“Why Does New Amsterdam History Matter? Because History Matters” [maybe?]

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George A.N. Santayana (1863-1952)

I am often reminded of this quotation attributed to the Spanish/U.S. philosopher George Santayana whenever I am asked about the value of history. Here, I dive in to explain history’s relevance.

History is part of the family of social sciences, which includes law, economics, sociology, government, and public administration. History tries to teach us about certain things:

• Why do some societies succeed and others fail?
• Why do nations go to war?
• How and why do people change society for better or for worse?
• Can history help policy makers and government leaders make better decisions?

The broader questions to ask ourselves are these: What is the point of studying history? How do we know about the past? Does an objective historical truth exist? And what lessons can we—and future generations—learn from historical events?

When I was an undergraduate at New York University, I read Edward Hallett Carr’s What Is History? Edward Hallett Carr (1892–1982), who in addition to being a historian and journalist, served as a diplomat and delegate from the United Kingdom to the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference following the end of World War I. Carr’s basic approach to history was from the perspective of someone who had lived through the major events of the 20th century (World Wars I and II; the Great Depression; the Holocaust; and the Cold War).

Carr saw history as a continuous dialogue between the past and present. He believed that historians are influenced by the society that surrounds them. He thought that history was more of a science than an art; and it is history that contributes to the contemporary understanding not only of a nation’s experiences, but also politics and relationships among nations and peoples.

My career has been in the field of public administration—as a government practitioner, higher education administrator, and now as a professor of public policy. History provides valuable materials and tools for those who study public administration, as it is the working laboratory of human experience.

To study a nation’s administrative systems, according to Leonard D. White (author of The Federalists and The Jeffersonians), would be incomplete without examining a nation’s historical experiences.

History provides valuable contributions in the area of decision-making. The classic study of decision-making in a crisis situation is, and remains today, Graham T. Allison’s work Essence of Decision, which analyzed the decision-making process followed by President John F. Kennedy during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the United States and the Soviet Union came perilously close to a nuclear confrontation.

Dean Allison’s work, as well as Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May’s Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, illustrate how one can use the ideas and lessons learned from history to interpret current problems and situations, and make more effective decisions.

Thus, I like to think that the history of New Amsterdam provides enduring material for current and future generations to apply to their problems—and the resolution of them.