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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 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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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