How can studying history help influence today鈥檚 decision making?

Studying history, does it help us make a better decision?How can studying history help influence today鈥檚 decision making?
We are suppose to learn from our mistakes %26amp; triumphs, history does teach us what worked in the past %26amp; didn't, that being said, things are different now then say in the 1930's, so some lessons that have been learned may not apply in today's world.How can studying history help influence today鈥檚 decision making?
History repeats itself over and over again. Sometime we learn from our mistakes and sometimes we keep on making them over and over again.
Simply:


Pros: we can learn from mistakes that have happened.


Cons: We may not be able to generalise what a good decision would be because things have changed from the past, what worked then may not work now.
To quote my old History of Psychology professor, ';The best predictor of future behavior is to study past behavior.'; Thus taking that statement into consideration, history is actually a report of human behavior during a particular event or crisis within a time line. Therefore, studying that past behavior can help to predict how humans will react in a similar event or crisis in the future.
Here are a few links I found...they're far more loquacious and eloquent than I can hope to be, although I will sum it up.





http://www.quotegarden.com/history.html





http://www.quoteshead.com/category/77_1/鈥?/a>





I believe that we, as individuals, are the sum of our faults and of our experience. For example, once a child has been burnt by a hot object, they retain that experience and learn to treat said object with ';respect';. I believe that as a people, without knowledge of where we've been and what we've done to get to where we are today, we're doomed to repeat our past mistakes. History gives us our foundation, and gives us the tools to build our future. If we fail to heed the past, there is indeed, no tomorrow.