Well, of course, the Republican Party of today doesn’t stand for the same things that the Republicans did in Lincoln’s day. Or even so much in Teddy Roosevelt’s day. Sometimes I wonder how many modern-day far-right Tea Party type Republicans know or remember that.
Amongst all the Republican rhetoric I read or hear these days, there is a certain amount of crowing about how bad Democrats are, the proof being in comparison to various wonderful things that past Republican politicians have done. Well, duh! Once upon a time, the Democrats were primarily conservatives and Republicans were primarily liberals and progressives.
This is certainly an example of why it’s a good idea to know something about history.
I went to a college once where they required World History instead of American History. (And this was in the United States! Hawaii, to be exact.)
Of all that I learned (and mostly forgot) in that class, one lesson impressed me, that I (vaguely) remember. This may be an example of some history worth knowing.
Once upon a time there was a big empire in Europe. A succession of them, actually, over all those centuries. One of them (I forgot which) attempted to suppress the regional cultures and religions of all the outlying areas, forcibly assimilating all the subjects empire-wide to the culture and religion of the seat of the empire. This empire was seemingly successful, and this empire persisted for 700 years or so. Then eventually this empire disintegrated and the outlying regions began to assert their autonomy again.
The regional native languages began to re-appear, the regional cultures, modes of dress, and other customs, etc., began to re-appear. This, after having been suppressed for 700 years! THAT impressed me, that the local cultures couldn’t be exterminated even after all that time, and all those generations. That’s probably something worth knowing from history.
The same thing repeated, in smaller scale, in the experience of the Soviet Union and its demise. They tried to suppress regional cultures, in particular the suppression of religion. When the Soviet Union collapsed (after a mere 70 years, with some living memory still of the days of the Czars), religious and regional cultural things re-emerged. (To the extent that they were ever successfully suppressed in the first place.)