History An Area Of Knowledge

A Predicament Imagine waking up one morning to discover that you have lost your memory. After a few minutes of blind panic, you begin to examine the room you find yourself in. You discover a scribbled note which says “Meet George, mall, 10.” You glance at the clock, it’s 9:00am. Since you don’t want to tell anyone about your predicament, you give yourself the hour to work out who you are from the contents of what is clearly your room and make it to the mall to meet George – whoever he is…

A few thoughts… If you found yourself in the previous situation, to what extent would you be able to reconstruct your identity by examining the objects in your room? What problems would you face trying to do this, and how similar are they to those facing a historian? How would amnesiac shellfish poisoning affect the victim?

A few thoughts… Why should you care about your past? What dangers are there in being obsessed with your past, and what dangers are there in ignoring it? How good is your memory, and how reliable do you think it is as a guide to the past? If you keep a diary, what determines what you choose to include and what you choose to omit?

A few thoughts… Would you be more inclined to trust an autobiography, or a biography about the same person written by a historian? To what extent do you think that people learn from their mistakes, and to what extent do you think they keep making the same mistakes?

What is History? Evidence Significance Explaining & Understanding

What is History? Evidence A study of the present traces of the past Problems: Too little evidence Too much evidence

What is History? Evidence A study of the present traces of the past Problems: Too little evidence Distant past: easy to misinterpret evidence & jump to conclusions Ex: “our knowledge of the wars between Persia and Greece in the fifth century BCE is based on a single, quite unreliable, source- the Greek historian Herodotus (c.485-420 BCE).”

What is History? Evidence A study of the present traces of the past Problems: Too much evidence Modern history Ex: history of the year 2000

What is History? Significance A record of the significant events of the past Problem: how do we decide whether or not an event is significant? Criteria: How many people affected by an event? To what extent were people affected?

What is History? Significance Using any criteria of your choice, rate the historical significance of the following events. Publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species in 1859 Your last TOK class The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 The 1930 soccer World Cup Final – won by Uruguay Birth of Bill Gates Former US president Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center & Pentagon in 2001

What is History? Explaining the Past History is concerned with explaining and understanding the past Establishing what happened is usually a prelude to trying to understand why it happened.

Why Study History? “The study of history is so important that it should be a compulsory IB subject.” Think of as many arguments as you can for and against this claim.

Why Study History? …gives us a sense of identity. …is a defense against propaganda. …enriches our understanding of human nature.

History gives us a sense of identity. Why Study History? History gives us a sense of identity. As a community, if you don’t know where you have come from it will be impossible for you to make any sense of the present or what you should do in the future. You can know a country only if you know something about its history. How does this apply to the Middle East?

Why Study History? How important do you think it is for our political leaders to have a good knowledge of history? Do you think that some countries are more obsessed with their history than others? What danger, if any, are there in: Ignoring the past? Being obsessed with the past?

History is a defense against propaganda. Why Study History? History is a defense against propaganda. National pride may dictate a one-sided interpretation of the past which highlights a country’s achievements and overlooks its mistakes. History may be exploited Legitimize rule Justify territorial expansion Whitewash past crimes Stalin example

History is a defense against propaganda. Why Study History? History is a defense against propaganda. Can also be used to puncture some myths Chief Seattle quote (1854 response to US government attempt to buy his land) No one knows what he said on that day Speech written by Ted Perry for an ABC television drama in 1971

Why Study History? What do you understand by George Orwell’s observation, ‘Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past’? To what extent do you think this is true?

History enriches our understanding of human nature. Why Study History? History enriches our understanding of human nature. Shows us what human beings have thought and done in a wide variety of circumstances. Should it make us feel optimistic or pessimistic about human nature?

History enriches our understanding of human nature. Why Study History? History enriches our understanding of human nature. “History shows…” should be treated with caution Self-realizing expectations Historical record can sometimes be a source of hope rather than despair. Changes could not come about if people had seen themselves as the victims of history. Abolition of slavery Emancipation of women Birth of United Nations

Why Study History? “One cannot avoid a certain feeling of disgust, when one observes the actions of man displayed on the great stage of the world. Wisdom is manifested by individuals here and there; but the web of human history as a whole appears to be woven from folly and childish vanity, often, too, from puerile wickedness and love of destruction: with the result at the end one is puzzled to know what idea to form of our species which prides itself so much on its advantages.” Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) From your own study of history, to what extent do you think that Kant’s pessimistic assessment of human beings is justified? Are there any grounds for taking a more optimistic view?

How Can the Past be Known? Problem with knowing the past: it no longer exists. Memory is fallible. Evidence is ambiguous. Prejudice is common. Ideal: Objectivity

How Can the Past be Known? G.R. Elton “In a very real sense the study of history is concerned with a subject matter more objective and independent than that of the natural sciences. Just because historical matter is in the past, is gone… its objective reality is guaranteed; it is beyond being altered for any purpose whatsoever.” Samuel Butler “Though God cannot alter the past, historians can.” Which of these views is closer to the truth?

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources Written by someone who was there at the time. ‘Bedrock of History’ How can they be contaminated? How can the four ways of knowing distort the production of a primary source such as a diary?

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources Fallible Eye-Witness Perceptions shaped by interests, expectations, & cultural backgrounds. Emotion and prejudice affect accounts of an event. Other biases?

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources Social Bias Primary sources may reflect the interests of one particular social group. Why is medieval Europe often thought of as a very religious place? People with the power control the pens. The illiterate usually pass through history without a trace.

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources If you were to make a time capsule to be opened in five thousand years time, what things would you put in to give future historians as objective a picture as possible of life in the early twenty-first century?

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources Deliberate Manipulation A disturbing problem arises when primary sources are deliberately manipulated by governments and other interest groups to change the “facts” of history. Ex: Trotsky out of photo

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources History is written by the victors. - How different would it be if written by the losers?

How Can the Past be Known? Primary Sources Reliability: Who wrote it? What was their motive in writing it? How long after the event was it written? Comparison to other primary sources Documents of a legal or administrative nature may be less biased than such things as letters and diaries.

Writing History The starting point of historical investigation is often a question or problem which reflects contemporary preoccupations.

History is a Selection of a Selection Writing History History is a Selection of a Selection Primary sources are a selective interpretation. The historian chooses his sources. Our knowledge of the past is filtered first through the eyes of those who witnessed it, then through the eyes of the historian who wrote about it.

The Advantages of Hindsight Writing History The Advantages of Hindsight The historian knows how things turned out Certain ways of describing events may not be available at the time, but only retrospectively. Division of history into periods is retrospective.

Writing History G.M. Trevelyan (1876-1962): “Unlike dates, periods are not facts. They are retrospective conceptions that we form about past events, useful to focus discussion, but very often leading historical thought astray.” - How can dividing history into periods be useful and misleading?

The Advantages of Hindsight Writing History The Advantages of Hindsight The writing of history is influenced by the era in which it is written. Events are judged by their consequences. Each generation interprets the past in the light of its own experience.

Writing History Do you think you should study current events in history (last 5 years) on the grounds that they are relevant to your experience, or do you think they should be excluded on the grounds that they are too close for you to see them objectively?

The Disadvantages of Hindsight Writing History The Disadvantages of Hindsight Hindsight Bias The results inevitable. Anyone could have seen what would happen. If you were there, you would not have made the same mistake.

The Problem of Bias Topic Choice Bias Confirmation Bias National Bias Influenced by current preoccupations Confirmation Bias Only appeal to supporting evidence (ignoring counter-evidence) National Bias Difficulty of dealing objectively with sensitive issues We begin with our prejudices and search for evidence to support them.

The Problem of Bias Do you think that it will ever be possible to write a history of the world that can be agreed upon by all countries?

The Problem of Bias Pluralistic Approach “Cubist History” Explores the past from a variety of perspectives. Does not necessarily revert to relativism. Does not preclude historical truth.

Theories of History H.A.L. Fisher (1856-1940): “The human universe is so enormously complicated that to speak of the cause of any event is an absurdity.” Possible causal factors: Geographical conditions Individual motives Social & Economic conditions Chance occurrences

Theories of History To what extent do you think that your country’s history has been influenced by its geography?

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History Course of history is determined by great individuals. A.J.P. Taylor (1906-90) “The history of modern Europe can be written in terms of three titans: Napoleon, Bismarck, & Lenin.”

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History Journal Entry: If you could travel back in time and interview one character from history, who would it be and why?

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History Nicholas Humphrey (psychologist): If Newton had not existed someone else would have discovered the law of gravity, whereas if Shakespeare had not existed no one would have come up with Hamlet. Do you think that great historical figures are more like Newton or Shakespeare?

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943): “When a historian asks ‘Why did Brutus stab Caesar?’ he means ‘What did Brutus think which made him decide to stab Caesar?’ The cause of the event, for him, means the thought in the mind of the person whose agency the event came about: and this is not something other than the event, it is inside the event itself… All history is the history of thought.”

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History Empathy Useful some have even tried psychoanalysis Often difficult Difficult to empathize with Genghis Khan Limits to agent’s perception of the situation Does no take advantage of hindsight

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History To what extent do you think one can and should try to empathize with Hitler in order to understand his actions?

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History Give examples from history of actions which had consequences that could not have been imagined by the agent.

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History When he was a young man, Hitler once sought a job as a stage designer. Armed with a letter of introduction, he went to the Vienna Court Opera to see the set director, Alfred Roller, three times, but each time he lacked the courage to knock upon the door. According to the historian Frederick Spotts, “If Hitler had been taken up by Roller, he would have been very happily engaged as a stage designer. It would have been heaven for him.’ How different do you think 20th century history would have been if Hitler had summoned up the courage to knock on Roller’s door? Langemaat

Theories of History Great Person Theory of History Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in War and Peace Although in that year, 1812, Napoleon believed more than ever that to shed or not to shed the blood of his peoples depended entirely on his will (as Alexander said in his last letter to him), yet then, and more than at any time, he was in bondage to those laws which forced him, while to himself he seemed to be acting freely, to do what was bound to be his share in the common edifice of humanity, in history.

Theories of History Economic Determinism History is determined by economic factors. Printing Press, Steam Engine, & Computer

Theories of History Economic Determinism Which invention do you think has had the most decisive impact on history in the last two thousand years?

Theories of History Economic Determinism Karl Marx (1818-83) Deterministic Claimed to have discovered laws of historical change (compared himself to Newton) Technological & economic factors are engines of change (not great individuals)

Theories of History Economic Determinism We can predict the behavior of a gas with a great deal of accuracy even thought he behavior of an individual molecule is unpredictable. Do you think that, in a similar way, we can make accurate predictions about society even though individual behavior is unpredictable?

Theories of History Economic Determinism Karl Popper (1902-94) Predictability of future is incoherent If you could perfectly predict the future then you would be able to predict such things as future scientific discoveries; but if you could predict the details of such discoveries, you would then have discovered them now and not in the future – and that contradicts the original supposition.

Theories of History Role of Chance French philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-62) If Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter… Mark Antony might have found her less attractive not have fallen in love with her not have fallen out with Octavian Rome remained a republic rather than empire Rome might not have fallen into decadence Able to resist the barbarian invasions of 4th & 5th centuries Rome might never have fallen Europe & North Africa might still be Roman

A Few More Thoughts… Why do we normally think of history as the catalogue of ‘great events’ and assume that the details of our own micro-histories have nothing to do with it?

A Few More Thoughts… The past no longer exists, but History seeks to reconstruct it on the basis of evidence found in the present.

A Few More Thoughts… Skepticism about the past is no more justified than any other skepticism, and it is possible to establish a generally agreed historical facts. There is less agreement about the meaning and significance of these facts.

A Few More Thoughts… There are many different interpretations of the past, and trying to determine which one is best is a matter of judgment rather than proof. If history is not to collapse into fiction, we must take seriously the idea that there is some kind of truth about the past and that a good historian can at least help us to get closer to this truth.

A Few More Thoughts… Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97) said that History does not “make us more clever the next time, but wiser for all time.”