We are talking here about purpose, goals, ambition in the humane sense. You may say that a study of psychology or a psychoanalyst can do this for you. No where do you study more people in more varied circumstances than in history. To know the past and that of other people is to know yourself. Many prominent men and women are completely ordinary in character, and only exceptional in their circumstances.
Character is molded by circumstances and circumstances are the nitty-gritty of history.
History can be a cure for prejudice and provincialism. The study of history used to be thought of as training in patriotism and national loyalties. This is what our modern conservatives think history is all about. There is nothing wrong with healthy patriotic pride, but there is something pathological about parochialism, self-righteousness and blind nationalism. These types of social diseases have twice led to world wars in this century.