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Rethinking History Summary
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Summary of Rethinking History (CH1102) 1st year course IBH Erasmus University Rotterdam
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Samenvatting Rethinking History ILecture 1: What is history?
Res gestae: all the things that have happened in the past
Historiae rerum gestarum: stories about what has happened.
What if history: no disciplinary methods, subjective approach. No difference between fact and
fiction.
Faction: fiction that relies heavily on historical facts. statements about historical events which have
been determined intersubjectively.
Even if historians solely rely on historical facts, interpretation differences continue to play a major
role. Can be present on two different levels:
- Critical and analytic philosophy of history: discussion about historiae rerum gestarum
- Speculative philosophy of history: speculation about historical process (res gestae)
o Search for patterns
o Deeper meaning/aim of historical process
o Engine of history
Historism: philosophical & historiographical theory (founded in 19th century)
Understanding another time and context
Examining the past on its own merits
Anti-determinism (anti-teleology)
Substantive characteristics
Evidence: sources & methods
Logic of arguments
Historical consciousness: the awareness of the fundamental historical character of human behavior,
knowledge, institutions, events and processes in the world, including the reflection of one’s own
position.
Time: past and present are different: application of time concepts
Reality: difference between historical reality and fiction
Historicity: events and processes take place in a specific historical context: continuity and change.
‘deadly sins’ of history science:
1. Determinism: a blinkered view. No room for other ideas/possibilities.
2. Presentism: the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts.
3. Instrumentalism: the use/abuse of history. History as an instrument or tool for some practical
purpose (in the present)
4. Anachronism: an error in time.
5. Finalism: the doctrine that the historical process is directed towards some goal.
Finalism and relevance of history:
Sande Cohen: we are overhistoricised and under critical in relation to contemporary conditions.
Instead of explaining current conditions (and leave them indisturbed…), he wants us to pull apart the
assumptions that are used to justify current arrangements.
A warning against those historical works that seeks to normalize and naturalize current conditions.
What is the relevance of history.
Explaining changes and process in the world historically (makig sense of the past)
, Also: things are not predetermined
Holocaust: unique and/or trying to understand? Can we?
Lecture 2: The history profession and its Eurocentric origins
The importance of archives
Archives as: passive storehouses and recourses?
Archives as institutions store collective memories and co-constructs identities
Active sites: social power confirmed contested and negotiated
‘There is no political power without control of the archive’
Man were seen as the gatekeepers
Eurocentrism: a cultural phenomenon that views the histories and cultures of non-Western societies
from a European or Western perspective
Ethnocentrism: judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture.
Nowadays: Rethinking the Western history ‘profession’
Tracing Eurocentric bias of the profession
1. Dominant calendar is based on Christian faith
2. Selection of content
3. Spatial: Regional names around the world are named in honor of European travelers
4. Time: dominant periodization is based on the ideas of European scholars.
Petrarch and other humanists implied that the past has three periods: Rome, then darkness, then
renovation
Christoph Cellarius published his universal history, and divided history into an Ancient, Medieval
and Modern Period.
Empiricist vs. Rationalist
Tabula rasa vs. Innate ideas
Sensation vs. Reason
A posteriori vs. A priori
Inductive vs. deductive
Primary sources: from the ‘firsthand’.
Close to the res gestae, such as direct
eyewitness reports.
Secondary sources
From the ‘second hand’, the historia
rerum gestarum, such as historical accounts.
Problematic
o Primary sources are not free from interpretation
o What is ‘firsthand’ if the ‘first report’ dates from far after ‘the event’?
o Primary source? It can change
o Depends on the research question!
Double relativity of source; the same source can be primary as well as secondary, it depends
on what you wish to research.
Use of sources related to the different approaches to the past:
Reconstructionist try to make a puzzle and reconstruct the past. (Rankean model)
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