Studying History by Jeremy Black and Donald M. Macraild

Question 1

What does E. H. Carr in his What is History (1961) suggest that History is?

Answer 1

That it is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his/her facts, an unending dialogue between past and present (thereby implying that it was changeable

Question 2

What can be said about history?

Answer 2

It is not composing of distinct separate periods, we impose these periods on areas of History

It is about remembering the past

It could be argued that it is not fact based and is actually just a fictional enterprise in the mind of the historian

It can be interpreted in different ways depending on class, gender, race, culture, etc.

Question 3

How does the Left view historical continuity?

Answer 3

Largely in terms of a specific view of national history shaped by changes in productive relations, and expressed through the medium of class consciousness. It is primarily focused on the past 200 years but sometimes goes further. It is sometimes criticised for being anachronistic, I.e. Applying concepts like being working class to periods before such concept existed

Question 4

What did Orwell write in relation to newspapers during the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 4

I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards, and others who had never fired a shot hailed as heroes

Newspapers retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructure over events that had never happened

Question 5

What did E. P. Thompson argue in his essay ‘Time, work-discipline and industrial capitalism’ (1971)?

Answer 5

That prior to the industrial revolution time was measured by the seasons, the sun and the moon but after the emergence of the factory it went from notional time to regimented time, measured by the foreman’s watch

Question 6

What did J. R. Hale argue in his Renaissance Europe, 1480-1520 (1971)?

Answer 6

That for many time was measured by the changing of the seasons, the times for planting and harvesting, and that only in legal and diplomatic documents was the year thought to begin on a set date as opposed to simply when the seasons changed

Question 7

What does Carlo M. Cipolla argue in his Clocks and Culture (1967)?

Answer 7

While timekeeping and clocks heavily influenced live in Europe, not all societies have clocks and as such do not follow time in the same way the west does

Question 8

What did Orwell say in his 1942 book The Rediscovery of Europe?

Answer 8

Think of history as a sort of long scroll with thick black lines across it at intervals. Each of these lines marked the end of what was called a “period”, and you were given to understand that what came afterwards was completely different from what had gone before

I.e. In 1499 you were in the Middle Ages but then the clock struck 1500 and you were in something called the Renaissance

Question 9

What is Historicism?

Answer 9

The idea that each age is unique and different

It was popular in 19th century history

Question 10

What did Benedetto Croce write?

Answer 10

All history is contemporary history

By this he meant that each generation rewrites history in the light of its own time and experiences

Question 11

What did Geoffrey of Monmouth write?

Answer 11

The History of the Kings of Britain (1136). Its main focus was upon King Arthur, connecting the kings of Britain, through the house of Constantine, to the great Trojan civilization. This national ‘story became known as the Albion Myth and was commonly employed by writers up to the 16th century

Question 12

What did Gerald of Wales write?

Answer 12

History and Topography of Ireland (1185). It traces the Irish Kings back to near-biblical times and writing as though myth and legend were history. It also covered wide aspects of Irish life - from eating and costume to culture and religion - in an often disdainful manner

Question 13

Name two other medieval authors?

Answer 13

Chretien de Troyes and Guillaume le Clerc

Question 14

Why is Ibn Khaldun significant?

Answer 14

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is significant because he collected many histories of the different people in the Middle East and Africa, and it has been argued that his comparative studies of cultures tried to give causal explanations of historical processes

Question 15

What did E. J. Alagoa write regarding the histories of Africa and how did this affected European views of Africa?

Answer 15

In the Egypt of Herodotus, the Greeks came as respectful visitors to do business, live, see sights, or to learn. In the Africa of Western expansion, European visitors came with derogatory concepts

Thus, in the late 18th century, Hegel (1770-1831), gave no credence to the role played by African civilization

Question 16

What themes are common in Medieval European History?

Answer 16

The role of God in the creation and ordering of the world

The move towards the Last Judgement rather than the secular view of human progress

Focused mainly on ‘national’ myths, such as King Arthur etc.

Question 17

What themes are common in Early Chinese History?

Answer 17

History as a vehicle of truth, education and morality

Utilised by emperors as part of the court system and as ways of solidifying their rule

Question 18

What themes are common in Renaissance history?

Answer 18

Revival of the Greek and Roman view of nature and history as cyclical i.e. civilizations rise and fall

Generally pessimist, i.e. all civilizations will inevitably fall

Question 19

What themes are common in Enlightenment history?

Answer 19

With the emergence of rationalism, the cult of secular reason, and the greater store that was set by humans’ own ability to affect their own fate, the notion of decay as an inevitable consequence of civilization came to be replaced by the idea of progress - the belief that historical change was ever improving human society

Many saw previous ages as barbaric

Question 20

Who wrote Scienza Nuova?

Answer 20

Giambattista Vico (1668-1744)

Question 21

How did Vico divide up history?

Answer 21

The Age of Gods - regular people lived under divine governments. Everything was commanded by auspices and oracles. The mute world of symbols

The Age of Heroes - everything was controlled by aristocratic commonwealth on account of their nature superiority. The language of ‘heroic emblems’, comparisons, images, metaphors and natural descriptions

The Age of Men - men recognised themselves as equal and then established popular commonwealths and then monarchies, both of which are forms of human government. Human language using words agreed upon by people

Question 22

Which great philosopher did Vico challenge, what did he challenge him on, and how did he challenge him?

Answer 22

Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes claimed that only the world of natural philosophy (science) was knowable by man because only it could be tested empirically. Vico argued that because God had made the natural world, only he could know its true meaning, whereas because men had made human society, it was possible for them to understand that society, past, present and future

Question 23

What did Kant believe in relation to history?

Answer 23

He believed in the idea of progress and desired to find the scheme of history - what made history develop in the way it did. He argued that mankind had to assume some kind of ‘secret plan’, a teleological principle to history, because only then could the immediate horrors of history be explained in the overall scheme of cultural improvement

Question 24

What did both Voltaire (1694-1778) and Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751) propound?

Answer 24

the notion of history as belles-lettres (beautiful writing) and of ‘philosophy teaching by examples’

Question 25

What two hugely popular books did Voltaire write?

Answer 25

Historie de Charles XII and Siecle de Louis XIV

Question 26

What did William Robertson (1721-93) write and why was it significant?

Answer 26

History of the Reign of Charles V and because it carefully pointed out the sources from which his books information was derived from

Question 27

What did David Hume write and how was it different?

Answer 27

The History of England (1751-62), a six-volume work of enormous popular appeal. Hume highlighted the moral lessons which each age of history might teach to posterity, and also contained appendices on the ‘social’ aspects of history

Question 28

What work is widely regarded as the greatest historical work of the 18th century and why?

Answer 28

Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88)

Because it was clear, narrative in form, offering interesting people and events, dramatic occurrences and theatrical details

Question 29

To what century is Whiggism general ascribed to?

Answer 29

19th century

Question 30

Who were the leading historians associated with the Whig interpretation?

Answer 30

Lord John Russel

Henry Hallam

William Lecky

T. B. Macaulay

Question 31

How had Whiggism developed?

Answer 31

Political culture in the 18th century was only where legitimacy was derived from the past. Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, when William III deposed James II, legitimacy needed to be derived from something else so the Whig interpretation came into play, which viewed society as constantly progressing forward and as such William III could be seen as legitimate as he was a move in the right direction, i.e. limited by the constitution and Protestant

Question 32

In Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), what did he argue?

Answer 32

that development in France were harmful because they were unrelated to any sense of continuity, any historical consciousness, whereas in the Restoration of the Stuart dynasty in 1660 and the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688-9, he claimed, the English regenerated the parts of the constitution that had been lacking

Question 33

What is ‘History for below’?

Answer 33

History, such as national history, that was meant for popular consumption in the 18th century. Mainly designed to serve a political or polemical purpose

Question 34

For what three reasons did history undergo revolution in the second half of the 19th century

Answer 34

1. the historians of the Enlightenment failed to place sufficient emphasis on human development, and thus did not see change as central to historical development. 19th-century history became more focused on politics, diplomacy and the role of ‘Great men’ in particular
2. History became more fact-orientated
3. Historians reacted against the fact that history, as a discipline, was not taught systematically in schools and universities

Question 35

What were some of the key features of Leopold von Ranke’s history?

Answer 35

To show it how it actually was

Historians were to understand, not simply interpret, the past

The best way to achieve this was to uncover as many past documents as possible

using a hermeneutical approach, the science of correctly understanding texts

Using narrative to explain History

Question 36

From whom had many of Ranke’s basic values been learned from?

Answer 36

the Danish historian B. G. Niebuhr (1776-1831)

Question 37

What are some of the criticisms of Ranke?

Answer 37

His own values, like those of any historian, influenced the work he produced ( he was a Lutheran Protestant, you get the drift). As such he is seen as a historicist

Some saw him as a Positivist

However these have been argued against by many recent historians

Question 38

What did Q. E. Wong argued in his History in later Imperial China in relation to Chinese history?

Answer 38

that for nearly fifteen hundred years dynastic histories had been much concerned with the lessons that history could teach to present generations

Question 39

What is Positivism?

Answer 39

Essentially the idea that by using empirical data links of causality can be produced between the past, present and future

Question 40

What are the five stages of the SQ3R model?

Answer 40

Survey - essentially skim read it

Question - is it useful, if so how is it useful and where can it be used

Read - detailed reading and note taking

Recite - think about what the text has taught you and answer any questions you have

Review - where do I go from here? what do I read next? what questions do I still have?