History-Intro, Importance, Methodology.pptx

What is History, Meaning by E H Carr, Scope, Importance, History-Art or Science.

1. What is history Meaning and Definition What is History? By E H Carr Nature Scope and Importance History-a Science or an Art

2. Introduction History is the study of life in society in the past, in all its aspect, in relation to present developments and future hopes. It is the story of man in time, an inquiry into the past based on evidence. Indeed, evidence is the raw material of history teaching and learning. It is an Inquiry into what happened in the past, when it happened, and how it happened. It is an inquiry into the inevitable changes in human affairs in the past and the ways these changes affect, influence or determine the patterns of life in the society. History is, or should be an attempt to re-think the past. History aims at helping us to understand the present existing social, political, religious and economic conditions of the people. Without the knowledge of history we cannot have the background of our religion, customs institutions, administration and so on. History helps us to explain the present, to analyze it and to trace its course. Cause and effect relationship between the past and the present is lively presented in the history. History thus helps us to understand the present day problems both at the national and international level accurately and objectively.

3. Concept of history History is the analysis and interpretation of the human past enabling us to study continuity and changes that are taking place over time. It is an act of both investigation and imagination that seeks to explain how people have changed over time. Historians use all forms of evidence to examine, interpret, revisit, and reinterpret the past. These include not just written documents, but also oral communication and objects such as buildings, artifacts, photographs, and paintings. Historians are trained in the methods of discovering and evaluating these sources and the challenging task of making historical sense out of them. History is a means to understand the past and present. The different interpretations of the past allow us to see the present differently and therefore imagine—and work towards—different futures.

4. Defining history The origin of the word History is associated with the Greek word ‘Historia’ which means ‘information’ or ‘an enquiry designed to elicit truth’. The popular meaning of the word ‘History; is “a narrative of recording or inquiry of past events of men in society.” History is the knowledge relating to the development in science, in arts, in politics, in war, in religion and in law with human efforts in a particular country. The quest about knowing the past is known as history. History is the branch of knowledge dealing with past events, political, social, economic, of a country, continent, or the world. The development of History started with the ancient Greek Historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides. Herodotus popularly known as the father of History wrote about the Greko -Persian Wars. This contains a mine of information including those relating to the ancient Egyptians and Persians. Thucydides developed this subject on scientific lines. He wrote the Peloponnesian War on the basis of evidence and showed relationship between causes and effects or results.

5. What is history ? By e.h carr E. H. Carr in 1961 delivered a series of six lectures at Cambridge University examining the question “What is history?” the title by which it was later published. The book discussed history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society and moral judgements in history. It discussed the nature of historiography in six sections; however, the content of these chapters can be simplified under three primary areas which embody Carr’s main arguments: (1) The influence of historians on history (2) The nature of historical facts (3) The subject matter of history

6. The influence of historians on history E. H Carr defines history as “a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past”. This dialog is accomplished through historians as such he concludes, “History… [is] both the inquiry conducted by the historian and the facts of the past into which he enquires”. He, however, argues that historians are susceptible to bias since every person is born into a society and invariably they are moulded by it through its environment and language as such their interpretation of history will be subjective to meet the criteria of their own culture. Hence, Carr describes the historian as “the conscious or unconscious spokesman of the society to which he belongs.” Consequently, it is argued history is perceived through the environment in which the historian lives. The author uses various works by historians, such as Mommsen and Meineckes , to illustrate how historians change their own views of history due to the changing of their society. For example, Meineckes , from 1907 to 1946, went from championing German nationalism to showing conflict then distress and finally declaring that history was at the mercy of chance.

7. The nature of historical facts In the nineteenth century, the emphasiswas on collecting facts a nd then drawing conclusions  from them. This was known as the ‘ empiricist tradition.’ A ccording to the empiricist tradition, there were certain basic facts which are the same for all historians and form the backbone of history. Carr differs from his predecessors in his definition of what constitutes as historical facts. He claims in his book that facts only become historical facts when the historian selects it to be as such. He argues that it is the historian who dictates what constitutes history. Since Carr believes historians to be a product of their own environment and society, it follows that historical facts selected by such individuals will be biased as they will invariably be chosen to meet their society’s criteria for what constitutes significant. Consequently, Carr concludes that history in effect is determined by historian and as such it is the reflection of the historian’s time and environment.

8. Carr illustrates his point by citing how historians have concentrated only on Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon River whilst neglecting the many others who have crossed it prior to Caesar as well as after him. According to E. H Carr , therefore, an element of interpretation enters into every fact of history. The historian is necessarily selective Carr then gives the example of ancient Greece. Our picture of Greece in the fifth century BC is defective not primarily because so many of the bits have been accidentally lost, but because it is, by and large, the picture formed by a tiny group of people in the city of Athens. We know a lot about what fifth century Greece looked like to an Athenian citizen but hardly anything about what it looked like to a Spartan, a Corinthian, or a Theban – not to mention a Persian, or a slave, or other non-citizen residents in Athens. Our picture has been preselected and predetermined for us, not so much by accident as by people who were consciously or unconsciously imbued with a particular view and thought the facts which supported that view worth preserving. The nature of historical facts

9. The subject matter of history While earlier historians attributed much of the subject of history to ‘great men’ Carr has taken a standpoint which is in contrast to them in this respect. He refutes the assumption that one individual can affect an entire event and concludes that, “The view I would hope to discourage is the view which places great men outside history and sees them imposing themselves on history in virtue of their greatness”. He attributes their greatness to the support of the masses and describes them as the “representative of existing forces”. Hence, Carr advocates that it is the environment or more specifically the political relations between states which should be the concern of historians. Consequently, as according to Carr , since people did not form into political organisations in the modern sense until the last two centuries he considers the history of the masses prior to the 1800s as insignificant and ‘unsound’. 

10. Nature of history A study of the present in the light of the past: The present has evolved out of the past. Modern history enables us to understand how society has come to its present form so that one may intelligently interpret the sequence of events. The causal relationships between the selected happenings are unearthed that help in revealing the nature of happenings and framing of general laws. History is the study of man: History deals with man’s struggle through the ages. History is not static. By selecting “innumerable biographies” and presenting their lives in the appropriate social context and the ideas in the human context, we understand the sweep of events. It traces the fascinating story of how man has developed through the ages, how man has studied to use and control his environment and how the present institutions have grown out of the past

11. Nature of history 3. History is concerned with man in time: It deals with a series of events and each event occurs at a given point in time. Human history, in fact, is the process of human development in time. It is time which affords a perspective to events and lends a charm that brightens up the past. 4. History is concerned with man in space: The interaction of man on environment and vice versa is a dynamic one. History describes about nations and human activities in the context of their physical and geographical environment. Out of this arise the varied trends in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres of man’s activities and achievements. 5. Objective record of happenings: Every precaution is taken to base the data on original sources and make them free from subjective interpretation. It helps in clear understanding of the past and enables us to take well informed decisions.

12. Nature of history 6. Multisided: All aspects of the life of a social group are closely interrelated and historical happenings cover all these aspects of life, not limited only to the political aspect that had so long dominated history. 7. History is a dialogue between the events of the past and progressively emerging future ends. The historian’s interpretation of the past, his selection of the significant and the relevant events, evolves with the progressive emergence of new goals. The general laws regulating historical happenings may not be considered enough; attempts have to be made to predict future happenings on the basis of the laws. 8. Not only narration but also analysis: The selected happenings are not merely narrated; the causal relationships between them are properly unearthed. The tracing of these relationships lead to the development of general laws that are also compared and contrasted with similar happenings in other social groups to improve the reliability and validity of these laws

13. Nature of history 9. Continuity and coherence are the necessary requisites of history: History carries the burden of human progress as it is passed down from generation to generation, from society to society, justifying the essence of continuity. 10. Relevant: In the study of history only those events are included which are relevant to the understanding of the present life. 11. Comprehensiveness: According to modern concept, history is not confined to one period or country or nation. It also deals with all aspects of human life-political, social, economic, religious, literary, aesthetic and physical, giving a clear sense of world unity and world citizenship.

14. Scope of history The scope of History is vast; it is the story of man in relation to totality of his behavior. The scope of history means the breadth, comprehensiveness, variety and extent of learning experiences, provided by the study. History which was only limited to a local saga, has during the course of century become universal history of mankind, depicting man’s achievements in every field of life-political, economic, social, cultural, scientific, technological, religious and artistic etc., and at various levels-local, regional, national, and international. It starts with the past; makes present its sheet-anchor and points to the future. Events like wars, revolutions, rise and fall of empires, fortunes and misfortunes of great empire builders as well as the masses in general are all the subject matter of history. History is a comprehensive subject and includes-History of Geography, History of Art, History of Culture, History of Literature, History of Civilization, History of Religion, History of Mathematics, History of Physics, History of Chemistry, History of Education, History of Biology, History of Atom, History of Philosophy-in fact history of any and every social, physical and natural science we are interested in. History today has become an all-embracing, comprehensive subject with almost limitless extent.

15. Scope of history The scope of history includes both human and nature. Though history excludes from its scope the study of nature and confines its attention to the story of man’s evolution from humble beginnings to complex achievements, nature also comes within the scope of history if it has anything to do with man. For, the rivers, hills, lakes, mountains and seas figure greatly in history in the context of their shaping man’s destiny. The scope of history includes all activities of human. The historian must look beyond government to people, beyond laws to legends, beyond religion to folklore and the arts, and he must study every phenomenon, whether intellectual, political, social, philosophical,material , moral or emotional relation to man in society. History has to consider all humanachievements in all their aspects such as science, technology, discoveries, inventions andadventures . But primarily the social life of man, his political achievements, his culturalattainments , his constitutional management and his economic endeavours form the mainscope of history, as it is through the medium of state and society that man finds his identity.Further , it was always the great man who had become the centre of attraction even though thecommon men were the one who played the vital role in assisting the great man to achievefame . Now, the common man and his life is attracting the attention of the historian, who had so long neglected the study of this essential element.

16. Scope of history The scope of history includes the study of economic and social change which is gaining greater prominence in recent year. In communist countries the entire orientation is on Marxist-dialecticism. The labour movement, the class struggle, inland and international trade,arts , crafts, industry, business, commerce, agriculture, peasant movement and so on are receiving increasing attention. Likewise social reforms, caste and class distinctions, family life, position of women, customs, manners, and way of life are exciting the interest of historians. Anthropology has also excited the interest of the historians and much useful work has been done in this field by scholars who have traced historically the customs and manners of the aborigines; social stratification of small communities who are a little higher up than the aborigines has been greatly facilitated by the availability of modern sophisticated techniques. Further the scope of history has been enlarged from objective empiricism to historicism. Objective empiricism means the establishment of facts as they really were. It is sometime like presenting a photographic copy of how things really existed in the past. Historicism means tracing the growth and development of an event from its early stages. It is like a genetic process which takes into account evolutionary trends and how progress has been made from age to age.

17. Importance of history History builds a better understanding of the world. History helps us understand humanity History can teach us to be better citizens History can help the world make better decisions Studying history can improve critical thinking  History shapes cultural (and national) identity History can facilitate empathy It gives us understanding of our society and shows us effects of change in the society. It provides us a sense of identity and preserving ancient stories to inspire someone to succeed It provides understanding needed for people to live in harmony

18. History-a Science or an Art Opinions are very much divided on the question whether history is a science or an art. History is a science in the sense that it pursues its own techniques to establish and interpret facts. Like other natural sciences such as the Physics and Chemistry uses various methods of enquiry such as observation, classification, experiment and formulation of hypothesis and analysis of evidence before interpreting and reconstructing the past. History also follows the scientific method of enquiry to find out the truth. Though historian uses scientific techniques, experiment is impossible since history deals with events that have already happened and cannot be repeated.

19. Arguments against History as a science 1. No forecasting: A historian cannot arrive at general principles or laws which may enable him to predict with certainty the occurrence of like events, under given conditions. A scientist on the other hand, looks at knowledge from a universal angle and arrives at certain generalizations that help him to control the present and predict the future. 2. Complex: The facts of history are very complicated and seldom repeat in the real sense of the term. 3. Varied: The underlying facts of history have wide scope. They are so varied that they can seldom be uniform. 4. No observation and experimentation: Historical data are not available for observation and experimentation. 5. No dependable data: Historical data are the products of human thoughts and action which are constantly changing. They therefore cannot provide dependable data for the formation of general principles and laws.

20. History is both a Science and an Art History is a unique subject possessing the potentialities of both a science and an art. It does the enquiry after truth, thus history is a science and is on scientific basis. It is also based on the narrative account of the past; thus it is an art or a piece of literature. Physical and natural sciences are impersonal, impartial and capable of experimentation. Whereas absolute impartiality is not possible in history because the historian is a narrator and he looks at the past from a certain point of view. History cannot remain at the level of knowing only. The construction and reconstruction of the past are inevitable parts of history. Like the work of art, its wholeness, harmony and truth are inseparable from a concrete and vivid appreciation of its parts. History, in fact, is a social science and an art. In that lie its flexibility, its variety and excitement