1 USES OF HISTORY

based on The Methods and Skills of History by Conal Furay and Michael Salevouris

Uses of History use of history in rapidly

changing world? many organic connections

remain legacies/burdens of past

still with us b/c of changes = need of

history increases w/o historical perspective

danger of mistakenly believing problems/solutions unprecedented no relation to past

Uses of History all we do, all we think, all we

are = cumulative result of past experiences future = abstraction present = fleeting moment

past and judgments about past = inescapable

Uses of History catastrophic to try to escape

history imagine life w/no memory society’s identity =

product of countless individuals, forces, events

history = study of the past society’s collective memory w/o history = society

rootless, adrift most important reason for

studying history “A country without a

memory is a country of madmen.”

What is History? 2 meanings:

1. history = sum total of everything that has happened

2. history = account of the past

only contact with history (1) is from records left concerned with “history as

creation of human intelligence” (Fungal)

“History … is the act of selecting, analyzing, and writing about the past. It is something that is done, that is constructed….” (Davidson and Lytle)

Nature of History history = past and study of

past history as past is

irretrievable knowledge of “past-as-it-

actually-happened” based on surviving records historians’ accounts

provide “useful and accurate” glimpses of past

historian presents and individual version of segment of past

Nature of History all historical accounts

have an element of subjectivity writing history is an act of

creation (re-creation) any piece of history =

treated as individual creation respected if calls forth in

reader clear image or understanding of some past

history (2) = product of history and people who actually lived events

Process of History process of history = makes

clear subjective, re-creative nature of history

historians study surviving records most events left no

record historians’ are capable of

error, subject to biases (personal, political, religious, etc.) which can influence interpretation of history (1)

Only a part of what was observed in the past was remembered by those who observed it; only a part of what was remembered was recorded; only a part of what was recorded has survived; only a part of what survived has come to the historians’ attention; only a part of what has come to their attention is credible; only a part of what is credible has been grasped; and only a part of what has been grasped can be expounded or narrated by the historian.

– Louis Gottschalk

Process of History historian can never get full

truth about given past

Question of Truth historical truth?

historical accounts = subjective, incomplete?

knowledge is fleeting, shallow?

subjectivity and truth not incompatible all knowledge is

conditioned by cultural circumstances and personal temperament

must be alert to influence of “subjectivity” when you study history

Question of Truth historical truth?

past did happen documents provide link to

history (1) develop skills, habits of

mind, critical methods

Exercises