The Past Is a Foreign Country: Why We Struggle to Understand History
And how new science is helping us bridge the gap
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." - L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between 4
The Foreign Country of the Past
This immortal line from L.P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between perfectly captures the profound sense of distance we feel when looking back in time 4 . It is a place filled with unfamiliar customs, alien mindsets, and forgotten logics. But why does the past feel so foreign? Is it simply a matter of time, or are there deeper cognitive and cultural forces at work?
Why It Matters
Understanding how we relate to the past shapes our identity, our culture, and even our future. By exploring the latest research in history, neuroscience, and psychology, we can begin to build a bridge to this "foreign country" and learn its unique language.
This question is more than a philosophical musing; it is a serious scientific and historical challenge. The modern mind often thinks of the past as gone, something to be dug up or looked at in photos 5 . However, a more empowering view is to see the past not as a burden or a foreign land to be observed from afar, but as a resource tailored precisely to who we are 5 .
The Historian's Challenge: A Mosaic with Missing Pieces
The core problem for anyone trying to understand the past is its fundamental incompleteness. One historian eloquently describes the past as a vast mosaic where only a few scattered tiles are illuminated 7 . We are left with fragments—a handful of surviving documents, objects, and images—and from these, we must reconstruct an entire world.
The challenge isn't just a lack of information, but also its bias. Historical records were often created by the powerful and literate, meaning the voices of the poor, the marginalized, and the illiterate are much harder to hear 1 . As one criminologist studying early modern women's imprisonment notes, certain voices, "specifically those of women and children—will necessarily be harder to hear than others," but this does not mean we should ignore them 1 .
This inherent bias makes the past seem not just foreign, but also strangely one-dimensional. The historian's task is to manage these illuminated "tiles," acknowledging the gaps while carefully interpreting what remains to build a credible narrative of a world we can never fully visit 7 .
The Historical Record Gap
Visualization of the representational gaps in historical records, showing how certain groups and perspectives are systematically underrepresented.
The Science of Memory: Why Your Brain Rewrites the Past
The Fallibility of Memory
Think of the classic parental admonition: "I used to walk five miles through a foot of snow just to go to school." As one editorial wryly notes, these stories often grow in the telling, with the distance getting longer and the snow getting deeper over time 3 .
This isn't necessarily intentional deception; it's a feature of how human memory works. Our memories are not static files stored in a mental cabinet. They are reconstructed every time we recall them, a process called reconsolidation. During this process, memories can be subtly altered, influenced by our current emotions, beliefs, and even suggestions from others.
A Different Worldview
The "foreignness" of the past is also generational. Beloit College's famous "Mindset List" highlights the dramatically different cultural backgrounds of each new generation of students 3 .
For those born in 1992, email is slow, Czechoslovakia has never existed, and toothpaste tubes have always stood upright 3 . Their scientific worldview is equally distinct: they "have never known a world without cDNA microarrays," and for them, "DNA fingerprinting would have always existed" 3 .
This shows that the psychological past is not a fixed point but a constantly receding landscape, shaped by the relentless march of technological and social change.
Memory Encoding
Initial experience is processed and stored in the brain
Memory Storage
Information is consolidated and stored across neural networks
Memory Retrieval
Recall activates the neural pathways where memory is stored
Reconsolidation
Each time a memory is recalled, it becomes malleable and can be altered before being stored again
The Experiment: Can Re-enactment Heal Historical Trauma?
If the past is a foreign country, how can we truly understand its most traumatic events? This was the question driving artist Jeremy Deller's powerful 2001 social experiment, The Battle of Orgreave 4 .
Methodology and Procedure
Deller restaged one of the most violent confrontations of the 1984 UK miners' strike, a pivotal clash between picketing miners and riot police. The project was ambitious in its scale and its methodology 4 :
- Collaborative Casting: Deller enlisted 800 participants. About two-thirds were veterans of historical battle re-enactments, bringing a knowledge of performance and structure.
- Involving the Original Participants: The crucial element was that the remaining third were actual miners and police officers who had been present at the original event 17 years earlier.
- Role Reversal: In a key methodological twist, some miners chose to play the role of policemen, and vice versa. This was designed to foster empathy and allow participants to "inhabit a different subjectivity" 4 .
- Documentation: The entire re-enactment was filmed by director Mike Figgis, creating a documentary that blended the performance with the raw, emotional testimonials of the participants.
Historical reenactments can serve as powerful tools for understanding and processing collective trauma.
Results and Analysis
The results were profound. The re-enactment was more than a historical tableau; it became a form of public therapy and political catharsis 4 .
Emotional Impact
The documentary shows the poignancy of both sides revisiting the intense emotions of the day. For the original participants, physically re-inhabiting the event brought back powerful, often traumatic, memories in a controlled and reflective environment.
Shifting Perspective
The role-reversal proved to be a powerful tool. By walking in the other side's shoes, even symbolically, participants gained a new perspective on the battle, breaking down monolithic "us vs. them" narratives.
New Historical Record
Deller's work gave a national platform to a working-class history that had been largely ignored or misrepresented in the mainstream media. It used theatricality not to obscure the truth, but to deconstruct it.
| Participant Group | Number | Role in the Experiment | Key Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Historical Re-enactors | ~530 | Provided structural framework for the performance | Bridged gap between historical hobby and living memory |
| Former Miners & Police | ~270 | Re-lived their own experiences, sometimes in swapped roles | Emotional catharsis; gained empathy and new perspective |
| Jeremy Deller (Artist) | N/A | Project originator and director | Created a space for confrontation and healing |
The Scientist's Toolkit: Key Methods for Exploring the Past
Whether in history, psychology, or the arts, researchers and artists rely on a specific set of tools to investigate and interpret the past. The following table outlines some of the most important "reagent solutions" in this interdisciplinary field.
| Research Method | Primary Function | Example of Use |
|---|---|---|
| Archival Research | To locate and interpret primary source documents | A historian finding prison registers to study women's incarceration 1 |
| Re-enactment Therapy | To safely revisit and process traumatic memory | Gillian Wearing's "Bully," where a victim directs actors to re-enact his assault 4 |
| Acculturation Theory | To analyze cultural change after contact between societies | Studying the survival of African traditions in the Americas 9 |
| Oral History | To capture firsthand experiences and marginalized voices | Recording the testimonies of miners who took part in the Battle of Orgreave 4 |
| Generational Mindset Analysis | To understand the culturally specific worldview of a cohort | Using Beloit College's Mindset List to contextualize the experiences of the class of 2014 3 |
Beyond the Foreign Country: Making the Past a Resource
While the past is undoubtedly different, the idea that it is entirely inaccessible is a limiting one.
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." - William Faulkner 5
Our evolutionary inheritance, our family histories, and our cultural contexts are the constraints within which we operate, much like the 12 notes of the musical scale are the constraints for a composer 5 . It is only within these constraints that we can find our unique voice.
Our histories, both personal and collective, are living forces that shape our present. By using innovative methods—from historical re-enactment to psychological therapy—we can stop turning our backs on the past and instead engage with it. We can listen to its hard-to-hear voices, learn from its traumas, and ultimately understand that this "foreign country" is, in fact, the very ground upon which we stand.
Key Takeaways
The past is incomplete and biased, but not inaccessible
Memory is reconstructive, not reproductive
Each generation experiences a different "past"
Re-enactment can facilitate historical understanding and healing
The past actively shapes our present reality
Innovative methods can bridge the gap to historical understanding