The people we study while engaged in historical inquiry were actual people who, like us, are imperfect. Each had strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, opportunities and challenges, friends and adversaries, doubts and ambitions, insights and prejudices. These individuals were sometimes compelled to do things against their will, sometimes had to choose between difficult options, and sometimes made choices that seemed obvious to them, but may seem strange today. Their decisions affected how the events of history would unfold, whether positively or negatively. In hindsight, we know the end of their stories, but in the moment they did not know what the future would hold. Historical empathy is an attempt to place ourselves in the position of historical figures and see the world as they saw it, with uncertainties and worldviews that contributed to making choices that seemed rational to them at the time.
To engage in historical empathy a person needs a knowledge of both the physical and social contexts of the individual (read this article if you're interested in learning more about contextualization). Historical empathy requires both thinking and feeling in those contexts. The thinking side centers around imagining the context of a historical character to better understand why they made certain choices. Knowing the physical and social context of the past can help a modern person think more clearly about the constraints that a historical figure faced in making decisions. Most people, past and present, make choices that make sense to them. Sometimes what seems like an immoral choice today would have seemed appropriate or necessary to a person who lived in a different social context.
Knowing the historical context of a given situation helps a modern researcher avoid looking down on people of the past because of choices that may seem stupid or immoral from today's perspective. For instance, how could a society use infanticide, the abandonment of infants who were left to die, in order to control their population? How could people support trial by ordeal as a means of rendering justice? How could anyone vote for Hitler's Nazi Party? Why would anyone drive a vehicle that can travel only seven miles per gallon of gas? Historical empathy helps us understand how people with different worldviews may have believed that such polices or courses of action made sense.
The purpose of historical empathy is to help modern researchers explain the actions of people in the past, not to justify their actions. For instance, people who grew up in a racist society were frequently convinced that one race was superior to another. Within this environment they might take action to preserve a segregated society, based upon their sincere belief that it was best to maintain some distance between people of different races. When we study their actions, it is important to think about the racism that motivated them in order to explain why they did what they did. Although we try to explain why they made certain choices, we do not condone their choices that were shaped by racism. We try to see their actions as logical choices given their social contexts. We also remember that not everyone who was raised in a racist society supported discriminatory policies. Instead, some were able to overcome the social contexts of their time to think in more progressive ways.
Historical empathy also includes an element of feeling. It involves imagining how people felt and thought in different contexts, but beyond that, it also involves experiencing empathetic connection toward people in the past. Experiencing that connection and those emotions helps us take action in the present in an attempt to improve the historical record and correct historic wrongs.
Historical Empathy Example
Each of the Utah history inquires included in these web resources provides students opportunities to engage in historical empathy. Specifically, historical empathy is central to the inquiry related to the incarceration of Japanese Americans. The central question asks, "Why did Americans incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II?". In order to answer that question, students need to put themselves into the mindset of Americans in 1941 and consider how such a clear violation of civil rights might have seemed like a good policy at the time. By explaining the context of fear and racism that caused many citizens, the President, and even the Supreme Court to support incarceration, students are better prepared to face current conditions that could lead to similar actions, inspired by fear or hate, that violate civil rights. As students increase their understanding of these contexts and develop this kind of empathy, it further equips them with the ability to compassionately and knowledgeably handle future issues of a similar nature.