Ranke innovative Flashcards
ULTI
neither fully innovative nor transformative
historical epochs should not be judged according to
historical epochs should not be judged according to
RATHER historical epochs should be judged
in isolation from the modern context by empirically establishing history ‘as things really were’
innovative ? esp for G - other historians susceptible to own religious/cult/pol leanings
He urged that each historical epoch had its own individuality, that had to be evaluated through the contextual lens, and it was the task of the historian ‘to extinguish’ their own personality to effectuate the meaning and coherence of history
‘prompted’ the methodical approach of
archival research, and he birthed the commonplace use of source criticisms in academic institutions to strip histories back to their truest forms
Ranke presumably view himself as an innovative historian as he
‘criticised the research methods of previous historians for copying earlier commentaries without conducting archival research or critical source analysis’
A. Boldt- Perception, Depiction and Description of European History: Leopold von Ranke and his Development and Understanding of Modern Historical Writing
His emphasis on the removal of all traces of personal influence to revive the past was induced in his books on large and small powers of histories such as
England, Spain, Russia, France, and Germany, as well as Belgium, Serbia and even the Catholic Church
how was he unique 4 his time
, Ranke as an historian who could implement both the empiricist and objective principles to expansive trans-national histories deems him unprecedented and inspiring to historians of and after his time.
part of web
Scientific history,” of course, was the siren call of an entire generation of scholars who were importing German scholarship and pedagogy to the new graduate schools of late 19th c America
BOYD
INFLUENCES ON
HENRY Adams - scientific history
scientific in terms of
emphasised empiricism - the historians version of direct laboratory observation was intimate familiarity with all the relevant documents. Beyond that, scientific historians shared with the physicist and chemist faith that careful observation (or close reading of documents) would lead to true knowledge of nature (or wie es eigentlich gewesen ist)
Most of his research took him to Italy, particularly to Venice, where he became one of the first historians to use
the reports of the Venetian ambassadors of the 16th century, documents which made it clear to him that the decline of these states could be attributed to internal causes.
he revolutionary upheavals of 19th-century Europe led Ranke to conclude that the idea of
nationalism dominated modern history
BUT HIS HIST OF REF OF G WAS NEITHER nationalist nor romantic - focused on the political history of the reign of Charles V and on the German Reformation
INNOVATIVE? IN ROLE AS TEACHER
Ranke trained the first generation of genuinely professional historians at Berlin, including Georg Waitz, Theodor Mommsen, and Jakob Burckhardt
DIF IN THE WAY (on progress)
Ranke emphasized that history was not a matter of progress, and that the primary task of the historian was to study history itself and to find its honest truth
!!!!!!!!!IN HIST OF G REF, despite the strong theological coloring evident in many of his personal letters
Ranke was always a secular historian, devoted to appraising the major forces in history
He taught the necessity of juxtaposing important universal trends with particular details
Yet sometimes grand ideas seemed to work in a dialectical way, especially when confronted by a new set of ideas
Ranke viewed each nation and its people as
unique entities producing forces of nationalism that no longer could be ignored
revised Prussian history (1874) once more led him to reaffirm
reaffirm his Prussian patriotism and to realize that modern Prussian history, like modern French history, had to be understood in terms of its internal forces
Ranke disliked
despotism and vigorously denied taking the side of authority, but his conservative political interests have always been criticised and continue to provide grounds for further criticism by his American biographers
The Germans have continued to regard him as a founder of historism, and while the historicist interpretation usually
understates Ranke’s emphasis on the major tendencies and effective principles found in political forces, these constituted the true meaning; of history for Ranke.
how unique
Ranke as an historian who could implement both the empiricist and objective principles to expansive trans-national histories deems him unprecedented and inspiring to historians of and after his time.
His access to the archives of Berlin, Austria and Venice provided him with an opportunity for
originality in his histories as they had only begun to open in the 1820s, and thus at the most basic level his histories became innovative in the featuring of previously disclosed sources
