WHATS THE USE OF HISTORY

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WHATS THE USE OF HISTORY?
Whats up?
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OR HOW WE THINK ABOUT ILLUMINATING THE PAST
WOW!!!!!
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ANCIENT HISTORY--FROM MYTH TO STORY

• The past is not history
• Myths are not necessarily true
• Stories narrate events
• Heroes change history
• Cycles repeat history
• Journeys seek meanings
• God and gods choose people

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Medieval History--Faith and Reason

• Christianity converts Europe
• Gods will explains all
• Chronicles list events
• Chronology means time
• Stages organize time
• Meaning is external

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Modern History--Just the facts...

• Historicism
• Reason and enlightenment
• Humanism and its discontents
• Events and causation
• Facts and evidence
• Laws of History
• All history is.

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POSTMODERNISM

• Ideally, its all relative
• Imperialism and power
• Text is the world
• Narratives are useful fictions
• Audience is the author
• Fiction trumps fact
• The medium is the message

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THE FUTURE OF HISTORY

• The urge to narrate
• The quest for truth
• Lessons of the past
• Self-consciousness
• History as surviving meme
• Whats the use of History?

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THE END... OF THIS HISTORY

• We cannot remake history, but we have an
  obligation to rethink it.
• Yuri Levada, 1988