Haunted America, the Value of History

In the essay Haunted America, Patricia Nelson Limerick ponders whether or not there is any benefit for society to have historical knowledge. Limerick contradicts herself numerous times in her opinion on the usefulness of history. She implies that there are many lessons that can be learned from history. However, Limerick is disappointed in the human race because it fails to learn from the mistakes of others. She therefore wonders, "What do we gain besides a revival and restoration of the misery?" (Limerick, 473). Based on Limerick's examination of people and history, one can conclude that objectively history is useless, however, theoretically, people would be much better off if they learned from the lessons that the past presents.

To an extent, history is detrimental to modern readers because it presents them with a record of the people's past miseries. For example, when one reads about the Battle of Bad Axe, he is presented with the horrors of human cruelty. Limerick depicts the memory of the Battle of Bad Axe by stating that "water, on August 2, 1832, was reddened with the blood of the wounded Sauk and Fox people trying to escape the bullets of American troops. [...] The Inds. were pushed literally into the Mississippi, the current of which was at one time perceptibly tingled with the blood of the Indians who were shot on its margin & in the stream..." (472). Limerick points out that "there is no way to be truly braced for the dreadful reality of these events" (473). After reading about such an event, the reader feels depression, sadness, and disappointment in humans. This event makes one re-live the misery of the past. Such events in history show the ugly side of human nature. When reading about wars, the reader immerses hims...

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...rom making the same mistakes over and over. The data shows that the number of people that died due to violence in twentieth century is higher than the number of people that died in the nineteenth century. Limerick writes: "By the measure of numbers, the comparison between violence in the nineteenth century and violence in the twentieth century clearly works to the disadvantage of our times" (497). Humans do not seem to learn that wars and violence are not the best way to resolve arguments. She goes on to stating that "whatever else we learn from numbers, we learn that twentieth-century human beings do not have much in the way of moral high ground" (497). Limerick implies that people today are not morally higher due to a greater historical awareness than they were a century ago.

Theoretically, if human beings learned from history, they would be much better off.