What are the historical debates? ISSUE What is history?

Postmodernism Conservative Jenkins: History is a Herodotus used the word shifting, problematic history several times and discourse, ostensibly meant it as a rational enquiry about an aspect of the into the past, which world, the past, that established the meaning for is produced by a Western historical writing group of present Elton: Reconstruction of past minded workers. human experiences, actions, thoughts and endeavours Jenkins collapse of Denial of a true history plays old metanarratives into the hands of those who and modernist have a vested interest in a certainties is denial of their own liberating. Holocaust by neo-Nazism Postmodernism claim genocide 6 million Jews encourages spread of never took place. Richard many-voiced history, Evans: It trivialises mass as people of all types murder to see it as a text write regional, local 2 months after publication and national histories IDOH, Evans agreed to act as Foucault: society is expert historical adviser in in constant demand legal case involving David for truth, as much as Irving end 20th C. Holocaust for economic denial had become litmus test production and for historical theory + method. political power. Evans checked Irvings Truth is produced footnotes in detail, tracking and transmitted under original sources to see whether the control of certain material cited and discussed pol. or eco. did substantiate points made = apparatuses innumerable errors, selections university, army, and misinterpretations to prove writing, media there was no organised slaughter Jews, no gas chambers, H. did not order extermination Jews Evans concluded: Systematic distortion of historical record Trial held HC London early 2000 Balanced Bloch: argued that history was never a study of the mere past because the historian would integrate their contemporary views and ideologies into their work hence the past and present would be intertwined Herodotus incorporated numerous stories, tales and interpretations, allowing the reader to decide which one is true. Ex. Lykurgus. Herodotus rejoices in the ambiguity of historical facts. I would suggest that if the Phoenicians really carried off the women from the temple, That at least is how I should explain the obvious impossibility of a dove using the language of men Where were the distinctions to be drawn between legitimate alternative views, ideologically driven distortion and outright lies and fabrication? Evans: An objective historian is one that works within the limits. Metaphor of historians as figurative painters sitting at various points round a mountain: will paint in different styles, using different techniques and materialsthey may even disagree about some aspects of its appearance. But they will all be painting the mountain. If one of them paints a fried egg, or a railway engine, we are

Historical Relativism

Science vs. Art

entitled to say that they are wrong. ART SCIENCE EVANS Herodotus Thucydides named the father The most important of scientific history. His attempt to assess the American Hayden History of the Peloponnesian value of postmodernism White: The War is the earliest example of in history was Richard Historical Text as serious historical research Evans In Defence of Literary Artifact displays the same rigour + History historians fails to respect for truth and evidence recognise that they Evans thinks some as modern historians worlds inevitably and effects of pomo have apart from more literary unavoidably use been positive: offering a historians such as Herodotus fictional techniques way out of the impasse to narrate the past = Some historians found the into which social beginning and end, effervescent Herodotean mood determinism, above all in highlighting details, of literary experimentation and its Marxist variants, had subordinating other, adventurous risk-taking of the run by the beginning of varying tone and 1980s/90s disturbing and the 1990s + its POV, repeating dangerous concomitant drawing symbol/motif. The attention to the Methods introduced by Ranke relationship between individual, esp, the little turned history into science people or between known individual Rankean empiricism and faith events that appear to Ranke argued that in objectivity be inherent in the history was both science Bury (1861-1927): History is past have actually and art. history had to a science, no less and no been imposed by match the demands of more. (But then one year historians philology whilst offering before his death): I do not Henry Steel the reader the appeal of think that freedom from bias is Commander: Let us imaginative literature possible and I do not think it is admit at once that Tuchman: I think of desirable, The most effective history is neither myself as a storyteller, a histories are usually partial and scientific nor narrator, who deals in bias mechanical, that the true stories, not fiction historian is human Tuchman: The and therefore fallible, historian should act as an and that the ideal artist and make the work history, completely interesting but still stay objective and within the boundaries of dispassionate, is an historical evidence illusion Bloch: believed history was more of an art form because unlike science, it requires human intuition for interpretation and comprehension

Who are the historians?

ISSUE Historical objectivity (Carr v Elton)

Postmodernism Carr What is history: The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor and in what order or context. one must study the historian (background, education, attitudes) before one can study his interaction with the facts Carr: When we call a historian objective, we mean I think two things. That he has a capacity to rise about the limited version of his own situation in society and in history, that he has the capacity to project his vision into the future in such a way as to give him a more profound and more lasting insight into the past Carr: Once historians have pieced together what happened and have determined the facts, they interpret what they found Commager: Consciously or unconsciously, all historians are biased; they are creatures of their time, their race, their faith, their class, their country creatures and even prisoners

There is no such thing as objective truth. Lyotard incredulity towards metanarratives As soon as we weave facts about the past into a story we enter the realm of subjectivity, as everyone

Conservative Elton The Practice of History: If an event can be known, that is all that is required to make it a fact of history. Interpretation or general acceptance of a thesis has nothing whatsoever to do with its independent existence. Elton acknowledge that evidence is not clear-cut and that the historian must intervene but he denied that the historical facts are then so distorted that one must accept Carrs view that studying the historian is a necessary preliminary to historical inquiry. The cure for the inevitable difficulties facing historian over partial nature of evidence and allegation of subjectivity lie in proper practice scholarship + research Eltons solution study the past on its own terms. Eltons response to argument that history is present minded: For the historian is in the first place concerned with the people of the past with their experiences, thoughts and actions and not with the people of the present, least of all with himself Elton argued that with proper scholarship and research distortions of truth could be avoided. I believe in the independence of history and the possibility of discovering a right truth by the techniques of scholarship Ranke: wie es eigentlicj gewensen to show how it actually was Ranke: I tried to distinguish my own self, as it were, to let the facts speak History aims to uncover the

Balanced Carl. L Becker 1959: The actual event contributes something to the imagined picture; but the mind that holds the imagined picture always contributes something too Tuchman: Without an opinion a historian would be a ticking clock and unreadable besides Herodotus expressed a desire to find the truth in history and used I in his work, very much involving himself in the process and creation

chooses their facts differently. Historical truth is not singular: there are always multiple, subjective and equally valid ways of looking at the past. Some even suggest that the concept of no truth is liberating Derrida questions the notion of absolute truth as he believes that thinking is like writing we constantly interpret and reinterpret it. Foucault emphasised the role of power and politics rather than language as a bar to the notion of absolute truth. His thinking is essentially based on the notion that as societies are not neutral traditional history based on the credo of objectivity is misguided, since there is no neutral position from which to take this view after all, the ideal of objectivity and neutrality in itself is a viewpoint. One of his most famous acts was to show how sexuality was a historically inflected activity, and consequently just as worthy of study as politics or wars. Keith Jenkins: History is always for someone, and that someone cannot be the past itself for the past does not have a self. American theorist and historiographer Hayden White the content of the historians work is as much invention as it is fact. White accepts that some of the raw material traces or original sources may provide factual material but such traces never

truth about the past something that historians have tried to do for more than 2000 years. Historians should be able to decide between two competing view points by weighing up the evidence. Sound historical writing is objectivity, achieved through the calm application of reason and training The notion that historical truth is not singular leads to a kind of moral relativism, an unforgivable anything goes attitude. How can postmodernists argue that there is no such thing as the objective truth as that statement itself purports itself to be an objective truth.

provide a structure for these facts: only when the facts are given a structure by the historian do they make sense. There is a need for a narrative, or story to shape these traces and facts The quest for historical objectivity has proved a recurring mantra, yet the hs context and identity remains a profound influence on choice + interpretation evidence How are historians affected by their context and beliefs? Herodotus affected by his person belief that the gods hand could be deduced in everything. Believed in supernatural causation HOPersianWars- Xerxes ignored a phantom spirit that warned him against attacking Greece, did not listen and forced to pay. Also, deaths of Spartan ambassadors in Persian wars as clear evidence of divine intervention, hand of gods was clearly seen. Also belief in hubris focus on individuals H. wrote about great families + priests of holy places. Gould has argued that Herodotus deliberately sought out people of similar social standing/descendants of those involved Thucydides focus on militaristic aspect. His occupation in Athenian army during Pel.war Ranke remove all traces but Rankes upper class inclined him to focus on political events and individuals he considered significant, lower classes overlooked. His deeply religious Lutheran beliefs influenced him to believe God could not be pigeon-

holed and his presence could be found in past + present events. In all history God dwells, lives, is to be found. Every deed testifies to him Annales world of extremes, War, Holocaust, Cold War. Influenced them to utilise history as an explanation for social issues encourage focus away military/pol. history

ISSUE: Postmodernism AIMS AND PURP OSES Role of Can only learn if you know histor the truth, which is y unattainable Poststructuralist historians A historians reject any theory of history purpose is which claims to identity or likely to be explain a law of reflected in development every aspect of work Incredulity towards affects metanarratives choice subject Commercialisation history: matter, Lyotard argued that as a selection + result of the shift from use of mass production to mass sources or communication knowledge imposition is no longer the search for a of particular timeless or absolute truth, standard of but is increasingly truth commodified. Knowledge ceases to be an end in itself. Increasingly minor narratives have taken the place of grand ones.

Conservative

Balanced

Can learn from the past Herodotus essential aim was to preserve the memory of great deeds of renown for future generations Fehling: Herodotus idea was not to research the Persian Wars: he wanted to recount them as Homer had recounted the Trojan War. For him it was a matter of staving off oblivion rather than increasing knowledge Thucydides: historians should focus on great historical period pol/mil history. I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment but as a possession of all time. T. wanted to discern truth in events because he felt it revealed certain things about human nature that were vital to In 21st Century, with know advent of global Reacting against system advertising and rise of building and generalisations consumerism, history of Enlightenment, Ranke has been somewhat claimed one should study transformed from the past for its own sake professional pursuit, and respect uniqueness of with intent to inform and each age: To history has educate the reader, into a been given the function of commercial commodity judging the past, of in order to entertain instructing men for the audience profit of future years. The present attempt does not aspire a lofty undertaking. It merely wants to show how, essentially things happened Elton: contribution to the intellectual improvement of mankind

Herodotus established a dual purpose to history a desire to discern the truth and to record stories where the truth was impossible to ascertain. Tuchman create a work that is engaging for the reader, which remains within the bounds of historical evidence. I did not write to instruct but to tell a story. The implications are what the thoughtful reader himself takes out of the book the best book is a collaboration between author and reader Evans: Historians still have to engage in the basic Rankean spadework of investigating the provenance of documents, of enquiring about the motive of those who wrote them, the circumstances in which they were written and the ways in which they relate to other documents on the same subject Carr: The past is intelligible to us only in the light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in the light of the past. To enable man to understand the society of the past and to increase the mastery over the society of the present, is the dual function of history

History Wars History wars are symptom of the debate of the truth in history. Historians are expected to know the truth and when the disagree among themselves, the value of their work is called into question

Power Michel Foucault power is spread throughout society and has its home in language. Each society has its regime of truth. Truth is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it Interview Truth and Power Foucault: History which bears and determines us has the form of a war rather than that of language VIKINGS: 1. Anglo Saxon Chronicles: hungry wolves who tore, robbed and murdered King Alfred 800AD 2. Icelandic sagas courage, pride. 13th isolate farms, Althing, patronage 3. Victorian revival shipbuilders + culture 4. Nazi lebensraum, encourage Danes + Scandinavians to recruit, Nordic, blonde hair blue eyes 5. Hollywood depiction Ranke: tell it how it is Tuchman: It was Ranke who set the historians task: to find out what really happened, or literally, how it really was. His goal is one that will remain forever just beyond our grasp for reasons because we who write about the past were not there. We can never be certain that we have recaptured it as it really was. But the least we can do is to stay within the evidence.

Can historians ever find truth?

Pomo believe historians only ever present a selective + partial view of past and such representations are dictated by identity + context Foucault we are unable to see truth because we are stuck in our historical limits and normalised to our surroundings Jenkins historians do not just use evidence to

reconstruct the past but also take it upon themselves to fill in gaps that past has left open. The past is sublime and the content is as much invented as found

How has history been constructed and recorded over time? ISSUE Traditional history v Pomo history Postmodernism Postmodernism certainly no friend of traditional narrative history: eventcentred, cause and effect, telling the story history due to antagonism towards metanarratives. Then what kind of history should pomo historians provide? Jenkins: If the present can bets be understood as post-modern, then this suggests to me that the context of a preferred history should be studies of this phenomenon. In the post-modern world, then, arguably the context of history should be a generous series of methodologically reflexive studies of the makings of the histories of postmodernity itself Conservative Joyce Appleby: The move toward the most radically sceptical and relativist postmodern position inevitably leads up into a culde-sac. Dismissals of history, politics and narrative as hopelessly modern ideas, now outmoded in the postmodern world, might seem up to date, but history, politics and narratives are still the best tools available for dealing with the world and preparing for the future 20th C larger quantity of source material mass newspapers, photographs, film Ranke turned history into a science Thucydides used technique of entering into the mind of his character and to discuss his feelings and behaviour, such as the Athenian commander Nicias Balanced

Methods of historians

Annales often used non-literary sources such as maps. Operated on the basis that history meant study of the past, not study of documents. Annales: If your neighbour on the left says two times two equals four and the one on the right says it is five, do not conclude that the answer is four and a half Annales introduced regressive

Evans believes that Rankes principles still form basis of historical research and teaching today: 1. Est. history as a separate discipline 2. Asserted that a study of past should not be coloured by present

method reading history backwards, moving from the known to the unknown. Marc Bloch did not agree with historians entering into study with preconceived notions and many of the answers to questions were tentative Tuchman is similar to Bloch when she suggests that it is easier for a historian to enter historical inquiry without a predetermined mindset and then let the conclusion or why surface during the process during the gathering of facts, evaluating sources and data. If the historian will submit himself to his material instead of trying to import himself on his material, then the material will ultimately speak to him and supply the answers

before his great standards: Every defeat at the hands epoch is immediate of Syracuse in to God 413BC: 3. used methods of Meanwhile Nicias, philologists + applied appalled by the them to study of position of affairs modern history and thinking, as men are apt to think in such crises

Why have approaches to history changed over time? Approaches will always change according to audience Postmodernism Influence of Postmodernism and Postructuralism In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, there was a remarkable flowering of innovative historical writing (drawing on both H+T) gender history, microhistory, cultural history, history of sexuality, history of the body Blur between high and low culture Foucault: history could be decentered and historians did not have to seek, pursue and desire a master narrative Conservative Herodotus used myth and legend and chose prose. Largely used oral sources and work deviated into digressions, allows for uncertainty and was acutely conscious of validity + reliability of sources. Like Homer, history in Herodotus day was supposed to be read aloud Curthoys + Docker: Herodotus does not confine history to any area or field or focus, rather establishing historical writing as freely economical, political, diplomatic, social, cultural, sexual, religious, military, naval Thucydides work is fast moving, precise, decisive, structures, chronological and analytical. Obsessed with methodology attacks the care others take in ascertaining facts + asserts that he was not satisfied with 1 eyewitness account but took great pains to correlate + judge between differing accounts of different participants. T. recognised as first critical historian it was not until 19th C. that the Balanced Evans believes that Rankes principles still form the basis of historical research and teaching today In fact, technology has made the Rankean methods easier Hitler diaries of the 1950s exposed as forgeries

discovery of archives + invention techniques of source criticism allows historians of past to believe that they could meet standards demanded by T. The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest. Whilst Herodotus chose to write about past (Persian War). T. remarked in books opening paragraph that he found this impossible because of its remoteness in time, to acquire a really precise knowledge of the distant past or even of the history preceding our own period. Thucydides perspective that history cannot be written retrospectively is partially credible, as it emphasises the need to fully understand a period by living in it and not studying it anachronistically. However, this theory also prevents historians from having the luxury to a broad range of sources + retrospective thought Thucydides produced a world history very anti-nationalistic H + T = focus on oral sources and traditions history written to be read aloud. Histories told a tale and were meant for entertainment + oral recitation added speech, drama and pace techniques The massive economic, pol. + social changes of 10th C. were instrumental in generating distinctive types of history Methods introduced by Ranke saw history turned into a science history became an academic study Ranke influenced by state bureaucracy during his time, which meant that European collections of national records began to appear Carnage WWI and subsequent eco, disasters such as Depression led number of historians to question history which feed needs of nation state that had started wars. Notion of nation state had led to war + genocide, reaction against 19th C. traditions like empiricism and subject specifity increasing dissatisfaction with event-centred

traditional history + desire to widen historical scope + methodology. French historians interested in interdisciplinary approaches and used geo + sociology Forms of history and use of sources Hs focus on oral sources reflected his context, a world before technological advances which brought printing press + abundant plethora of written sources. History was communal, shared entity Herodotus sees motivation of historical events as been derived from individuals rather than broader forces individuals influenced society rather than society influencing individual. H. recorded everyday crises, human relationships and flaws Ranke, although espousing belief to tell is how it actually was focused primarily on events of prominent individuals and pol. events. I have not devoted much space to less significant events but this has enabled me to pay the greater attention to those of world-historical importance. Quentin Durward challenged Rs focus by writing history incorporating low society such as Orientals, Africans, Gypsies and Jews Annales called for TOTAL history past is everything. Wrote about beliefs, mass psychology, culture and religious practice. Bloch and Febvre stressed importance of collective mentalities in influencing events. Ladurie focused on village, society and culture subject matter included housing, villagers perception of space, time, nature, family life, childhood, sexuality + death Annales challenged confidence held in linear history supported notions of Western superiority Annales posed questions, such as Marc Bloch: How could people believe in the illusion that Kings had a healing touch?

Focus of history