IDENTIFYING POINT OF VIEW Below is an excerpt from the essay "Why Study
History?" by William H. McNeill. What is McNeill's opinion of the study of history? Cite
two specific ideas from the excerpted passage that support the author's opinion. Do you agree with McNeill? Do you think knowing about McNeill's past experiences and current work may help you better understand his opinion? Why or why not?

"History offers innumerable heroes and villains. Reading about what people did
in far away times and places
enlarges our sense of human capacities both for
good and evil. Encountering powerful commitments to vanished ideas and ideals,
like those that built the pyramids, puts our personal commitment to our own
ideals into a new perspective, perhaps bitter-sweet. Discovering fears and hopes
like our own in pages written by the medieval Japanese courtier, Lady Murasaki,
or reading about the heroic and futile quest for immortality undertaken by the
ancient Mesopotamian king, Gilgamesh, stirs a sense of shared humanity that
reaches back to the beginning of civilization and across all cultural barriers.
On the other hand, studying alien religious beliefs, strange customs, diverse
family patterns and vanished social structures shows how differently various
human groups have tried to cope with the world around them. Broadening our
humanity and extending our sensibilities by recognizing sameness and difference
throughout the recorded past is therefore an important red son for studying
history, and especially the history of peoples far away and long ago. For we can
only know ourselves by knowing how we resemble and how we differ from
others. Acquaintance with the human past is the only way to such self
knowledge."
-William H. McNeill, "Why Study History?"