History Flashcards
What is the key idea about history?
It is framed as a construct, not a transparent recounting of the past but an active process of interpretation, selection, and presentation to produce narratives that serve present cultural and ideological needs.
How did 19th-century historians view history?
They emphasized the progress of civilization, often drawing lessons from past failures and presenting history as the onward march of human advancement.
How did 20th-century crises disrupt historical narratives of progress?
Events such as the Holocaust and world wars discredited the myth of inevitable progress, shifting historical discourse toward skepticism, disillusionment, and critiques of humanity’s capacity for self-destruction.
What critique does Raymond Williams offer about historical narratives?
He critiques history as a tale dominated by accidents and frustrations, emphasizing the chaotic and contingent nature of historical processes over teleological or triumphalist narratives.
How does Arthur Marwick’s tripartite framework redefine history?
Marwick categorizes history as the lived past, the crafted narrative, and the disciplinary study, highlighting its multifaceted role in shaping identity, inquiry, and meaning-making.
What is the significance of Leopold von Ranke’s historical methodology?
Ranke advocated for an empirical, source-based approach, emphasizing the historian’s duty to reconstruct the past “as it actually was” while striving for scientific objectivity—a standard later critiqued as idealistic.
How does John Tosh problematize the neutrality of historical accounts?
Tosh argues that history functions as a political tool, capable of legitimizing power structures or challenging them, and that historical inquiry often reflects the biases of its cultural and political context.
What is E.P. Thompson’s contribution to historical agency?
Thompson reclaims agency for the working class, portraying them as active participants in shaping social change, thus countering elite-dominated historical narratives and resonating with egalitarian movements.
How does Walter Benjamin’s view of history critique traditional historiography?
Benjamin describes history as fleeting, graspable only in transient images. This challenges linear, objective historiography by emphasizing the ephemerality and subjectivity of historical understanding.
In what way does Hayden White link history to narrative construction?
White argues that history mirrors literary storytelling, employing narrative emplotment, themes, and character development, thus shaping meaning through the historian’s interpretive frameworks rather than objective facticity.
What is Carolyn Steedman’s perspective on the affective dimension of history?
Steedman explores history as a site of yearning and desire, where individuals grapple with their inescapable separation from a past they can never fully recover, emphasizing history’s subjective and imaginative qualities.
How do post-structuralist theories complicate the study of history?
Post-structuralism critiques the notion of singular truths, highlighting the inherent subjectivity in historical narratives, the rhetorical construction of meaning, and the impossibility of achieving true objectivity in recounting the past.
What does Roland Barthes’ concept of myth reveal about history?
Barthes posits that myth simplifies complex realities, imbuing historical narratives with ideological significance that shapes collective consciousness and reinforces dominant cultural paradigms.
What role does transnationality play in modern historical discourse?
Transnationality underscores the flows of cultural, economic, and political exchange across borders, challenging nationalistic historiographies and highlighting the interdependence of local and global historical processes.
