History does not have lessons. This may come as a surprise, as it is common to hear people talking about learning ‘the lessons’ of the past or claiming that ‘history is on my side’, but I think it is true. If historical events carry simple lessons, it suggests that the same actions will always have the same result. But they do not. Just because one coup attempt fails, it does not mean that all coup attempts are futile. The fact that one invasion of a country succeeded does not mean that other attempts will also succeed. The fact that one set of circumstances produced a dictatorship does not mean that similar circumstances will always do the same. Every disastrous or failed development in human history has had its supporters claiming that it has ‘history on its side’, or that its opponents will end up in the ‘dustbin of history’. History is many things, but it is not a dustbin.
History is primarily a method of disciplined understanding, and its underlying principle is a respect for the truth. When historians come up with a new way of interpreting the past – one which challenges and changes the way we have understood it hitherto – they are not doing it to be contrary or to fulfil a whim. Rather, they do it because in some way they think their new thinking gets us closer to the truth.
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