Early Course Reaction Paper:
History as an Idea-Based Study
HIST. 1807-003
October 25, 2021
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Thus far in the course, my most significant reaction is how complex, yet idea-based
history is, as it informs how I approach history as a subject and the course material. This
realization arose to me in two contexts, mainly how societies modernized and developed through
taking other societies' ideas and, to a lesser extent to how as a whole, this course, or history in
general, is a study of ideas rather than its intricate minute details and facts.
Throughout the course, we have gone through several in depth lectures and readings
regarding development, modernization, and globalization from the Ancient Persians to the
Industrial Revolution. One recurring theme was that societies took other's ideas and practices to
develop their own economies. One society that was eager to take on new ideas and integrate
them into their own was the Persians. In The Silk Roads, Frankopan writes of the greatness of the
Persians starting in the sixth century BC and how they dominated their neighbours and went as
far as conquering Egypt.1 Specifically, the author quotes Greek Historian Herodotus who said,
“The Persians are greatly inclined to adopt foreign customs.”2 For example, the Persians
abandoned their own clothing style and adopted the superior styles of the defeated Medes and the
Egyptians. While clothing appears trivial, this manipulation of ideas was expanded into other
practices of the Persians; it showed their willingness to adopt new ideas, which led to their
overall success. For instance, they had built and modernized a highly functional administrative
system, from recording payments to validating the quantity and quality of goods in markets,
which were taken from the countries they conquered and their ideas which allowed the efficient
operation of an empire that contained many different peoples. Evidently, the success of the
Persians is linked to taking other societies’ ideas and interpreting them into their own practices.
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2
Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (Vintage Books, 2017), 3-4.
Frankopan, 4.
2
Another example of this is seen in our lectures. For instance, in Lecture 12, regarding the
Industrial Revolution, Krats illustrates the revolution of industries through innovative ideas.3 He
explained that we had new thoughts in sciences, productivity, financing, and technology, which
helped us industrialize and were the seeds of the industrial revolution. For instance, Krats cites
the importance of Adam Smith and his new thoughts on productivity.4 Adam Smith expresses an
example of specialization through pins. Each task of creating a pin gets divided into smaller parts
so that multiple people can do a job that once, only one person could do; it increased overall
production speed and quantity.5 Adam Smith is entirely correct; as in the Industrial Revolution,
we realized that most people do not possess the skills to complete something entirely on their
own. This concept can be connected to Professor Krats’ “Can you make a shoe example.”6 He
explained that through the Industrial Revolution, the idea of dividing a whole into parts was
realized. While not one person raised their hand, Krats’ example holds true; we can make a
shoelace or any single part of the shoe with adequate training. However, unlike the Persians,
there was no distinct or pinpointable place where we took ideas from during the Industrial
Revolution. It came from everywhere; whether it was the financial market or the sciences. Still,
through combining all these ideas from various locations, we were able to have innovative ideas
on productivity similar to Adam Smith’s beliefs. Consequently, it allowed us to do things quicker
and more efficiently by taking other people’s thoughts and evolving them.
The modernization and greatness of the Persians were derived from stealing other
people’s ideas and making them more efficient. Through this recognition in industries and
various societies, I realized that even today and in history in general, people always take other
3
Peter Krats, Lecture 12 - The Industrial Revolution Part One. (University of Western Ontario, 2021).
Krats, 8.
5
Krats, 8.
6
Peter Krats, Lecture 10 - Mercantilist Empires at Work. (University of Western Ontario, 2021).
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people’s ideas and expand on them. Many companies today rely on the innovation of others to
become greater themselves. For example, with the development of the BioNTech Covid-Vaccine,
other companies such as Pfizer and Moderna obtained the idea and rights to use mRNA
technology to create vaccines in a larger quantity. Through the idea of another company, it
allowed for the vaccine to be mass-produced, thus creating a higher vaccinated population.
While all the examples are from different periods, they showed cases of taking of others’ ideas to
modernize and develop their own communities. This means that the stealing of ideas remained
relevant throughout time. Moreover, a personal takeaway was that I used to believe that the
world was full of extraordinary innovators. However, history has shown that there are only a tiny
handful of intelligent people and that businesspeople, whether the Persians or a vaccine
development company, can take these ideas and make them great.
Another way I found the importance of ideas was in how complex the history of business
truly is with all its numbers and specific facts. On the first day of lectures, Professor Krats
expressed the importance of ideas compared to points in history.7 He explained that a good
student could use sound ideas and practical historical examples rather than express the minutia or
use brilliant penmanship. He claimed that history is so complex and that in this course in general,
you should not be focusing on every single minor component but ideas rather than a specific
statistic about, for instance, mercantilism in the Middle East.8 At the beginning of the course, I
focused on writing down every little fact that Krats said in our power points, but I realized that I
would have acquired a hundred-page document of notes at the end of the year. While I have
taken other history courses before, such as World History in Asia or the History of the World
Wars, I focused on seeing the facts and numbers rather than the greater picture of how complex
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8
Peter Krats, Lecture 1- Introduction. (University of Western Ontario, 2021)
Krats, 18.
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and idea-focused history is. Once this concept was brought out to me, I, now, no longer see
history or business as a factual and numbers-based subject but a complex, intrinsic, idea-based
study.
The History of Business has provided me with numerous assets, ideas, and perspectives.
In contrast to my other previous history classes, this course has taught me two important lessons
thus far: how development and modernization are characterized by idea manipulation and how
history itself is an idea-based study. This overall has given me a new understanding of history
and new means of approaching this course.
Comments by the TA:
Great Job! Watch your punctuation and make sure semicolons are used properly. When referring to authors or in the case of your paper professors
you are consistent as well. In this case you need to make sure that Professor is used ahead of prof. Krats name the first time he is referred to.
8.5/10
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Bibliography
Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. Vintage Books, 2017.
Krats, Peter V., Lecture 1 - Introduction. Department of History 1807 at the University of
Western Ontario, 2021.
Krats, Peter V., Lecture 10 - Mercantilist Empires at Work. Department of History 1807 at the
University of Western Ontario, 2021.
Krats, Peter V., Lecture 12 - The Industrial Revolution Part One. Department of History 1807 at
the University of Western Ontario, 2021.