Why History Matters

by John Tosh

In this introduction to the practical application of History, John Tosh persuasively argues we are in danger of missing history's principal contribution. Using topical examples from the Iraq War to AIDs to globalization, this text shows how history can provide the basis for an informed and critical understanding of our society.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2008

About the author

John A. Tosh is a British historian and Professor Emeritus of History at Roehampton University. He gained his BA at the University of Oxford and his MA at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded his PhD by the University of London in 1973; his thesis topic being "Political Authority among the Langi of Northern Uganda, circa 1800–1939". He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 1987–88, he held a visiting appointment at the University of California, Davis. At Roehampton University, he teaches History, specifically "Reading and Writing History". He served as Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society from 1999 to 2002. He has also published several works on the history of masculinity in nineteenth-century Britain. He is currently preparing a critical analysis of the social applications of historical perspective in contemporary Britain.
Tosh's claim to originality and notability rests largely on his work as a historian and historiographer. Since the turn of the millennium, he has taken a leading role as a public historian in developing the history of masculinity and ensuring it has become an important dimension of social and cultural history. He has shown how domesticity, previously regarded as an aspect of women's history, also conditioned and influenced the lives of men and society. As a historiographer, he has updated the way we look at the study of history and how we construct our knowledge of the past, as well as providing insight into the works of other historians and their impact on the study of the subject.
He is the father of philosopher Nick Tosh.

Reviews

[Margaret Mehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

History is highly popular with the general public, as well as being frequently invoked in public debates. Right now we can find many examples of the ever popular comparison with Nazi Germany in the discourse surrounding Trump’s presidency.

Nevertheless there is a tendency among professional historians to leave public history to amateurs. Why History Matters is written primarily with a British readership in mind, but the overall message is relevant to interested readers everywhere. John Tosh (whose books also include a highly successful introduction to the study of history), acknowledges history’s potential to give “a sense of belonging.” Its chief importance, however, he argues, is for fostering informed and critical citizenship.

The essence of the historical perspective is the realization that the past is different from the present. Knowledge of the past can therefore open our eyes to alternatives to the present condition. Historians with their understanding of complexities and of sequence are in a position to expose the bad analogies often made in political arguments and articulate more useful ones. Tosh discusses the “Victorian family” as a case study. A historical understanding of the “Victorian family” in its context can put current notions of “the family in crisis” into perspective. The historian’s task thus is to disseminate reliable knowledge of the past that is relevant to issues of the day and to promote “thinking with history” and historical awareness. History education is important, not so much for fostering loyalty, but rather for developing citizens able to form a “considered and informed view of matters of public concern.” He ends by urging historians to become more engaged in public history, concluding that “(t)he prize is a critically armed and better informed public, providing the basis for a revitalized democratic culture.”

Tosh thus stresses the importance of history education not as a means to encourage patriotism but in order to develop informed citizens who will uphold democratic values. If only this were generally recognized, many current conflicts over the way the murkier aspects of a nation’s history are portrayed in school textbooks could be resolved.

[Slareck · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a summary than a review:

An argument that historical study should not be seen as a mere intellectual exercise--i.e. assuming that the past is remote, utterly contextual, and not relevant to the present--but instead can offer valuable insights for present-day folks to actively and competently engage with present-day issues. This can be done by retaining a professional historian's rigorous standards for truth, respect for context, and skepticism of presentism, and practicing "critical applied history," valuing the concepts of historicism: acknowledging profound differences between past and present and the processes over time which explain how the present has grown from the past. Crucially, "the contribution that historians can make to public debate is a by-product of broader enquiries based on the scholarly conventions of the discipline...A public role for history does not mean imposing a practical agenda on all research; what it foregrounds is the need to be alert to the implications that many of its findings have for civic discourse" (22).

Tosh then discusses three ways to practice "critical applied history." We can see the past as "another world," examining and conducting a dialogue with the vastly different times and peoples so that we may view our present from another vantage point, and understand what is persistent and what may be transient. We can also view the past as a process which has culminated in the present, tracing elements of the present to their historical origins to understand how we have "become ourselves." And we can use historical methods to elucidate analogies between the past and present--Tosh is very careful here to emphasize the dangers in doing this for political (or other agenda-driven) reasons as such a practice generally results in ignoring inconvenient differences between past and present, and concludes that this practice will generally not result in a hard prescription (e.g. just as we should not have appeased Hitler, we should also not let Saddam Hussein/Ho Chi Minh/insert your dictator continue to rule without intervening) but instead will "enlarge our sense of possibilities." Tosh then writes a brilliant extended case-study of the history of the Victorian family to elucidate these principles.

He finishes the book with two chapters on how the public could more actively use the findings of historians. The first is through various forms of public history--specifically, "critical public history," or "historical writing which addresses a general readership with the intention of fueling public debate: in short, a history for citizens" (103). The second is a conceptualization of history as a "citizen's resource." Following an brief but insightful discussion on the history of citizenship in Britain, Tosh advocates a more thorough integration of the process of historical thinking in school curricula (in its forms discussed in the above paragraph), as opposed to a preoccupation on making sure students know all the historical facts they might someday need (an impossible task, as Tosh shrewdly demonstrates by stating that no educator in the 1980s would have foreseen the future importance of the history of Iraq). He then discusses various ways for historians to disseminate their findings whilst keeping their academic integrity, finally concluding (carefully and tentatively) that to "promote public understanding of significant topical issues" historians may have to publish findings in concise formats, "removing the stages of argument by which the writer has come to the stated conclusion."

Overall an excellent introduction to the potentials of applied history, preserving and valuing the academic integrity of the profession and warning against potential abuses. Tosh has a clearly optimistic view of the body politic, as his unstated assumption is that it is actually possible to create a well-informed and critically engaged democratic public. Whether or not that is possible, our society should place a greater value on the process of historical thinking in the ways Tosh outlines here.

[Bram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why History Matters provides a practical argument about history as a critical resource for participating citizens of representative democracies. British historian John Tosh, a university teacher, who specialises in reading and writing history, presents a two-sided argument. On the one hand, history should provide proper background knowledge so that present-day issues can be placed in the appropriate historical context. On the other hand, a public that knows how to critically assess history can recognise historical myths that function as a reason to act in the present. Thus, according to John Tosh, the study of history should not be seen as a mere academic endeavour but should be seen as a valuable insight for the present-day public. Tosh does not always live up to his own advice; however, he provides the reader with some exciting ways to perceive the study of history.
To illustrate the aim of the book, Tosh gives the example of street crime. He argues that contrary to public opinion, street crime is not a recent phenomenon; instead, it is inherent in city life. He gives a multitude of examples to illustrate this point, and with this, he properly makes his point that the so-called present-day surge in street crime is not new. It has been resurfacing throughout the ages. Another example is the comparison of appeasement with the current situation in Iraq. This apparent analogy provided the British with a reason to join the Americans in their War on Terror. This analogy is blatantly false, but due to the lack of historical knowledge of the British public, it worked and made Britain go to a war that, in hindsight, was labelled unjust.
It becomes clear that for a democracy to function properly, the participating citizens need the ability to critically assess historical knowledge, even more so than is commonly recognised. One reason for the public’s inability of this critical assessment lies in the way history is taught under the National Curriculum. Tosh rightly claims that history is taught in separate blocks due to the need to represent a multicultural country. Since every political body has to have its own piece of the history curriculum, the larger picture gets lost. Tosh is, of course, not claiming that subjects like the Holocaust or the slave trade do not have a place in the curriculum. However, these pieces of history should not be taught in separate blocks; they need to be placed in a larger historical continuum. The fact that this is not done, according to Tosh, explains the inability to evaluate current day events in the more extensive historical progression.
Another reason for the public not being able to critically assess history is due to the reticence of professional historians to engage with the public about historical matters. Tosh claims that it is necessary for historians to explain to the public why history matters. One of the tasks for the historian should be to give a pertinent historical background of present-day issues.
Tosh, therefore, argues that the lack of British historical knowledge about the mandate period made the British unaware of the troubles that lay ahead; if they would only have known about their struggle in the period after the First World War, they would have known that the occupation of Iraq would have been challenging, to say the least. This is, to some extent, true. However, Tosh does not mention the real reasons Britain went to war in Iraq. Of course, the actual cause was that Saddam Hussein allegedly produced weapons of mass destruction, which was deemed false as early as the Kelly Affair of 2002. Therefore, to be a historically informed public, one should consider not only British history but also American history, or world history for that matter, since one finds in American history the real reasons for the Iraq War. Because were not the Americans the main initiators of this war? Even though Tosh aims to show that present-day events should be examined on a large historical scale, the book is too much oriented at British history. Therefore, one of the biggest lessons of history, namely the lesson of historic entanglement, remains underexposed.
Another example of the lack of a broader historical view is the analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Again, Tosh names a valuable tool to put a present-day issue in the right historical context. His advice is to push the story’s starting point back far enough to bring into historical focus all the key elements of the situation that has to be explained. To give a concrete example, Tosh claims that in the present-day, the American public takes the 1967 Six-Day War as their basepoint to talk about the conflict. Tosh rightly asserts that this baseline is too short-sighted. He suggests taking the ejecting of Arab-Palestinians of 1948 (al-Nakba) as the baseline. But why is this a proper baseline? Since, the expulsion of Arabs was a consequence of the 1947-1949 war, which was a consequence of the Arab attack after the Israeli declaration of independence, which was a consequence of the United Nations partition plan. Therefore, putting al-Nakba in a proper historical scope, one should at least start in 1947, but why start here? Another baseline could be the 1917 Balfour declaration in which Great Britain pledged land that was not theirs to the Jewish people or take as a baseline the first Zionist Congress in 1897. To conclude this point, the idea of pushing the starting point back to put the entire story in scope is a good one; however, Tosh should be more careful in deciding on a baseline. This again shows his Britain centrism and the book’s underexposure of historical entanglement.
John Tosh’s hyper-focus on Great Britain is not all doom and gloom. In Why History Matters, one can find astounding assessments about British history. Tosh writes, for example, about the crisis in modern masculinity. He cleverly, although implicitly, argues that the assumption that the crisis of masculinity revolves around the troubling notion that equality is a feminine value that threatens the male identity is wrong. Tosh does so by providing an analogy with the fin de siècle. He argues that manhood was also perceived as being under threat at this time, showing that these fears have existed since the emancipation of women. Therefore, this present-day feeling can be understood analogously with man’s feelings at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, Tosh also warns the reader of the misuse of analogy, think for example, about the way the appeasement analogy was used to justify the Iraq War. Therefore, Tosh once again shows that it is the task of the public and historians to critically assess these uses and abuses of history.
Another very well-worked example of an abuse of history that Tosh has debunked is Margaret Thatcher’s false nostalgia for the Victorian Era. Thatcher portrayed this era as the perfect time; she portrayed it as if the values of that age were ideal and that in her age, this way of living, with the family as its most crucial aspect, should be regenerated. Tosh beautifully describes why this nostalgia is false by explaining how living in the Victorian Era actually was for the majority of people. By debunking this nostalgia, he shows once more the importance of a critical assessment of history.
To conclude, Why History Matters, even though it has problems with British centrism, is well worth the effort of reading, not only because it is beautifully written but also because the above-mentioned points are worked out remarkably. Moreover, as a history student who is often struggling with the question about the meaning of history, I can highly recommend Why History Matters because it demonstrates thoroughly that history matters.

[Jack Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Why History Matters, John Tosh advocates for the development of 'historical thinking' in the public sphere. Tosh takes a microscopic view of specific episodes and examples of historical illiteracy from both the general public and policy makers in order to explore the challenges inherent in raising historical consciousness.

There is significant breadth of material in such a short book. John Tosh should be commended for his ability to surgically dissect the impacts of very specific instances of misplaced historical thinking. Structurally, Tosh takes readers through a variety of themes and fault-lines of applied history in the public sphere such as the proliferation of analogical thinking and 'golden age' theories of the past. Tosh is at his strongest when he is exploring specific case studies (most notably an incredibly engaging chapter on the 'Crisis' of the family in Thatcher's Britain). Tosh's overall arguments can sometimes get lost in the minutiae, and these case studies such as Thatcher's Britain or the Iraq War not only illuminate the key issues but they also invigorate the readability of the text. Attempts are made throughout to do this (including a particularly interesting discussion of the comparisons between the post-war reconstruction of Japan and the occupation of Iraq) however the structure of the argument could do with more grounding in these historical episodes.

Tosh prescribes an active role for historians in the public sphere, one that amplifies their findings and encourages the development of a more sophisticated approach to the past. Whilst I do have some qualms about the presentation of his ideas, the argument itself is both sound and vital.

[Susie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly dull unfortunately and just couldn’t finish it no matter how hard I persisted.

[Caitlin McGregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect (as is always the case with Tosh)

[Mr. Twinkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see that John Tosh is not the most popular author on history on Goodreads. That must make for an interesting read.