History

What does the subject guide say?

• What is unique about the methodology of history?
• Is eyewitness testimony a reliable source of evidence?
• How do we decide which events are historically significant?

History is an area of knowledge that studies the recorded past. It raises knowledge questions such as whether it is possible to talk meaningfully about a historical fact and what such a fact might be, or how far we can speak with certainty about anything in the past. Studying history also deepens our understanding of human behaviour, as reflecting on the past can help us to make sense of the present.

Documentary evidence plays an important role in history, which raises questions about the basis for judgments of reliability of that evidence. The individual historian also plays an important role in history and in the 20th century there was much debate over whether historical facts exist independently of historians. Some argue that there is always a subjective element in historical writing because historians are influenced by the historical and social environment in which they are writing and this unavoidably affects their selection and interpretation of evidence.

History is in the past and what happened, whether we are able to figure it out or not, is unalterable and irrevocable. Of course, the way to find out about the past is to look at sources, and the study and analysis of these sources is called historiography.

• What is a historical source?
• What makes a good historical source?
• How do we analyse a historical source?

Some issues to consider:

• Availability of sources
• Reliability of sources
• Selection of sources
• Selection of historical events (what is important and what is not)
• Causation: sometimes too complicated, sometimes it may be ascertained incorrectly by the historian.

We can only know the past (if we can at all!) by reconstructing it with evidence that exists in the present. But memory is fallible, evidence ambiguous and prejudice common!

The fact that our knowledge of the past is filtered first through the eyes of those who witnessed it, and then through the eyes of the historian who wrote about it can make it difficult to establish the truth.

Hindsight Bias: NOW the collapse of USSR seems inevitable, but in 1985 it didn’t! Be careful to view situations/events as people at the time had to view them.

A primary source is a first-hand account, written by someone who was present when the event happened. E.g., Caesar’s “The conquest of the Gaul” is a primary source, whereas Gibbon’s (1737-94) “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” is a secondary source. Ultimately, to be legitimate, any description of historical events must be based on primary sources. A disturbing problem arises when primary sources are deliberately manipulated by governments and other interest groups to change the ‘facts’ of history.