In the statement above, the author concludes that the study of history has value only when the study is relevant to our daily lives. I would like to argue that it is not the only way to evaluate the study of history. There are many useful aspects of study of history which make function for other studies. Historical study will never serve its function just under the basic description of the daily life.
First of all, the study of history is valuable for the reason that history helps us understand people and societies which is not only to the extent that is relevant to our daily lives but also the things that does not happen before. The aim of the study of history does not merely relies on describing historical facts but also attempts to figure out why people behave and how the society develops and how will it operate in the future. The study of history works like a laboratory in which the historians draw out the abstract data from the historical materials to take a contemplation of the complexities of people’s behaviours under certain historical settings. To make reference to the past is one of the most important function for historical research which has a great value. A nation in a peace can also evaluate war by the study of history. Learning from the war in past can give them a meaningful lesson that the tremendous disaster ever happen in the war age and what we can do to strive to avoid it as much as possible. To study the wars in history gains its great value from this point of view, though wars are never happen in our daily life in peace age. Thus we cannot easily draw a hasty conclusion that only the study of history about daily life is valuable in the historical realm.
Secondly, the study of history has an irreplaceable value because that a serious study of history can make a good guide to a better understanding of other subjects which will involve many things in a singularly broad scope but not only about daily life. Everything has a history, even for history itself. If we want to learn something in literature or philosophy, by only to read the work of Plato, Dante, Marx and a host of the “greats” is not enough. The actual historical context in which these writers conceived is also needed and itwill give an indispensable supplements for the real comprehension of the thoughts of these people. The historical context is not only told by the anecdote of the daily lives but also the historical environment that gave rise to their ideas, such as the influence of certain religion or the dominate social value in certain period in history. Even if the thought has been forgotten or disappeared in centuries later and irrelevant to the daily life nowadays, It still value a lot at that time for these historical figures. If we neglect such important factors in history, we will not get a throughout understand on the subject or even lead to misunderstood or one-side opinion. Thus not only the things which is relative to our daily life is valuable in the study of history, but also the study of many other things in history, such as social values or development of culture, will gain great value as well .
To sum up, the study of history is a good tool to recognize the past and make a reference to the thing going to happen in the future. Historical study, as the reference to many other subjects at the same time, involves many aspects of study that have a certain function for the study of other subjects, not only relevant to daily life.