Samantha Wardell

American Civ
EPortfolio Assignment
11/4/14
History Repeats Itself
We have all head the saying history repeats itself, but is this really true? If you want to
get technical, then no, nothing can actually be repeated. At least, not exactly repeated. If you
are using the saying history repeats itself more metaphorically then I would say yes, absolutely.
History does not exactly repeat itself, just like nothing can be repeated exactly, but in a big
picture sort of way it does repeat itself. More of cause and effect sort of relationships if you
want to use a more scientific term. Some ways history has repeated itself are war, racism,
sexism, poverty, and so much more.
Some people may argue that some of these issues no longer exist and are not repeating
themselves, but they are. Take racism for instance, we have come a long way from racism and
discrimination, especially with the African American Civil Rights Movement, but we are just
coming up with new ways to discriminate. Stats show that at least 1 in 3 black men put in in our
criminal justice system known as the New Jim Crow. A lot of these men are innocent but
racism is still taking place in new ways hurting these men.
Also, a result of World War I left Germany with tons of debt to the rest of the world. This
affected the German currency and left Germany hopeless and stressed for something that wasnt
entirely their fault. The people were upset, anxious, scared, and stressed and this gave Adolf
Hitler the perfect opportunity to take over. He used this opportunity to his advantage and
promised the people that he would restore Germanys pride and their power and he wouldnt stop

until he did. This ended up leading to a violation of the Treaty if Versailles and this is how
World War II came to be, History Repeated itself.
History repeats itself because there will always be people that agree with the past and
things were than the way they were. An example would be John Fitzgerald Kennedy was
assassinated, just like Abraham Lincoln. There are people who believe that they know what is
best for the world just like Hitler did.
The Revolutionary war of Britain against the US is another example of how history hads
repeated itself. There is always one side who has a lot more men, weapons, gear, supplies, etc.
but the side that doesnt have as much always ends up winning. They win because although they
dont have quantity, they have quality. They have better men, better weapons, and better
supplies, and the US ended up winning this war because they had better leaders. The battle of
Puebla in 1862 had the same thing happen to them, along with the American Civil War. They
ended up winning because their leaders and generals were better. History repeats itself all the
time.
The one lesson we learned from history, is that we have not learned any lessons from
history Robert Fisk. History has and will continue to repeast itself because human nature never
changes. There are always going to be people out there who think they are going what is best for
everyone else, when in fact, they are wrong and end up repeating history in some way. Why did
President Bush go to Iraq after Viet Nam? Why do people get out of one bad relationship and
into another bad relationship? Peoples thoughts are I dated a blonde, so this time I will date a
brunette and it will be different We can change slightly, but not indefinitely. History repeating
itself is inevitable.