoy a subject, but does it serve a 'purpose'? Will it contribute to a CV that will access the best universities and jobs?
History is a fascinating subject in this conversation and is often a question posed at school interviews and entrance examinations.
What is the point in studying History if it is all in the past?
My personal experience with History and Historiography
I've always loved History and historiography. To be independent, free-thinking, creative, self-sufficient agents of the humanities who can make valuable contributions to the worlds of politics, arts, philosophy, young people need to learn how to think for themselves - to be individuals. To have creative impetus - that is, to have the urge to implement any change or offer any contribution, small or large, worldwide or microcosmic, either within academia or the creative arts - they need to be able to think freely, and to know the value of their own thoughts.
Why Study History?

The Importance of History in Education
A confident and solid historical understanding, a knowledge of history, will exponentially deepen a student’s confidence in themselves, in their own ideas, in the validity and value of their own contributions.
Studying historical figures and the histories of thought can be gratifying and valuable in personal ways: the feeling of recognition, empathy, and understanding that you can experience in finding something in the past that you relate to, that you can understand in emotional primitive human ways, is incredibly grounding. It takes away the sense of removed-ness, of detachedness, that can often accompany the course of formal academic historical study.
It is this familiarity, this ownership that a student can feel over their subject, that will bolster a student’s confidence in themselves, and consequently, their confidence in their contributions to academia. It is the students who can talk about things - about people, events, topics, anything - with humanity and authenticity, with genuineness, that will strike those around them as worth listening to.
How Does History Enhance Critical Thinking?
Developing Critical Thinking Through Historical Study
Any Oxbridge-History hopeful will hear old graduates and university professors talking about the importance and centrality of ‘critical thinking’. And for good reason. When we talk about critical thinking we mean someone’s capacity to consider ideas objectively, with an appropriate degree of scepticism.
To think ‘critically’ is to think in a way that deviates from unquestioning acceptance of a proposal, of a concept, of a judgement, of an idea, of a theory, of a way of life, of a set of politics, of a set of beliefs.
It is the study of history that exercises and nourishes this faculty: when we think about the past we are forced to intellectually confront the present - what we think we know -, to confront the ideas which we have previously just accepted, or not considered too closely.
History teaches change, impermanence. It demonstrates to us the fluidity of everything, the relativity of apparent certainties, the subjectivity of everything. The study of history is the observation and understanding of change over time.
It has shown us, for example, the epic rise and fall of the centrality of religion in the western world, the once-certain hegemony of Christianity and its descent into subordination, next to atheism. History shows us the changeability of moral and ethical conclusions, the transformation of global landscapes, borders, the growth and collapse of regimes, ideas, practices.

The Emotional and Personal Value of History
Building Empathy and Self-Confidence Through History
Why is it that we often excuse an out-of-touch older family relative who uses a word that silences everyone at the dinner table, when, if anyone else did the same, disbelief and argument would ensue? It is precisely because they are ‘out-of-touch’: their predispositions, their personalities, their biases, their conditioning, their morals, ethics, judgements, and ideas are products of a different time, a different temporality: we understand that time has passed between their lives and ours.
The more detailed, and the deeper our understanding of this passing of time, the greater our capacity is for forgiveness, the clearer we can see the innocence of the comment that relative made. It is these mental tools, this mental framework, that is born, developed, matured, and enhanced by the study of History.
History will not be the discipline that every student wants to dedicate their life or career to, in a formal, academic sense, but History is at the heart of any good comprehensive study, of any area of thought, of any subject, of any understanding.
History and Other Subjects: Interdisciplinary Connections
Why Historical Context Matters in Literature and the Arts
Within the study of English Literature, for example, how can any child fully get to grips with the intricacies of the poetry of the Romantics without a historical understanding of the Industrial Revolution?
How could they be expected to fully understand the meaning and significance of William Blake’s “dark satanic mills”, disfiguring “England’s mountains green”, without being able to imagine the scene, without having an impression, an idea, of the reception of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th-century artistic world, without being able to empathise somewhat?

How could any child in the 21st century be expected to properly appreciate Shakespeare without first acknowledging the profound extent to which comedic taste and humour has changed over time? “Why don’t we find these jokes funny?” “Why isn’t the meaning immediately obvious to me?” These questions can be answered, and any student’s self-deprecating doubt in their comprehensive ability eradicated, by even the vaguest bit of historical context, with even the vaguest bit of historical understanding.
Even if a child has little interest in literature, does an understanding of the cultural revolutions of the 1960s not enhance the experience of listening to the music of the Beatles, of Bob Dylan and the like? Those who grew up experiencing these cultural revolutions and societal shifts were part of the history that we all deserve to know, to understand.
To understand why artists felt and thought the way they did, to be able to enjoy their contributions on a level deeper than the surface-level enjoyment that we can all derive from consuming a piece of art, people need historical context.

Frequently Asked Questions About Studying History
Top Questions About Studying History
Why is History important for GCSE students? History teaches critical thinking, empathy, and adaptability, skills essential for academic and professional success.
How does History help with university applications? Universities value students who can think critically and engage in evidence-based reasoning, skills honed through History.
Can History improve understanding of other subjects? Yes, History provides context for literature, art, and cultural studies, enriching learning across disciplines.
What careers can History lead to? Beyond academia, History equips students for careers in law, politics, journalism, and the creative arts.
Is History still relevant in the modern world? Yes! Understanding change and cultural context is vital for navigating today’s dynamic, globalised world.
Key Takeaways
History develops critical thinking and independent thought.
It builds empathy and strengthens self-confidence.
Interdisciplinary connections make History essential for understanding literature, art, and culture.
A strong historical foundation prepares students for academic and professional success.
Conclusion
Perhaps you have already been doing these things - reading Romantic poetry and thinking of an image of a green hillside marred by blackened smoky factories, reading Shakespeare with the image of the Globe Theatre in mind, aware of the audience for which he wrote, listening to the sounds of the Swinging Sixties marvelling at the ways in which the world was changing - historical understanding is something people sometimes don’t even acknowledge they have.
The benefits we reap from these pieces of knowledge are infinitely expounded and deepened by undertaking the formal study of History: no matter how tentatively or lightly someone dips their toe into historical study, they will benefit philosophically from the endeavour.
I have certainly never been bored at a dinner table when sat next to a historian. I am scratching the surface here. History is more than a subject, it’s the foundation for critical thinking, empathy, and lifelong curiosity and interest.
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