John Stewart Monaghan repeats Henry Ford's claim that ''all history is bunk'' to support his own thesis that history is irrelevant in human affairs (History teaches us nothing useful, Letters, May 15). He could not have chosen a more unreliable or discredited witness than Henry Ford to back his case against history's legitimacy in the conduct of human affairs.
As a historian, may I point out that in 1916, Henry Ford sent a telegram to Pope Benedict V begging that Pontiff to try to stop the slaughter of the First World War. The problem was that Pope Benedict V had been dead for many centuries before 1916. Thus, had Ford shown the historian's proper passion for historically accurate fact, he would have known this, and that the Pope in 1916 was Pope Benedict XV – not the centuries-long, long, dead Benedict V.
Similarly, those in receipt of the lucrative income streams from Scotland's many historically linked tourist attractions such as Edinburgh Castle will be equally baffled by Mr Monaghan's absurd claim that history does not matter. The perpetually jingling cash tills at Scotland's history-linked tourist attractions such as Perthshire's Doune Castle tell a different story.
Those who forget the lessons from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat those mistakes.
Brian Donald
Kirkcaldy
Mr Monaghan thinks studying history is akin to stamp collecting. Above my classroom door was George Santayan's quotation: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it." Think about the Japanese attacking Port Arthur in 1904 before the Russians received the Japanese declaration of war, think Pearl Harbor 1941. Study history, weigh the facts, conclude, act or ignore – but think.
Colin Campbell
Kilbarchan
As a retired history teacher I would like to offer an alternative to Mr Monaghan’s quotation from the wisdom of Henry Ford: “Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.” Mr Hitler has crept back into the news a bit recently. He failed to learn the lessons of history, invaded Russia and fought a war on two fronts. The experience of Napoleon in 1812 should have warned him against this action. Because we learn from history and from the past the, events of 1932-45 have made us wary of anti-Semitism. An understanding of what happened in the past helps us to understand present society and its problems. History isn’t bunk. Failure to learn from past mistakes and experience is a form of stupidity.
Ronald Cameron,
Banavie
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