What Can We Learn From History, Essay Example

History presents a chronology of events that are meant to make us understand certain aspects about our social lives. History generally comprises of lessons to be learned, mistakes that we need to avoid as well as assumptions that we should not make. This implies that the past events have great significance in our daily lives and teaches us a couple of things that we need to avoid in order to be successful. According to Neustadt and May, through history, we need to learn the right lessons; and such lessons should teach us about the similarities that exist between now and the past as well as the major differences. Margret Macmillan however gives different perceptions towards history and how people have manipulated it to suite their political and nationalism agendas. According to Macmillan, history enlightens us about the keenness, pain, honesty, and the manner in which the past generation pursued their objectives that now seem wrong in our sights. Therefore in Macmillan ought opinion, history to teach us more of humility, awareness and skepticism about ourselves and past. According to David Kennedy, history is all about understanding the weak nature of human motivations rather than a fountain or a key to unlock the future. Thus, the purpose of history is to always make us not only prepared to face nest time issues but to be wise forever. Therefore, history teaches us what we need observe and learn to keep us living perfectly without repeating the past mistakes that caused downfalls to individuals in the past.

Lee Harvey Oswald was a marine officer who later on maimed the 35^th president of the US. He joined the marine forces at 19 after attending many schools and living in many towns with the mother. He however did not complete his high school diploma. He performed well at the marine forces and even studies Russian. Lee Harvey Oswald was however killed two days after the murder of John F Kennedy through a bullet shot on his chest.

One of the most important lessons about Lee Harvey Oswald assassination of John F. Kennedy is that an individual’s past can greatly affect their future. Lee had a history full of conflicts with people; all these began when he had conflicts with the mother, later on after joining the army, he had various conflicts and charges of violence. His betrayal of the US army and joining the Soviet revealed many things about him. Consequently, his attempted murder of general walker depicts his violent nature and capability to perform murders irrespective of the target’s position. The important lesson herein is that history teaches a lot of things, it can be use to predict a person’s future and actions. Had Lee been kept on keen watch after the various violent allegations that were levied upon him previously, he could have been kept from assassinating the president.

Oswald’s motive for assassinating John F Kennedy was that he wanted to go down into the books of history as the Man who murdered the president. His great resentment for the authority in every society he lived in made him capable of performing such atrocities. However, in weak of such arguments, many critics still believe that Lee was not responsible for the assassination of John F Kennedy since he had never shown any ill motive against him. Furthermore, critics state that the assassination of the president could not have been a lone task. This therefore leaves many questions unanswered about the president assassination.