Is the Past ‘A Foreign Country’?

History can be scary and gruesome. But we need to learn it to understand the human condition and our own capacity for great and horrible behavior

In this Ted lecture, Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb asks whether the past is a foreign country, so different from the present, and if that is so, why do we, in our recollections and re-creations, make past people so similar in thinking to ourselves? Lipscomb is an historian, author, broadcaster and award-winning academic. She read modern history at Oxford and has continued her passion for 16th century history.

She asserts that indeed, the past is a foreign country, and people do think and act differently there.

“The past doesn’t repeat itself, but it’s the best guide we’ve got,” she says, quoting others. It is written not to revere the dead, but to inspire the living. It provides the secret of who we are. That’s why the television series, “Who Do You Think You Are?” is popular, and “Horrible Histories” is as well. She contends we need to don the mindset of the people of the past in order to understand them, and refrain from moral judgment while we are doing so.

The past is scary, she argues. If we really understood the gruesomeness of the past, we might understand more about the human condition than we really want to. “We need to be brave,” she concludes. “We need to step through the looking glass, into the other side, and not keep on gazing at our own reflection.”

Teaching About the Past As a Foreign Country. People Are So Blind To Others’ Sufferings; They Don’t See the Truth for Years

High school students resist the notion of studying the past because they are so obsessed with individuating from their parents, discovering their identity and creating something new. But if their imaginations can be sparked for reflection, travel or consideration of how time changes perspectives, they might take some interest. The British author L.P. Hartley,