History vs Historiography
Summary
TLDRThis educational video script delves into the nuanced differences between history and historiography. It clarifies that history is not merely the past or a collection of facts, but a complex, evolving discourse shaped by historians' interpretations and evidence. Historiography, on the other hand, is a meta-analysis, examining the methods and evolution of historical study itself. The script emphasizes the importance of understanding historiography to transition from passive consumers to active producers of historical knowledge.
Takeaways
- đ The script discusses a scene from the movie 'White Christmas', highlighting the difference between dance and choreography as a metaphor for the differences between history and historiography.
- đ The lecturer introduces the topic of historiography by comparing it to choreography, suggesting that historiography is a more complex and intellectual approach to history.
- đ€ The script challenges the simplistic view of history as just 'what happened', emphasizing that history is an interpretation and argument made by historians based on evidence.
- 𧩠History is described as not being the past itself, but the work of historians who interpret and argue about the past, making it a dynamic and complex field.
- đ Historians are portrayed as 'present-minded workers' who produce history within a certain cultural, epistemological, methodological, ideological, and practical context.
- đ The script explains that history is empirical, meaning it is rooted in evidence and makes claims about what actually happened, distinguishing it from fictional stories.
- đ History is presented as having multiple perspectives, with no single definitive version, which is why it is referred to as a 'shifting, problematic discourse'.
- đ”ïžââïž The study of history is about understanding the past in its historical context, focusing on the contingent nature of events and their causes.
- đ Historiography is defined as a meta-analysis of history, which can include the history of the historical discipline itself or the historical writing on a particular topic.
- đ Understanding historiography is crucial for moving from being a consumer of history to a producer, as it involves assessing previous historical scholarship and contributing new insights.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the dance number 'Choreography' in the movie 'White Christmas'?
-The dance number 'Choreography' in 'White Christmas' is a commentary on how actors in theater have moved from traditional dance to more complex and intellectual forms of movement, which are referred to as choreography.
What is the difference between history and historiography according to the script?
-History is the work of historians, involving argument and interpretation based on evidence about the past. Historiography, on the other hand, is a meta-analysis of history, which includes the history of the historical discipline itself and the historical writing on specific topics.
Why is it important to distinguish between history and historiography?
-Distinguishing between history and historiography is important because it helps to understand the evolution of historical thought and the various approaches to studying the past. It also allows historians to avoid repeating the same narratives and to find new ways to describe and explain history.
What does Keith Jenkins define history as in the script?
-Keith Jenkins defines history as a shifting, problematic discourse about the past, produced by present-minded workers, which is subject to various uses and abuses that correspond to power bases and distribute the meanings of histories.
What are the three main aspects that differentiate history from mere facts or stories about the past?
-History is differentiated from mere facts or stories about the past by being the work of historians involving argument and interpretation, being an empirical discipline based on the interpretation of evidence, and being complex and continuous with many different perspectives.
How does the script describe the nature of history as a discipline?
-The script describes history as a complex and continuous discipline, with no single definitive version. It is a collection of arguments and interpretations that change over time and is fundamentally rooted in evidence.
What is the purpose of studying historiography in the context of the script?
-The purpose of studying historiography is to understand the ways historians have investigated the past, both in terms of the development of the historical discipline and the specific historical writing on various topics.
Why does the script suggest that historians make terrible fortune tellers?
-The script suggests that historians make terrible fortune tellers because they respect the past as different from the present and the future, and they focus on understanding the past in its historical context rather than predicting the future.
What is the role of historiography in the process of writing history, as per the script?
-Historiography plays a crucial role in the process of writing history by providing an assessment of what has been written about a topic before, allowing historians to build upon previous scholarship and find new ways to describe and explain the past.
How does understanding historiography help students and researchers, according to the script?
-Understanding historiography helps students and researchers move from being consumers of history to producers of history by providing them with knowledge of previous historical scholarship and different approaches to studying the past.
Outlines
đ Understanding the Distinction Between History and Historiography
This paragraph explores the nuanced difference between history and historiography, using the analogy of a dance number from the movie 'White Christmas' to introduce the concept. The speaker clarifies that history is not merely a recounting of past events but an interpretation constructed by historians. It is empirical, based on evidence, and is not to be confused with fictional narratives. History is depicted as a complex, continuous discourse with multiple perspectives, emphasizing the importance of understanding historiography to move from being a passive consumer to an active producer of historical knowledge.
đ Delving into the Layers of Historiography
The second paragraph delves deeper into the concept of historiography, distinguishing it from history by defining it as a meta-analysis of historical work. It serves as an investigation into the evolution of the historical discipline and the diverse approaches historians have taken over time. The paragraph outlines two aspects of historiography: the historical development of the discipline and the specific scholarly contributions to particular historical topics. Understanding historiography is crucial for historians to build upon previous scholarship and to contribute new insights, thereby enriching the ongoing dialogue about the past.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄChoreography
đĄHistoriography
đĄHistory
đĄInterpretation
đĄEmpirical
đĄDiscourse
đĄContingent
đĄMeta-analysis
đĄPower Bases
đĄNarrative
đĄEpistemologically
Highlights
The dance number 'Choreography' in the movie 'White Christmas' is used as a metaphor to introduce the difference between history and historiography.
Historiography is not just a fancy term for history; it has significant differences and implications.
History is a complex and continuous discourse, not a simple recounting of past facts.
Historians today view history as an interpretation and argument about the past, not just a collection of facts.
History is not the past itself but the work of historians who write about the past.
History is empirical, based on the interpretation of evidence, distinguishing it from fictional literature.
The complexity of history is emphasized by the idea that there is no single, definitive version of historical events.
History is the study of the contingent, focusing on why and how things happened in the past.
Historiography is introduced as a meta-analysis of history, the investigation of how history is studied.
Two aspects of historiography are identified: the history of the historical discipline and the historical writing on specific topics.
Historiography helps students and researchers understand the existing scholarship on a historical topic.
The relationship between history and historiography is interdependent; all history is based on previous historiographical work.
Understanding historiography enables one to transition from being a consumer to a producer of historical knowledge.
The importance of historiography lies in its ability to prevent historians from repeating the same narratives and to encourage new perspectives.
The lesson concludes with an encouragement for students to engage with historiography to enhance their historical studies.
Transcripts
so one of my favorite scenes in the
classic holiday movie
white christmas is a dance number called
choreography
and in the number um danny k the sort of
lead actor of the scene
does this whole bit about how actors in
the theater no longer
uh do dance they do choreography and
what he means here is essentially that
they don't do dance the way that it has
always been they do things that are much
more sort of highbrow
and unintelligible and intellectual
the theater the theater
what's happened to the theater
especially
where dancing is concerned
[Music]
every time i teach the difference
between history and historiography to
students i always kind of wonder
if they have feelings about
historiography
like danny k has about choreography i
mean
isn't just historiography a fancy kind
of convoluted way of saying history
no there are big differences between
history and historiography in this
lesson we're going to look at the
definitions of these two terms
how they're different and why this
matters
all right let's get going
[Music]
[Music]
okay the first place to start is to ask
the question
what is history this question is
actually far more complicated than you
might believe
historians have debated what precisely
history is for a long time
and we'll study this debate as it
changed over time later in the class
but for now let's focus on what
historians today tend to think history
is
well how about we just look at a
definition that one notable historian
has given for history
here's what keith jenkins has said
history is a shifting problematic
discourse ostensibly about an aspect of
the world the past
that is produced by a group of
present-minded workers overwhelmingly in
our culture salaried historians who go
about their work in mutually
recognizable ways that are
epistemologically methodologically
ideologically and practically positioned
and whose products once in circulation
are subject to a series of uses and
abuses that are logically
infinite but which in actuality
generally correspond to a range of power
bases that exist at any given moment
and which structure and distribute the
meanings of histories along a dominant
marginal spectrum okay
got it
all right maybe we should take this a
little more slowly actually the best way
to start
to define history is to look at what
history is not
first history is not the past in other
words history is not simply what
happened before
right now what happened and what is
written about
are two very different things second
history isn't just facts about the past
it's not just some random compilation of
interesting details about yesteryear
it's more than that third
history isn't just stories about the
past history is somehow
different from fictional literature the
harry potter novels
much as i love them are not history
history's something different than that
okay so then what is history well first
history is the work of historians it is
argument and interpretation what this
means is that history is not the past
it's what historians
write about the past and in this writing
historians are making
interpretations and not simply compiling
unrelated facts
second history is an empirical
discipline
it's based on the interpretation of
evidence this is how it's different from
harry potter novels history is a story
about the past that's fundamentally
rooted
in evidence and that way it makes claims
about
truth about what really happened
third history is complex and continuous
this
there's no one history but rather
many histories and this is what jenkins
meant by a shifting
problematic discourse it's a
conversation history is a collection of
arguments and interpretations about the
past
many of which agree and many of which
don't
because there is no such thing as one
definitive history
the process of writing history is
continuous and keeps going
on and on and on good thing or else i'd
be out of a job
finally history is the study of the
contingent
it is the study of why and how things
happen the way that they did in other
words
history is the study of the past in its
historical context
it's not the use of the past for the
purpose of telling the future
as a professor once told me historians
make terrible fortune tellers
that's because historians respect the
past as different from the present
and the future for that matter too all
right great
now that we know what history is we can
just shut this whole thing
down and take a nap right
all right all right we know what history
is we have one more thing to cover
what is historiography now this is the
magic question of the class
the first thing to know is that history
and historiography are not
the same historiography is a
meta-analysis of history
it is the investigation of history or
another way of putting it
the history of history now this can mean
a lot of different things but in this
class we're going to treat
historiography in two ways
first historiography will mean the
history of the historical discipline
itself it's a narrative account of how
the discipline
originated and developed over time it is
a story about the many people
who've changed that way the way that we
have studied history
and it shows us how the discipline
itself is complex
meaning people approach it in lots of
different ways and for lots of different
purposes
this definition of historiography is
really what we're going to focus on
in module one of the class
second historiography will also mean the
historical writing on a particular topic
any topic from the french revolution to
the punic
wars will have its own historiography
in other words its own collection of
historical interpretations from
historians over a long stretch of time
this definition of historiography
includes not the big names of the
discipline so much as the specific
historians who have contributed
scholarship on a particular topic
it focuses on the ways that these
historians differ in approach
and argument its purpose is essentially
to function as
a literature review for students and
researchers to know
what has been written about a topic and
how and this is really the definition of
historiography that we'll work on
in the second module of the class
so in sum historiography is the study of
the ways that historians have
investigated the past this includes
classic historians
and the way that they've approached the
discipline itself and
more recent historians in the way that
they have approached specific
topics all right so
what is the difference between history
and historiography
well i think in summary the best way to
think about it is through
levels of analysis history is an
analysis of the past historiography
is an analysis of history or to put it
differently
historiography is the analysis of the
analysis of
the past okay so why does all this
matter well the short answer is because
history and historiography are
fundamentally related to each other
they are interdependent with each other
and that's because all history
starts with an assessment of what has
been written about a topic
before what has gone before in terms of
the historical scholarship
and that's really important because it's
important that historians aren't just
repeating the same narratives over and
over again but are finding new ways to
describe
and explain the past so the reason that
it's important for you to understand
what historiography
is is knowing what historiography is
allows you to move from being just a
consumer of history
to a producer of history okay that's it
from this lesson
i hope that you now know the difference
between history and historiography
don't forget to bring your notes to
class because they will help you out so
much in our class discussions
and in our classroom activities good
luck great work
see you soon
you
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