Thinking Historically. Why should we study history and do historical social science? Most generically, because it is an intellectual pleasure. More specifically, because ahistorical thinking (aka presentism or short-termism) does not let us see many things.👇
10 Reasons Why We Should Thinking Historically:- The Enduring and the Passing. To gain a sense of what are the enduring questions in the study of societies and what issues are passing ones
- The Old and the New. To learn what is new and what is not new in contemporary times
- Cycle and Trend. To be able be distinguish cycles (e.g., the business cycle) from long-term trends (e.g., an increase in prosperity over several decades)
- Three Temporalities. To understand that time is plural, encompassing the longue durée, the intermediate conjuncture, and the short-term event (Braudel)
- Distant Cause and Historical Legacy. To understand that some features of societies are legacies of earlier processes
- Slow and Fast Change. To understand that change can happen in different ways - slowly at times, fast at others - and that both are important
- Before and After. To become aware that the timing or sequencing of processes (e.g., A happens before B) can make a difference to outcomes
- Changeability. To realize that what seems unchangeable can change, that societies are artifacts, which were made and can be remade
- Big Alternatives. To realize that a large repertoire of ways of organizing society are available
- The Reinvention of the Wheel. To build on past accomplishments and avoid spending time on problems that have already been solved