key questions Flashcards
what are the four key questions associated with the investigation of history?
- who are historians?
- what are the purposes of history?
- how has history been constructed, recorded and presented over time?
- why have approaches to history changed over time?
what does the question ‘who are historians?’ refer to?
the producers of history over time, from ancient times to the present day. consider their identities: biographical details, personal values and beliefs, philosophy of history, approaches to the construction of history, bias. consider their contexts: gender, class, ethnicity, time, place, social and economic structures/change, political constraints, official and unofficial status, background
what are points of discussion associated with the question ‘who are historians?’?
- Herodotus (the Father of History?)
- Thucydides
- Venerable Bede
- Leopold von Ranke (wie es eigentlich gewesen)
- E.H. Carr
- Henry Reynolds
- Kevin Windschuttle
- Keith Jenkins
- Richard J. Evans
- popular history
- democratisation of history
- historical fiction authors
what does the question ‘what are the purposes of history?’ refer to?
the aims and purposes of specific historical works and historians, along with changing interpretations and perspectives of the aims and purposes of history. there are many changing interpretations and perspectives of the role of history- this includes the misuse of history
what are points of discussion associated with the question ‘what are the purposes of history?’?
- what did different schools of thought say was the purpose of history?
- Venerable Bede and religious history
- historicism
- revisionist history
- Lipstadt v Irving and Holocaust denial
- national history
- patriotism and commemoration
- Australian History Wars
- fake histories
what does the question ‘how has history been constructed, recorded and presented over time?’ refer to?
consider this question from ancient times to the present day; what are the changing methods of historians? how do historians work? what are the different forms of historical communication (written, oral, visual, audiovisual, multimedia, digital)? what types of history are there (political, social, economic, environmental, military, academic, popular, national, local, surveys, macrohistories, microhistories, biographies, psychohistories, historical fiction)?
what are the points of discussion associated with the question ‘how has history been constructed, recorded and presented over time?’?
- Leopold von Ranke’s impact on how we do history today
- use of new media including documentaries and podcasts
- the way different cultures have recorded history (First Nations Australians- recording story through art)
what does the question ‘why have approaches to history changed over time?’ refer to?
again, consider from ancient times to the present day. factors include: the availability of historical evidence, the contexts of historians, changing perspectives about approaches to the construction of history, changing philosophies of history, changing technology and changing audiences
what are the points of discussion associated with the question ‘why have approaches to history changed over time?’?
- examples where evidenced has challenged understanding
- historians and the impact of context on their construction of history
- the history of Australia and the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in the way we tell our national story
- democratisation of history through technology
- the role of the audience in shaping the way we tell our past (popular histories, film, musicals etc.)
what are potential focuses for Section I questions?
- context
- purpose
- methodology
- evidence
- truth
- change over time
- perspective/interpretation
- use/misuse
- philosophies of history
- technology
- audience
- what is a historian?
what points of discussion could be brought up for a question revolving around context?
- context of the historian; Kara Cooney
- development of technology
- Herodotus; representations of Persia
- bias: influences of context on historian’s perspective
- E.H. Carr: “the historian is a product of their context”
what points of discussion could be brought up for a question revolving around purpose?
- Venerable Bede: Christian missing in writing history
- von Ranke: wie es eigentlich gewesen (“how it actually happened”)
- Herodotus vs Thucydides: literature vs science
- Lipstadt v Irving: misuse of history
- propaganda: misuse of history
- history vs patriotism
what points of discussion could be brought up for a question revolving around methodology?
- Herodotus: interviewing, collecting information, not judging, instead just collecting
- Thucydides: wrote speeches as if it were word-for-word
- von Ranke: archives
- Venerable Bede: archives
- Lipstadt v Irving: footnotes and translations were false, proving methodology is essential to the proper ‘use’ of history
- Philomena Cunk: using tropes of historians’ methodology, without substance
- AI: methodology (algorithms) behind such technology as ‘Hello History’ app
what points of discussion could be brought up for a question revolving around evidence?
- access changes over time
- technology influences access
- democratisation of history
- evidence shaped by interpretation/purpose according to Carr
- history of minorities is challenging due to limited evidence
- Lipstadt v Irving: footnoting
- AI; uses evidence to simply retell history
- variety of types of evidence, impact of shifts in evidence on our belief that we can understand truth (written > photography > videography)
- ^ “see it, believe it” challenged because of deepfake technology
what points of discussion could be brought up for a question revolving around truth?
- von Ranke: wie es eigentlich gewesen
- empiricism
- history as science
- postmodernism: no such thing as truth
- Thucydides vs Herodotus
