What is history?

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(No Transcript)
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What is history?
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History

• is a form of discourse about the past
• emphasizes critical analysis and interpretation
  of the surviving traces of the past, though
  historians disagree violently about how to use
  the evidence
• usually is presented in prose narrative, like a
  story, governed by culturally specific unwritten
  rules and expectations about what an historical
  narrative should look like

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History is not

• myth, but that does not mean it is automatically
  always true
• fiction, but that does not mean that the
  historian's imagination plays no role in
  reconstructing the past
• propaganda, but that does not mean it is
  automatically neutral and objective

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So, history IS

• a kind of myth, as a story that helps us make
  sense of the world
• a kind of fiction, although governed by certain
  generic conventions
• a kind of propaganda, for it represents the
  historian's personal point of view

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So
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History is

• a particular way of telling a story about the
  past, which claims to offer a trustworthy account
  of past events.

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Or

• History is a storehouse of information about how
  people and societies behave. By studying the past
  we understand the present.
• History is an imperfect human laboratory where
  data is collected, revealing the most vital
  evidence in our efforts to understand who we are
  and why we behave as we do

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To the Greeks and Romans

• History was written by men historians, not
  statesmen whose subject matter was the famous
  deeds of men in war
• The historian was an artist, who approximated
  reality, told the truth in a beautiful and
  meaningful way, captured the reader with that
  art, and instructed, edified and eternalized
  virtue and infamy

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Historians were

• Men of leisure, thinkers, men of affairs, men of
  the ruling class
• MEN!
• Artists, who sought in their art, with a fidelity
  to the truth, to be a teacher to the people.

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Historians

• Collected material, weighed sources, exercised
  independent criticism, established a contract
  with the reader, and professed to avoid
  partiality.

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Why study history?

• Why bother with the past? Why study the Romans?
• Historians dont replicate DNA, perform heart
  surgery, improve highways or arrest criminals.
  What is their function, and what is the function
  of history?

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Why study history?

• It is essential to who we are
• It harbors beauty
• It is art and entertainment
• It reveals how people and societies function, and
  helps us understand the human experience
• It contributes to moral understanding
• It provides identity-for the individual, the
  family, the community, the nation

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What does the student of history learn?

• The ability to assess various kinds of evidence
  leaders speeches, historians observations,
  poets and critics comments, private records,
  numerical data, physical remains
• The ability to use this evidence to craft a
  coherent argument
• The ability to sort through diverse, conflicting
  interpretations
• To become a well-informed citizen and member of a
  community