The Construction of Modern Histories : Flashcards
define Narrative history
Narrative= chronological account of how events occured over time
define biographical history
Biography= construction of history based on the corner and life of an individual (traditionally written about strong/powerful men)
define social histroy
Social= Historians wished to leave the traditions and conservative representation of history behind so they began to focus on ordinary people, day to day life and social interactions. It seeks to better understand the dynamics of social class, gender and ethnicity.
define cultural history
Cultural= focuses on changing attitudes and relies on artefacts to show how ideas have changed over time.
Why are there different constructions of history?
Different constructions of history reflect the ways historians try to make sense of the past and the product is based on their choices.
define evidence
what role does evidence play in the construction of modern histories?
To find evidence, historians comprehend the explicit info. In the source, through looking at implied meaning, the sources usefulness and reliability for the research being conducted
- Historians use evidence for a variety of sources
- Large gaps can exist where sources are not being produced
define perspective:
Perspective is point of view.
what role does perspective play in the construction of modern histories?
- There are the perspectives of people in the past or perspectives on the past.
- Historians can disagree about past events, causes and effect
- These differences include reasons such as which historical sources they studied, how they were interpreted and the historians background, knowledge, expertise and values.
what problems are associated with the construction of modern histories?
- Overabundance of sources: filtering through can be difficult. Digitisation ia helping this but can lead to sources being lost.
- Political control on access to source material: different nations and governments have different laws in relation to access of government records.
- Changing nature of access to sources: digitalised sources are easily copied and widely transferred and this has changed the way journalists and historians can access government information.
what is the role of selectivity?
Selectivity- historical representation is selective because the historian has no direct. access to past reality but only to relics of evidence which cannot be representative of. all that went on. Historical representation is also selective and subjective because facts.
What is the role of Omission?
ndividual historical texts record only a fraction of what actually happens, and critical readers may recognize incomplete explanations. Depending on what they know about the author and their interests, omissions could appear to be systematic, negligent, malicious, inadvertent, flattering, or who knows what else. Asking about what an author didn’t write may be counterfactual, but can be illuminating.
what is the role of emphasis?
Certain events, people, etc have been emphasized depending on the context of the construction of historical accounts. For example there was a large focus on powerful men in biography history but there has been a shift in the people in social history.
