History

History (from the Greek ἱστορία) is the study of past human events based on written documents, conventionally divided chronologically into ancient, medieval and modern periods. Academic studies of history attempt to document past events, as well as interpret or explain them according to various methodologies. Prehistory deals with mankind before written records, and is part of Archaeology. Popular history (or "heritage") is related to folklore and concerns memories of the past constructed by a group. Sacred history concerns divinely inspired events and is handled by religion scholars. This article discusses historiography, the writing of history by scholars and specialists. For lists of historians, see the Catalogs section above.

Etymology

The Greek word ἱστορία, istoría, means "knowledge acquired by investigation, inquiry". In this sense it is used in antique expression "natural history".

In English the word went into two different directions: "story", or chronologically-structured narrative, and "history", or discourse on human events.

Sources used by historians

The main source of information is written text, mainly from political, ceremonial or bureaucratic sources. Other kinds of sources include memoirs, oral interviews, newspaper accounts, and works of art.

Historians distinguish "primary sources" (written sources created by participants), and "secondary sources", which is the interpretation of history by scholars

Ibn Khaldun discussed his principles of the historical method in his book Muqaddimah, but was unknown to scholars and not rediscovered until the 19th century.

Historians of note who have advanced the historical methods of study include Leopold von Ranke, Lewis Bernstein Namier, Frederick Jackson Turner, Charles Beard and E.P. Thompson.

In the 20th century, academic historians avoided epic nationalistic narratives, favoring more specialized studies looking as social, economic, political or intellectual forces. Demographic historians introduced quantitative history, using census data to track the lives of average people. French historians were prominent in the establishment of cultural history (such as the "histoire des mentalités"). In the U.S. "Progressive" historians following Frederick Jackson Turner emphasized the frontier and sectionalism, while those following Charles Beard and C. Vann Woodward looked for conflicts of economic interest. After 1950 intellectual history replaced the older Progressive models. After 1960 neoabolitionist historians inspired by the American civil rights movement emphasized moralistic stories, with racism as the evil that triumphed or was defeated. The "new social history" in the 1970s took a comprehensive approach to include every man, woman and child, often using census, court and tax records. After the 1970s some postmodernists have challenged the validity and need for the study of history on the basis that all history is based on the personal interpretation of sources. This approach came under blistering attack by historians such as Granatstein (1998) in Canada, and Windschuttle (2000) in Australia, leading to lively debates.

Types of historical description

The historians have sometimes divided their major field of knowledge in specialized subfields, usually period, place or approach.

Field of History by period and place

• Ancient History: studies ancients tribes and empire, since Mesopotamia, passing trough Persia, Egypt, until Greece and the Roman Empire - with special emphasis in these two last. See also Classics.

• Medieval History: Deals with the period usually called Middle Age (between ~500-1453) especially in Europe and the Middle East. It includes the early Middle Ages (once called "the Dark Ages"), and the later Middle Ages. Major themes include the Church, the Holy Roman Empire, agricultural change, the Crusades, and intellectual and cultural trends.

• Modern History. "Early modern history" covers Europe about 1450 to 1648, with special attention to warfare, science and technology, the rise of the nation state (especially England, France, Spain, Prussia and Russia), and explorations of the Atlantic World. "Modern History" (since 1648) covers a vast array of topics.

• Contemporary History
  • Atlantic History: a recent trend; studies the interaction of Europe, Africa and North America and South America, especially before 1800

Fields of History by approach

• Annales School, the French approach to social history, emphasizing geography and "mentalités"
• Comparative history looks for similarities and differences between societies or civilizations; Arnold J. Toynbee made it fashionable in 1940s, but has been in decline ever since as historians prefer specialized research topics
• Political History: It is the study of political institutions, theories, leadership and practical politics. Since the 1980s much of political history has migrated to Political Science.
• Diplomatic history: deals with international relations. Both historians and political scientists are involved.
• Military History: The study of military practice and theory; wars and battles; technology; organization of armies, leadership and soldiers; also Naval History. Much of the field is handled by non-academics and amateurs, as military history has a marginal status in most research-oriented history departments.
• Economic History: Covers topics from agriculture, technology and business organization, and includes population studies and the reconstruction of economic indicators (like GDP). One important new branch is Business history. Since the 1970s much of economic history, as well as History of economic thought, has migrated from history departments and journals to economics - while Marxist interpretations of history are most often found in literature departments, not history departments.
  • The "Agricultural History Society" was established in 1919 and has 1200 members who focus on the history of rural life, especially in the U.S. Since 1926 its journal Agricultural History has been the journal of record which publishes articles on all aspects of the history of agriculture and rural life with no geographical or temporal limits.

• Social History exploded on the scene in the 1960s, quickly becoming one of the dominant styles of historiography. The French version, promulgated by the Annales School influenced much of Europe and Latin America. It is the study of the lives of ordinary people. It was revolutionized in the 1960s by the introduction of sophisticated quantitative and demographic methods, often using individual data from the census and from local registers of births, marriages, deaths and taxes, as well as theoretical models from sociology such as social mobility. The New Social History emerged in the 1960s to dominate professional scholarship in the U.S. and Canada.. see also Social History, U.S.. There is no society for social history, but the field is covered in the Journal of Social History, edited since 1967 by Peter Stearns. It covers such topics as gender relations; race in American history;

the history of personal relationships; consumerism; sexuality; the social history of politics; crime and punishment, and history of the senses

• • Ethnic history covers the history of American ethnic groups (usually not including blacks). The Immigration and Ethnic History Society was formed in 1976 and publishes a journal for libraries and its 829 members.
    • The American Conference for Irish Studies, founded in 1960, has 1,700 members and has occasional publications but no journal.
    • The American Italian Historical Association was founded in 1966 and has 400 members.
    • The American Jewish Historical Society is the oldest ethnic society, founded in 1892; it has 3,300 members and publishes American Jewish History

• Labor history, deals with labor unions and the social history of workers. See for example Labor Unions, U.S., History The Study Group on International Labor and Working-Class History was established: 1971 and has a membership of 1000. It publishes International Labor and Working-Class History.

• Cultural history: Uses linguistic and cultural evidence to explore the inner psychology of societies. This became a dominant theme in the 1960s, especially influenced by careful analysis of exactly how key words were used. For example, the study of Republicanism. There is no separate society or journal.

• History of Ideas is a field founded in U.S. by Arthur Lovejoy, dealing with the inner history of ideas. It contrasts with the intellectual history promoted by Merle Curti that stresses the links between ideas and social and economic forces.
• History of Science - History of scientific thought and technique.
  • History of Medicine The American Association for the History of Medicine, founded in 1925 has 1,300 members, split between amateurs and professional scholars. It covers a worldwide range of topics and publishes Bulletin of the History of Medicine.
  • History of Technology
• Urban history, deals with cities, and became of importance in the 1970s
• Environmental history, began in the 1970s, like the modern environmental movement itself. It includes many long-term studies of climate and, especially, changes in the land caused by people. The journal Environmental History, begun in 1996, is co-published by the Forest History Society, founded in 1946, and the American Society for Environmental History, founded in 1977. The latest online bibliography includes 40,000 titles.
• Religious history covers the world's religions, and is split between academic history departments and theology schools. The American Catholic Historical Association, established in 1919 at a time when most Catholic historians were affiliated with Catholic colleges, has a membership of 1,015 and publishes the The Catholic Historical Review.

• World History, a teaching field (rather than a research field), developed by historians of Asia and Latin America to provide a counterpoint to the "Western Civilization" emphasis that dominated history teaching after 1920.

• Local history. The American Association for State and Local History, established in 1940 has 5,997 members, and is based in state and local historical societies in the U.S.

• Antiquarianism uses historical data without the theoretical structure of historiography, to look at topics that happen to interest the amateur because of proximity, age and accumulated myth. It is not well regarded by academic historians, but finds a place in local historical societies and draws attention from the media.

National debates

Historians inside a nation often engage in extended debates about the nation's history, and how to teach it. In the case of teaching Japanese history in the schools of Japan, other countries (especially China and South Korea), have officially complained.

Germany

The Historikerstreit

Revisionism

Revisionism is a reversal of opinion, and generally is used for historians who reverse the old "orthodox" or standard interpretation. The first "revisionist" debate came in the 1920s when a new group of historians rejected the thesis that Germany was "guilty" (primarily responsible) for causing the Great War, a proposition that was included in the Treaty of Versailles.

Meta questions?

Does history repeat itself in cycles? Are there long-term patterns? Are there patterns that cover the rise and fall of entire civilizations? Are there lessons to be learned. Historians often claim that the study of political, military and business history teaches valuable lessons with regard to past successes and failures of leaders, military strategy and tactics, and business success and failure.

The use of history to study the rise and fall of nation-states or civilizations, in the style of Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968), or Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975), has fallen out of fashion, as most no longer have faith that such a project is possible. However William H. McNeill (1917- ), a Toynbee student, has tried his hand at it, and World History is in fashion.

Spanish philosopher George Santayana commented, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Many historians have echoed the line. The German philosopher of history Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel remarked that "What history and experience teach us is this: that people and government never have learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it." Hegel was paraphrased by Winston Churchill, who said "The one thing we have learned from history is that we don't learn from history."

Since the 1970s the postmodern sensibility has prevailed in historiograpphy, forcing most (but not all) historians away from "big" questions and grand themes, and focusing them on small topics that are approached from many directions, often with ambiguous results.

Bibliography

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