WHAT IS HISTORY

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WHAT IS HISTORY?
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• Voltaire (French philosopher historian)
  described history as a pack of tricks we play on
  the dead.
• Hegel (German philosopher) said that the only
  thing we can learn from history is that no one
  learns anything from history.

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• Henry Ford characterized history as bunk.
• Paul Conkin (Contemporary American historian)
  said history is a true story about the human
  past.

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• Ever since Herodotus, historians have tried to
  tell true stories about the human past.

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• BUT,
• what is true and what is truth?

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• Most historians regard the study of history as a
  way for human beings to acquire self-knowledge.

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Two Types of History

• Linear
• Judeo-Christian view
• There is a plan
• There was a beginning history goes forward
  in a line

• Circular
• History repeats itself
• More primitive
• understanding of
• history days/nights seasons

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Greeks History

• Developed critical history to sort out truth from
  untruth/false
• Historlearned man who settled legal disputes

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Herodotus

• Father of Historyfirst known historian (5th
  century BCE)
• Wrote The Historiesfirst book to combine
  different stories of the past into a single whole
  story about geography, people, and different
  cultures

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Purpose of historie

• to prevent the traces of human events from
  being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of
  the important and remarkable achievements
  produced by both Greeks and non-Greeksin
  particular, the cause of the hostilities between
  Greeks and non-Greeks. (The Histories)

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Thucydides

• Contemporary of Herodotus
• Fellow historian
• He said that his own history of Peloponnesian
  Wars was based on facts, not dependent on
  stories legends from the past.

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Leopold von Ranke

• Father of Modern History
• German historian in early 1800s (b. 1795-d. 1886)

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• Believed historians should explain historic
  eventswie es epigenetic gewesen as they really
  were.
• Extensive research of primary sources
• Wanted unbiased judgments.

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Positivism

• Middle 1800s
• There were general laws that governed the outcome
  of activity in both human and natural worlds.

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Positivism (cont)

• Historians could determine these general laws
  use them to explain historical facts.
• Therefore, historians could be objective in their
  research conclusions.

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PROBLEMS

• Historians cannot control variables or regulate
  conditions.
• Historic events are unique cannot be repeated.

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REVISIONISTS

• Beginning in the 1960s
• Believed that the point of view of the historian
  makes history understandabledifferent versions
  of the same event do not necessarily result in
  inconsistencies or error.

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• Did not want to abandon searching for the truth
  HOWEVER,
• Historians must adhere to their own rules of
  fairness, reason, logic
• AND must support claims with some kind of actual
  evidence.

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• Revisionists added new histories by looking at
  different voices in society (social history)
• Women
• Gender
• Children
• Underclasseslabor, slaves, etc.

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SO, what is history?

• What is truth?
• CAN WE FIND TRUTH IN HISTORY?

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• In the book, History and Historians, Mark
  Gilderhus suggests three steps for historians
  students of history

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THREE STEPS

• 1. What happened?
• How did the historical actors behave?
• What did they do?

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• 2. Why?
• 3. Try to evaluate the consequences of the
  events.