Summary of the book Thinking About History by Sarah Maza, which includes the most important terms and concepts and a summary of all of the important referenced texts that had to be studied for the exam.
Summary of theories and individuals 'Thinking About History' Chapter 1-3
Thinking about history + lecture summary
Notes + answered syllabus questions for ''Introduction to the Study of History''
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Introduction To History (GE1V16002)
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Terms and Concepts
Chapter 1
Historiography: the history of history/history in the second degree; the study of
historical writing.
“Great man” approach: thinking about history in a way that focuses on “great men”
and their accomplishments; an individual “genius” that shaped history
History of ideas: historical changes in the way that we think. Later became known
as “intellectual history”
Political history: history focused on politics and politicians
“History from above”/”Top down”: history from the POV of the elites
Similar to ‘history from the neck up’
“History from below”/”Bottom-up”: history from the POV of the masses
Quantification: collecting and comparing vast amounts of data; works best for broad
historical questions about population, the economy, and mass politics
Cliometrics: “the application of economic theory and quantitative techniques to the
study of history”
Annales: a school of history named after their flagship journal, which dedicated itself
to recovering their nation’s history by writing massive works about French regional
history in the early modern period, and especially about French peasantry
“War over the gentry”: the rise of a gentry of lesser landholders undermined the
preeminence of the higher aristocracy; it was waged with the weapons of the new
social history
“Moral economy”: an economy based on community values
“Hidden transcript”: the “offstage” speech and behavior of those without power
“Infrapolitics”: behaviors such as wasting time, damaging tools, disappearing from
the workplace, or pretending to misunderstand orders, and so on
Agency: “self-directed action.” The assumption that a central purpose of life—and
therefore a natural focus of historical inquiry—is to take action and alter one’s
circumstances for the better is
The ability to take purposeful actions to engage in purposeful matters,
mastering your actions, fighting for a cause
Freedom to act upon your own will
“Gender History”: captures the ways in which women’s and men’s histories are
intertwined as well as the ideological dimensions of that relationship.
Chapter 2
Modernity: Goes along with linear concept of time, that some people are living in the
present and some are not yet there
What modernity is about, a time period, places, and a state of being
Someone who does not have an iPhone/smartphone is referred to ‘not having
a smartphone yet’ - they aren’t modern
Invasion of Afghanistan, being invaded to help them and provide them with
modernity and ‘democracy’
Historical consciousness (aka. Historicism): not about being conscious about
names, dates, etc.
It is about awareness of change over time, being aware that the past is
different from the present
What historians see as historical awareness, idea we owe from 1800s
, Denaturalization: exposing the artificiality by looking at how and why this particular
way of conceiving something came about
“Deterritorialization”: the focus of world history is usually not on specific places but
on the dynamic intangibles that connect far-flung populations, such as trade, credit,
disease, faith, even as those intangibles have very concrete and sometimes
devastating effects
Chapter 3
Science: Something that is a result of a critical and systematic research or
investigation, that has been performed with a method that is controllable, traced and
repeatable
Neither the object or type of knowledge that defines scientific, but the (nature
of the) method the scientist follows
Academic: Can have both positive and negative meanings
Negative - academic can mean theoretical, hasn’t got much practical use, eg.
Academic discussion and distinction
Positive - academic can refer to a certain level or attitude, eg. Academic level
of thinking
Capacity to think in a critical way, a researcher, reflective
Philosophes: the radical thinkers of the French Enlightenment
Chapter 4
Reading against the grain: Against the perspective of the maker of the archival
material, finding the thoughts and acts of the ones written about and reconstructing
their perspective, what are the reasons for why eg. Some people were suppressed
Using a source differently (from its intention): Using a source or document meant
for another purpose or discipline to say something about another
eg. Religious ministry source to explain social and cultural issues, police
report for marginalized societies
Searching for silence: Looking for information on those who were not dominant or
written historical sources,
Eg. historical linguistics, if you study the language used you know what is or
is not possible from that society
Oral history: Interviews with who does have a past but does not have an archive,
reconstruct lifestyles
the source created is very subjective,
the memory of the interviewee is tainted by the passage of time, memory is
influenced by the interviewer
Not a problem of itself, the changes that the interviewee makes that helps the
historian,
These elements themselves say what is important about their memory and
telling of the past
Chapter 5
Microhistory: (aka. “cultural history”) is looking more at how people experienced the
events and the meaning they gave it, instead of what caused a certain event [p158].
Microhistory involves looking at obscure individuals of the past and examining their
individual stories.
Participant approach: good at showing how it was for people in the people in the
past and a synchronic picture of things were
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