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Why is history interesting, and how does it help us today?

History is very interesting because it does help us today. So many events in history have relevance to current events. History repeats itself over and over again. The names and places may change, but the basic events are very similar. If you can see the similarities between past and present events, you should see how relevant history is. It is our job to learn from the past so we don’t keep repeating the same mistakes now and in the future.


A fairly recent example of this can be seen with the Great Recession of 2008-2010. There are some parallels between the events of the Great Recession to the events of the Great Depression of the 1930s. One of the events leading to the Great Depression was risky investment practices. In the 1920s, banks made loans to many people who were already in debt or who didn’t have an income level that could support the loans they were receiving. People were also investing in companies without doing much research on these companies. In the Great Recession of 2008-2010, banks again made risky loans. This time, it was to people who wanted to buy a home. Some of these people didn’t have the income level to support the loan they were receiving. When these people couldn’t pay back their loan, banks suffered big losses. This helped send the economy into a downward spiral. If we had learned some lessons from the events leading to the Great Depression, the banks wouldn’t have made some of these risky loans.


There are many parallels between the past and the present. If we learn from the past, we can make better decisions now and in the future.

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