GMAT Essays (AWA)

Analysis of an Issue

"The study of history is largely a waste of time because it prevents us from focusing on the challenges of the present."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with
reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

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The crucial point of the issue is the discrepancy between the present and the past in the light of history. I suppose that this subject is slightly theoretical rather than practical. However, the scholars are arguing long time about methodology of the history and about the history in our lives. My future business education bonds with those both subjects - history and business, so I have real interest in this question.

First of all it is important to say that the history take a great place in our routine. We can notice it in our usual conversation with the colleagues and relatives. The knowledge of the historical events is the right of a good tone in the society. The person who don't know anything about the civil war or about the history of the first Constitution seem suspicious to the other.

However, the history is not very useful in the understanding of the present events because it has the retrospective direction of the study. The application of some theoretical historical construction on the prospected events is absolutely helpless or even harmful for use because it makes any our step predictable. In addition, the history has not some universal scheme of future development. Only the man can construct it, not the science.

In conclusion, I think that the study of the history is obviously important to create the high-moral and responsible citizen. The history is the base, but not a construction. Therefore, we need to know it because otherwise we can't build something on this base.