Author Roman Krznaric talks using the past to inspire us in the present.
We all know about heeding history’s warnings, but what about using history to inspire us? Might it help us tackle problems such as the Climate Crisis or issues around AI? These subjects, as well as how history might present potential solutions, were examined by Roman Krznaric in his book; History for Tomorrow. Ahead of his appearance at Chalke History Festival, Roman spoke to use about why history is an important tool in thinking about how to tackle contemporary problems, how 18th century Edo created a sustainable economy and why he would love to travel back in time to the city of Cordoba.
What was your inspiration in writing history for tomorrow?
‘History For Tomorrow’ partly grew out of an utter frustration that I have with politicians and policy makers who seem so trapped in the tyranny of the now. They’re responding to the latest election, the latest opinion polls, or hoping that new technologies will deal with a range of crises. We have a vast treasure trove of history to draw on to help us but politicians often seem very blind to it. There’s a long tradition of learning from history, sometimes called applied history. It goes back to Thucydides, to Machiavelli and to Goethe, who said; “He who cannot draw on 3000 years is living from hand to mouth”. But we often tend to focus on the warnings of history, captured in that famous aphorism from George Santayana; that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. What I wanted to do is say, ‘hey, let’s take inspiration from history as well’. Let’s look at what’s gone right and see if we can apply that to the challenges of today. And that’s what the book does. I’ve looked at 10 challenges facing humanity, and asked, “what can we learn from the last 1000 years to help us deal with these issues in innovative ways?”.
Why do you think history as a tool is useful in tackling contemporary issues?
There’s always this idea that history never repeats itself, though it might sometimes rhyme – as Mark Twain said. But I believe it is possible to draw out lessons. What history does is it opens up our imagination. So let me give you an example. Today, governments are saying we need to create more sustainable, circular economies. But some are opposed to this and argue it isn’t possible. In the book, the chapter on our hyper-consumer culture looks at Japan in the 18th century, particularly the city of Edo, now known as Tokyo. Edo was a huge city of over a million people, far larger than London or Paris at the time. What made Edo extraordinary was it had what we would today call a circular, sustainable economy. For example, they had shortages of precious resources, like wood and cotton. So a tradition of patchwork developed, known as Boro. Fragments of old cloth were sewn together into garments and then passed down the generations. If you had a kimono, you’d use it until the cloth began to wear out, then you turn it into pyjamas, then you would use it as cleaning cloths before finally burning it as fuel. Equally, when it came to food, they reused everything. So rice – the rice straw was used to make rope and sandals, the waste product was used for fertilizer and the ash was used in ceramics. If you apply that kind of thinking today, I think it would take us beyond the chronic wastefulness and ecological blindness of consumer society.
In your book you seem very interested in smaller, social history as well as larger political events?
Since the Second World War, there’s been the emergence of a movement examining ‘history from below’. I still believe that Nero matters, that Shakespeare matters, that the individuals of history do make a difference – but the stories we hear less are the ones about collective activities. Which I think we can and should be drawing on when thinking about how to create change. Let’s take an example – the struggle against slavery in the 1820s. During this time over 700,000 enslaved people were working on British owned sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Many investors and owners of slave plantations made similar arguments to today’s fossil fuel executives. They would state that they knew slavery was wrong but if it ended too rapidly, it could lead to economic collapse. They argued that slavery needed to be phased out slowly, over many decades. But why was there an abolition of slavery act in 1833? A big part was played by the great slave rebellion of 1831, in which over 20,000 enslaved workers rose up in collective uprising. It may have been brutally crushed, but it sent a wave of panic through the British establishment. These moments, like the Jamaica slave revolt, the suffragettes and the US civil rights movement, are examples of how collective action can really change things, particularly at moments of crisis. So one of the key things I’ve written about in this book is history from below. It’s not all revolutionary movements, sometimes it’s people organizing to manage their water systems together, like in Valencia in Spain, an ancient system which goes back nearly 1000 years.
How can history help us understand unique and modern challenges – such as AI?
That was a really interesting one to research. When you think of AI, you of course wonder what on earth could history have to do with such a modern topic? So I asked myself instead whether human societies ever created large scale systems, which resemble AI and have got out of control? I immediately thought of the invention of financial capitalism in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. They invented the first stock markets, marine insurance and the first public limited companies – a capitalist system which very soon got out of control in terms of booms and busts. In a sense, AI is a kind of super system – a bit similar to financial capitalism but is expanding much more rapidly. Now this, of course, is an analogy. And one always has to be careful with analogies in history. I’m not saying that the AI system will collapse in the same way but if you think about it, in the same way that an economic system can have a financial collapse – surely an informational system can collapse too? Namely, because of the potential spread of fake information due to AI. We’re already getting fake news but what if that spreads to fake stock market reports, fake legal contracts etc? So for me, thinking about the prospect of a “reality collapse” from AI in terms of a financial collapse is actually really helpful. This is not about finding some perfect answer. It’s about how history presents new ways of thinking about a topic, getting people to be creative with historical thinking, making analogies but doing it well and basing it on solid evidence.
What historical period do you find personally inspiring?
If I could go back to any period in history, I would go back to the year 1000 to the city of Cordoba, a huge city in the southern part of the great Islamic Empire of Al-Andalus. At the time, Cordoba had around half a million people living in it. But to me, what made Cordoba so extraordinary was that Jews, Muslims and Christians managed to live together in relative harmony. Not perfect harmony by any means – there were tensions and occasional outbreaks of violence – but it was a time of relative cultural tolerance. And I think that’s really fascinating when we’re talking about issues surrounding migration, which are such a hot topic in Britain. We have this idea that people of different religions and cultures basically can’t ultimately live together. But there are many periods in history where we’ve seen this, and Cordoba is one that I’d love to go back and see.
History for Tomorrow by Roman Krznaric is available now from Penguin Books.
Roman Krznaric will be speaking at Chalke History Festival on Friday 27th of June. Tickets and further details of can be found here.
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