Peter Stern Why Study History Summary

In Peter Stern’s “Why Study History” document, he focuses on some reasons and ideas for

studying history. Howard Zinn’s speech “Just War” gives some enlightenment on one of Stern's many ideas, moral understanding. Moral understanding according to Stern is to acknowledge your own meaning of morality, right or wrong, by comparing past adversities and administering change for the better in the present and future. Zinn speaks about and argues that the act of war is unjustifiable and inhumane due to the fact that it has been going on for centuries without any real progress. He insists that the government benefits from war while being insensitive to justice, peace, and the human rights of its people and in order to abolish war, we as citizens