“Through this book
“I finally realized the usefulness of history.”

Bestseller in history for 6 consecutive years
Special compilation edition of the "The Usefulness of History" series published

Choi Tae-seong's "The Usefulness of History," a representative history textbook of our time that sparked a craze for usefulness in Korea, has been published in a special combined edition.
The series "The Usefulness of History," in which Choi Tae-seong, a history communicator you can trust and see, clearly answers the question "Why should we learn history?" by going back and forth between Korean and world history, is a book that contains practical ways to use history to explore life and the world through stories from hundreds of years ago.
Since its first publication in 2019, it has consistently maintained its position as a historical bestseller, and has been selected as a ‘Youth Recommended Book’ by the National Library for Children and Young Adults, ‘Book of the Year’ by Yes24, and ‘Book of the Year’ by local governments across the country, including Gyeongnam, Cheongju, and Yangju, establishing itself as the author’s representative work.

This series, which has sold nearly 400,000 copies and is considered a life-changing book for many readers, has been re-released and re-released as a compilation to meet readers' requests.
This special combined edition is a hardcover volume that combines 『The Usefulness of History』 and 『The Usefulness of History Again』. Its luxurious design, which reinterprets the vitality of history that does not fade with time as a rising sun, enhances its collection value.
In this special compilation edition, you can discover forty-three life-altering insights into history in a single volume. Discover the world of the usefulness of history, finally completed by Choi Tae-seong, who has moved the hearts of seven million people.

Some people say that history is simply a record of facts, but I disagree; rather, I emphasize that history is a humanities discipline that encounters people.
History is something that helps us think about and practice how to live by looking into the lives of those who lived before us.
If you study history but don't find any inspiration in life, it's hard to say you've studied history properly.
--- From "Introduction_There is no more perfect commentary on the problem of life than history"

More important than being the first or the best technology is influence.
What Gutenberg's printing press, the iPhone, and Hangul have in common is that they discovered and satisfied a public need that was not even known to exist.
It has made it easier for many people to communicate.
Any act that helps expand human freedom, like Gutenberg's printing press, is bound to leave a significant mark on history.
(…) I believe that technology that is for the minority and represents the interests of the minority does not fit with the flow of history.
History moves towards the expansion of freedom.
Creative inventions with explosive power are not for the few, but for the many.
When we talk about creation or creativity, people are always trying to create something new that never existed before.
However, no matter how new it is, if people don't choose it and don't get excited about it, it won't be widely used.
--- From "Creation: The Conditions of Thought That Change the World"

Jeong Do-jeon's ideas were extremely radical.
He advocated confiscating all land and distributing it to the people for free, and also freeing slaves.
(…) What is noteworthy is that he was the one who proposed an alternative.
Jeong Do-jeon, who encountered the crooked world while being exiled and wandering, felt a sense of crisis and thought that such a world needed to be changed.
And I thought about each and every solution in detail.
Instead of giving up in the long, dark tunnel of life, I moved to create the world I wanted.
If he had suffered and drank heavily, saying, "How can you treat someone like me like this? Goryeo should fall!", the name Jeong Do-jeon would have been forgotten in history.
--- From "Jeong Do-jeon: To Be Free from Oppression"

Independence activist Park Sang-jin was a student studying law.
He was not only smart, but also came from a famous family with both wealth and power.
In 1910, he passed the judge's examination.
I was even transferred to the Pyongyang court, but I am resigning.
Because our country lost its sovereignty.
(…) Park Sang-jin makes up his mind.
Now, the seat I will be sitting in is not the judge's seat, but the defendant's seat, right across from the judge.
If Park Sang-jin had dreamed of becoming a judge, he would not have made such a decision.
But Park Sang-jin's dream was not to become a judge.
His dream was not a noun.
I became a judge to help ordinary people who are always being taken advantage of because they don't know the law, and to prove that justice exists.
This was his dream.
It was a dream of verbs, not nouns.
--- From "Park Sang-jin: Dreams should be verbs, not nouns"

History does not predict how the world will change.
It just talks about values ​​that don't change over time.
Love, sincerity, trust, dignity, duty, solidarity… .
History tells us that values ​​that are often dismissed as overly idealistic or cumbersome in modern times still hold significant meaning in our lives.
(…) If this book helps me confirm the reality of the various values ​​I vaguely felt, and if I can apply those values ​​to my present, then that will prove the usefulness of this book and the usefulness of history.

--- From "Finding Values ​​That Don't Change Over Time"

If you only look at the phenomenon of any event, it is easy to make mistakes.
In that sense, studying history is also a task of finding necessity.
In any event, we go beyond the surface phenomena and read the background, situation, flow, and causal relationships.
So, studying history gives you a deeper perspective and insight.
You will be able to understand why what is happening now is happening and what wingbeats have come together to bring us here.
Instead of relying on chance to interpret, you gain the power to see beyond what you see.

--- From "The Power to Turn Coincidence into Inevitability"

The cases of Yukyoung Park and Myeongdong School provide food for thought about the current state of education in our country.
Are we nurturing Yi Wan-yong or Yun Dong-ju? Yi Wan-yong, who studied for his own success, grew into an elite willing to side with any country, even betraying his own country, if it meant achieving success.
I would do anything to become rich.
I didn't have a philosophy about how to become rich, my goal was just to become rich.

--- From "The Goal of Education: The Education That Made Yi Wan-yong, the Education That Made Yun Dong-ju"

As I am still living life, I still ask myself how to live properly and what a happy life is.
(…) So what I found again was history.
All the figures in history are our seniors in life.
Looking at the trajectory of that life, I refer to it and think, 'I should live like this' or 'I shouldn't live like this.'
Of course, doing so doesn't mean we can live the same life as them.
But there's a huge difference between knowing what kind of life I want and not knowing.
I find comfort in looking at the lives of those who have gone before.
The answers found by those who have seriously pondered life-threatening issues are contained in their lives.
Every time that happens, it feels like a tree appears that I can lean on.
So, studying history makes you a little less shaken and a little more solid.

--- From "The Definition of Happiness Realized by Chusa Kim Jeong-hui in His Later Years"