The Department of History strives to facilitate within its students the ability to understand the past in order to make meaningful connections with world.
The study of history has fascinated generations of men and women, all yearning to draw conclusions or live in another man's time. Whatever the motivation, history has stirred the passions of many, statesmen like Winston Churchill, military leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte, and would-be revolutionaries like Martin Luther. History engrosses people like no other subject because they are given the oppo
rtunity to learn about the moments in time that have shaped who we are today. Indeed, these very moments, whether we choose to agree, are the very fabric of our being: the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Magna Carta, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Scientific Revolution, the Battle of Quebec, the Storming of the Bastille, the Irish Potato Famine, D-Day, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 9/11, just to name a few. Our understanding of these events help our greater understanding of humanity and the human condition. At St. Andrew's College, the Department of History and Social Sciences strives to bring these, and many other events, to life, by not just memorizing dates and times, but fostering a true understanding of the significance of the event within the grand scheme of human history. Our students learn to think critically about history, while learning the skills to write effectively about it. In the end, studying history at St. Andrew's lays a solid foundation for further study in any discipline at the post-secondary level. It is, in my opinion, significant for every student to have a basic grasp of both national and world history. Someone once wrote that history must be written for the survivors, so that their experience is never forgotten. History should be taught and embraced by those who have never had to weather the storms which have pushed mankind to the very limits, in the hope that we all appreciate the fortune of our time. David D. Stewart
