Stuart Austin at LSE IDEAS, The London School of Economics and Political Science, shares the importance of history as humanity’s guidebook for strategy, empathy and resilience in the 21st Century
History is currently playing a heightened role in international affairs and the shifting world order. At the time of writing (and it is barely possible to keep up) the Trump administration has only slightly climbed down on its self-made Greenland crisis – “the fact [Denmark] landed a boat there 500 years ago doesn’t mean they own the land” – and immediately after President Trump brazenly insulted NATO allies with false claims they stayed “off the frontlines” in Afghanistan from 2001.
In an age where ‘flooding the zone’ can sweep us up in never-ending outrage and gloom, the study of history allows us to understand and establish a framework for who we are and where we’ve come from; to trace our progress as a civilisation and respond to decline. It allows us to address frightening changes and challenges and to highlight policy areas to prioritise. Its strength lies in its capacity to build both critical thinking and empathy skills – crucial for a healthy society, public policy and international relations.
Happening again
Today’s 24-hour media landscape throws out one word rather too often: ‘unprecedented’. It is true that the U.S. threatening its NATO allies with military force is indeed unprecedented. Historically, however, while tragic, alliances break down for all manner of reasons underlying and/or contingent. Although schismatic, it is also not unprecedented that the U.S. and a Western power have gone to war over economic and imperialist goals. The Trump administration is attempting a return to a hemispheric, imperialist order; it is therefore important to understand what happened during previous iterations so that governments and civic societies can form a response.
That is not to say history is deterministic. The maxim that history repeats itself, and therefore we should know the policies and ideas to solve our problems, is overused. History, however, is not an instruction manual but a guidebook. Cycles of progress and decline, order and instability obviously occur, but the specific context varies. Understanding our history instead allows us to prepare for instability and disorder, and to avoid key mistakes while navigating a path to greater stability, security and prosperity.
The mind of the other
History provides a deeper understanding of the identity of the ‘other’: people at home with whom we don’t agree, different cultures at home and abroad, and adversarial states threatening our security. Engaging with primary sources like letters, diaries, interviews, and photographs helps us appreciate the nuance behind global shifts and persist in our search for a usable past. Moving beyond attempts to psychoanalyse individual leaders, history explores motives for war and the germinating seeds for conflicts, thus informing negotiations for peace and trade deals.
For decades, immigration has been a hot-button socio-political issue for the UK; in recent years, this has intensified with Brexit, race riots, nationalist protests, and flag-fetishising. Deepening the understanding of our history can do two things: to explain why and how Britain became a multicultural, post-industrial society, and where it could be heading; and allow us to empathise with the fears of those feeling disconnected from a changing Britain. This is the path toward social cohesion and can highlight policy areas to address these fissures – especially in terms of economic disparity and social mobility.
Critical thinking
Churchill famously remarked that “History is written by the victors”, a truism of a pre-digitalised world. On 6 January 2026, five years on from the 2021 Capitol insurrection attempt, the Trump White House published a complete rewrite of history, which calls the rioters “mere trespassers and peaceful protestors”, alleging that the Democrats weaponised institutions of state to carry out ‘their own insurrection’ and jail ‘patriots’ without due process.
The White House challenges all available evidence that runs contrary to its statements – in modern parlance, ‘gaslighting’ – and we have more historical evidence now (again, flooding the zone) than any other time in history: with video, photography, and social media. Both the academic study of History and the civic learning of history bolster, and rest on, on critical thinking skills: Who wrote this official narrative? Why? Within what context was it written?
When any government engages in harmful disinformation and myth-making, it telegraphs its intentions and nature. Deep historical thinking can help any populace see through the fog of today’s complex world. Fascism is the word of the hour in 2026 – journalists, intellectuals and politicians fret over its application.
Critically studying the available evidence of any event or crisis allows us to break down the official narrative and counter the disinformation. Historically, we have been here before, even if the faces and names are different. It is frightening, but not unprecedented, and we have our guidebook.
The arc of the human story shows a species persisting in the face of adversity, proving that we have the ability and a duty to continue doing so. History, and the key skills it nurtures, allows societies, governments and the international community to prepare attitudes, societal resolve, policies and strategies to face the daunting challenges of the 21st Century.
