What is History?

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What is History? : 

What is History?

What is History? : 

What is History? “History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity.” Cicero

What is History? : 

What is History? “History is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.” Edward Gibbon

What is History? : 

What is History? “History is a myth we all agree to believe.” Napoleon

What is History? : 

What is History? “History is more or less bunk.” Henry Ford

What is History? : 

What is History? “ ‘History,’ Stephen said, ‘is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” James Joyce

What is History? : 

What is History? “Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics, in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such, and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future; the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bulls[~]t." Tom Robbins

What is History? : 

What is History? “History is something that never happened told by someone who wasn't there.” Ramon Gomez de la Serna

What is History? : 

What is History? “History is written by the victors” Winston Churchill

What is History? : 

What is History? “There can be no history of the past as it actually did happen; there can only be historical interpretations, and none of them final, and every generation has to frame its own.” Karl Popper

What is History? : 

What is History? “An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.” Ambrose Bierce

What is History? : 

What is History? Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. George Santayana

What is History? : 

What is History? Kurt Vonnegut: History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.

What is History? : 

What is History? Robert F. Kennedy: Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

What is History? : 

What is History? Gary Larson – The Far Side

Why Study History : 

Why Study History “The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid.“ Livy

Why Study History : 

Why Study History “Life must be lived forward, but understood backward.” Kierkegaard

Why Study History? : 

Why Study History? “To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.” Oscar Wilde

Why Study History? : 

Why Study History? “If you do not like the past, change it.” William L. Burton

Why Study History? : 

Why Study History? “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” Winston Churchill

Why Study History? : 

Why Study History? “People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past." Milan Kundera

The Historical Approach : 

The Historical Approach How can we understand anything of other people or ourselves, if we know nothing of history? The historian shows us how change has worked in the past and helps us to understand the present and make educated guesses about the future.

Historiography : 

Historiography Historiography is the writing of history. It is what historians do. Historians vary widely in what they feel is significant and important about the past.

Historiography : 

Historiography Students of history must examine not only the past, but those who write about it. “Study the historian before you begin to study the facts. The facts are really not at all like fish on a fishmonger’s slab. They are like fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what the historian catches will depend partly on chance, but mainly on what part of the ocean he chooses to fish in and what tackle he chooses to use – these two factors being, of course, determined by the kind of fish he wants to catch.” Edward Hallett Carr

Job #1 – Finding the Facts : 

Job #1 – Finding the Facts What are facts? Which facts are important? Are facts enough to explain the past? The historian investigates facts and selects relevant ones. This is an art and not a science.

Job #2 – Identifying Bias : 

Job #2 – Identifying Bias Bias is the slant one puts on things. It can be deliberate or unintentional. All writing contains bias. Identify it by looking at the types of words used. How are the words meant? Every age contains its own biases. These make understanding past thinking difficult – but not impossible. Historical imagination is needed.

Job #3 – Dispensing With the Rubbish – Identifying Important and Answerable Questions. : 

Job #3 – Dispensing With the Rubbish – Identifying Important and Answerable Questions. Sources must be selected critically. Topics need to be limited. Primary and secondary sources must be consulted. Value judgments are made. Conclusions must be based on the weight of evidence. Variations in interpretations should be understood and accepted.

Types of Sources : 

Types of Sources Primary Sources were produced at the time an event occurred and are directly connected to the events. Examples are: Photographs Memos Dispatches Cartoons Newspaper articles Art works Literary works

Types of Sources : 

Types of Sources Secondary sources are sources produced after the fact – looking back on the events with the benefit of hindsight. They offer an analysis or restatement of primary source material. Examples include: Textbooks. Books about art or literature Movies Documentaries

Job #4 – Presenting an Account : 

Job #4 – Presenting an Account Historians share their work and present it for criticism. Books and essays are the chief written forms. Accounts are narrative or analytical.

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