¶ … authors write, "History as academic historians write it today would be almost unrecognizable to scholars working even fifty years ago, let alone in a past that is a century, two centuries - or twenty centuries - old" (Howell and Prevenier 119). The American Heritage Dictionary defines history as "a narrative of events; a chronological record of events, or the branch of knowledge that records and analyzes past events" (A.H.D. palm). How, then, can one align the definition of history with a statement such as the one cited above?
One way would be to understand that the methods used by historians, to events of the past, are as different as the historians themselves.
Howell and Prevenier explain that this interpretational framework may include Historicism, a process attributed to Leopold von Ranke, or Positivism, as defined by August Comte. A different approach to history is found in the teleological view "expounded by Aristotle" by seeing "the universe as striving towards its own final cause" (Aristotle 2).
History seems to be a moving target. Howell and Prevenier cite multiple ways in which the writing of history has changed thus changing the content of historical writing itself. Does this mean that history exists only as an extension of the writer's viewpoint? Are the academic historians of today re-creating a history that would be unrecognizable to people who lived it as the authors suggest? This research will attempt to further explain the methods of approach listed above as well as clarify the reasoning of Howell and Prevenier in reaching their conclusion.
Ranke writes, "You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell how it really was" (Ranke, AOTS par 1). This is historicism as qualified by the historian to whom its development is attributed. Ranke believed that it was vital to remain objective when re-creating an event. He did...
History As Art The past is not real, nor tangible. We cannot revisit the past as we are forever placed here, in the eternal now to navigate our existence. History provides our imaginations with concepts and ideas that allow us to seemingly describe the past. It must be remembered and heavily emphasized that history is in fact an art. It is not a science and it has no capability of being
Spatial Rhetoric The complex ideas of space and time are more philosophical than anything, but are no doubt necessary when discussing the unique aspects of historical review. Azarhayu & Foote (2008) addressed this issue in their research as they offered models of how to interpret historical sites using the concepts of space and time. This essay will review this article and highlight the important aspects regarding spatial rhetoric and how certain
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Historians are in the business of telling a storied past based on the collection of information revealed through the search for knowledge. Now knowledge is not truth, and the application of science is to search for the truth as can be best explained testing and understanding within bounded constraints. Therefore, the forms of evidence used by historians are not based on, or not always based on, scientific merit. One must
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