In addition, the multiculturalism discussed above means that students who know history will have seen many possible solutions to common political problems, and they will have seen some of the consequences common to those solutions. This process of socialization, it should be added, is conservative in that it presents the current political system and tries to educate the rising generation to work within or at least with that system, but it is neither radical nor conservative in how it expects them to work or the goals that are presented. Most historians are humanists, at least in the sense that they feel that all moral humans should actively work to improve the conditions of others. This rubs off, and with the better understanding of politics and public life we can hope that our students will be the leaders and the better part of any future social movements. Although history is imporant in all three parts of a liberal education, other disciplines and other approaches could serve most of the same functions.
History also brings something more to the table.
Ours is a discipline uniquely concerned with causes and consequences. We ask why and how. This question, repeated in many forms and used by all subfields of history, provides the information we need to reformulate Georges Santayana's classic expressions. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. This does not mean that time is circular and that the same exact characters and events come around again, it does mean that similar conditions and similar dilemnas have existed before, and to know that and how others dealt with the ensuing problems and unintended consequences is the first step towards coming up with a better solution this time.