Why is it important to study historical disasters like that of the Lusitania?

There is a famous saying from the philosopher George Santayana where he says that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  It is important to study “disasters” from the past so as to (hopefully) avoid experiencing those same disasters in the future.

When disasters have happened in the past, they have generally been caused by something and/or they have been disasters because they have led to very negative results.  These...

There is a famous saying from the philosopher George Santayana where he says that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  It is important to study “disasters” from the past so as to (hopefully) avoid experiencing those same disasters in the future.

When disasters have happened in the past, they have generally been caused by something and/or they have been disasters because they have led to very negative results.  These are things that we really do not want to have happen again.  For example, the sinking of the Lusitania helped to get the United States into WWI.  We would not want to get sucked into another major war. Therefore, we should study this sort of disaster and other disasters that drew us into wars.  We should try to determine how we can avoid getting ourselves into similar situations in the future so that we are not condemned to repeat the past.