V5: History

Question 1

Defining history: The nature of History (Marwick)

Answer 1

Three levels of meaning (Marwick):

• connotes the entire human past as it actually happened (synonymous with the past)
• Mans attempt to describe and interpret that past (on the basis of framentory evidence) -> history as narration
• 19th Century: history as a discipline (modern academic discipline) (different pov, should be as accurate as possible -> Leopold von Ranke)

Question 2

Historiography (Leopold von Ranke)

Answer 2

History as it really was

Question 3

What are Histories (E.P. Thomson and Giles and Middleton)?

Answer 3

Giles and Middelton:

• events left out (and people) - social order is not complete - naturalness is ignored

E.P. THompson:

• People that are not seen as important are left out (winners write history)

Question 4

What is a Myth (Roland Barthes)?

Answer 4

• Myth is constituted by the loss of historical quality of things

Function of myth:

• empty reality / history and fill it with nature
• romanticising the past
• natural things explanation

-> only the good things of MLK are remembered

History as heritage:

• material artefacts that are worthy of preservation