Historiography Midterm Concepts

Historia

Historia

A story, narrative

Sine ira et studio

“Without bitterness or partiality”; the ideal of of historical objectivity as articulated by Roman historian Tacitus

Salvation History

A narrative style typical of religious historiography, in which God is the primary motive force directing humanity toward a divine goal; the primary purpose is not to tell the “truth” as represented in documentary evidence but rather to explain God’s relationship with humanity

Annals

A record of events year by year, used from Roman times through the medieval era

Chronicle

A type of historiographical writing characterized by lists of events by year; usually more narrative

Test of absurdity

Identifying terms of elements of a historical narrative that don’t make sense

Confirmation bias

People’s tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs

Group feeling

(Ibn Khaldun) A sociological force that attracts individuals together as a group loyal to one another; social solidarity

Civic humanism

The idea that humans (as opposed to God or gods) created human institutions, such as the civitas or republic, and prosperity. Historical writing should highlight the actions of humans in relation to the state and its prosperity in order to encourage civic pride and a moral public attitude; usually associated with the Italian Renaissance and Ibn Khaldun

Material text criticism (External text criticism)

Critique of document’s legitimacy through examination of its physical materials or corroborating evidence external to the context of the text itself. Was the paper or ink used appropriate for the time period or region from which the document is supposed to originate? Is the script used appropriate for the time period? Are there outside sources that provide witness to the same information provided in the text?

Internal text criticism

Analysis of a document’s legitimacy using evidence in the text itself, such as words or patterns of language

Anachronism

Something that appears out of place for its time or context, such as a cell phone in a photograph of WWII, or a Persian term in a document from the Roman Empire

Monad

An elementary individual substance that reflects the order of the world and from which material properties are derived (Liebniz)

Entelechy

That which realizes or makes actual what is otherwise merely potential

Volk

The unique spirit of a people that united all their language, arts, literature, and institutions; each people’s would rise, develop, and decay, but each would contribute something critical toward the collective moral development of humanity (Johann Gottfried Herder)

Realism

A philosophical position in which one understands objects in the universe to be real and observable in their true states via sensory perception; aka empiricism or objectivism; it is the basis of the modernist historiographical approach: historical facts are real rather than produced, and historians can know and report about them objectively

Idealism

Any conception of the world in which reality is dependent on the mind; the objects of our perceptions are not real; what we perceive are ideals.

Unsocial sociability

The tendency to come together in society, coupled with a continual resistance which constantly threatens to break this society up (Immanuel Kant)

Teleology

The idea that phenomena move or evolve toward a goal or ideal; assumes that historical events are progressing toward a goal or end-point (e.g. Second Coming of Christ, perfect human freedom)

Phenomenon

The mental impression the world makes on our minds

According to idealist philosopher Immanuel Kant, all we can know of objects in the universe. That is, we cannot know the noumenon (the thing-in-itself) only what our senses perceive of its [these] attributes

Noumenon

A thing as it is in itself; as distinct from a thing as knowable in terms of its phenomenal attributes via the senses (Immanuel Kant)

Dialectic

A historical process in which two groups of people or classes clash and then resolve their differences at a higher level of freedom (e.g. French Revolution into Napoleon) (Hegel)

Idea

The motive force of historical change; a self-aware abstract truth associated with freedom that is in the process of realizing itself through human actions (Hegel)

Spirit

The Idea realizing itself through human actions (Hegel)

Great Men are animated by [this], driving human history toward its ultimate goal (Carlyle)

Great Men theory

A historiographical perspective originating with Thomas Carlyle in Romantic-era nineteenth century (1800s), in which [these] are the motive forces of history; [these] are the embodiment of Hegel’s Spirit, moving humans inevitably toward greater freedom; is often implicit in writings that assume well-known leaders to be the most influential force in historical development

Scientific history

A historiographical style that employs the methodologies of science for historical analysis, such as rigorously evidence-based analysis, statistics, and experimentation when possible; originally associated with modernists (e.g. Leopold von Ranke)

Wie es eigentlich gewesen

“What actually happened”; von Ranke taught that patient, exhaustive archival research could uncover the truth of what happened; remains the objective of scientific history

Subjective freedom

Individual liberty or autonomy as opposed to freedom that is equally available to all (Marx)

Objective freedom

Freedom as a universal common good equally and universally available to all, which is not the same of individual autonomy (Marx and other idealists philosophy)

Historical materialism

Marxist schemata of historical development in which every change proceeds from economic causes; usually depicted as a pyramid with economics as the base (substructure), social class and institutions as the middle layer, and ideology as the top (superstructure)—hence economic structure produces social structure, which produces ideology

Ideology

A set of beliefs, values, and ideals about the world and how it should be

In Marx and Marxian historiography: economic groups produce [these] to justify their own dominance

In Max Weber: [these] (e.g. Protestant asceticism) shape economic behavior

Mode of production

Marxist term for the economic system of a particular era, encompassing its means of production, dominant class, and its forces of production

Ex: In a feudal system: the means is large-scale agriculture, the dominant class is the land-owning aristocracy, and the forces are the serfs

Ex: In a capitalist system: the means is factory-based capitalism, the dominant class is the factory-owning bourgeoisie, and the forces are the proletariat

Bourgeoisie

Middle class property owners

In Marxism: the industrial-era social class that owns the factories, oppresses the workers, and values property ownership and preservation of capital above all else

Proletariat

The class of propertyless, uneducated factory workers who will eventually rebel against the property-owning bourgeois class and create the ideal communist society

Dialectic materialism

A teleological historical process in which the laboring class in any given economic system clashes with the property-owning class, producing a new economic system in which the laborers become the new property-owners; the process repeats until the majority of the population are oppressed industrial workers, who become revolutionary and overthrow property ownership entirely, establishing a new classless society (Marx)

Communism

An ideal socialist society imagined by Karl Marx in which everyone would share property and work roles and exchange products without currency; the resulting dissolution of social classes would end class conflict

Protestant ethic

The attitudes encouraged by certain denominations of Protestant Christianity that led believers to seek worldly affirmations of their salvation in work and accumulation of wealth, and ultimately led to the development of capitalism in Europe (Max Weber)

Hermeneutics

Refers to culturally-derived sets of rules that govern the act of interpretation

The chief problem encountered by the historian is that [these] are culturally-specific, so any interpretation of data we make is warped by the difference between our own [these] and those of our sources; a researcher may achieve empathy, but not certainty; “[This] is the theory of the rules of interpreting written monuments” (Wilhem Dilthey)

Translation

One of the fundamental problems that researchers in the humanities encounter: the difference between the context and frame of reference of a researcher and those of the documentary evidence the research must interpret; researchers must attempt to translate a source from its original frame of reference into their own; makes humanities research fundamentally different from the sciences, in which the object of research is directly accessible (Dilthey)

Civil society

Non-governmental organizations and institutions that represent the concerns and objectives of citizens (Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci)

Intellectuals

People who articulate the values of their class; since Gramsci believed that all people articulate the values of their class, all people are in some ways [this], but some people take on this role of articulator-of-values as a profession and thus do more to defend the interests of the class (the clergy)

Hegemony

That a group or class may dominate the production of values and ideas, thereby establishing [this] or cultural control of a society; this is the power of civil society—intellectuals not associated with the state produce ideas and values that represent the interests of their (bourgeois) class, thereby assuming the hegemony of that class (Gramsci)

Spontaneous consent

The power of civil society is production of values and attitudes that reflect that interests of the dominant class in society, to which members of other classes [do this] because they aspire to be members of that class; this contrasts with the power of the state, which is essentially coercive (Gramsci)

Annales school

A historiographical school that originate in early to mid-twentieth century France, associated with the journal Annales d’histoire economique et sociale; [these] historians downplayed the significance of political “event-oriented” histories in favor of studying long-term ecological, economic, and social change; they advance total history that would integrate information from social sciences and employ a complex, non-linear model of historical change

Mentalite

French Annales School term for the mindset, worldview, beliefs, etc., that characterize a particular group; contributed to the formation of the disciplines of cultural history and microhistory

Total history

The ideal historiography promoted by the Annales School, which would color every aspect of history from geologic and ecological change to patterns and practices of commerce, the state of agriculture, social and political institutions, international relations, warcraft, technology, religion, intellectual trends, art, daily life, worldview, and (lastly) events (Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II)

Longue duree

“Long-term”; Annales method of seeking underlying patterns to history that change very slowly, such as geology and climate; one might study the evolution of a subject over the course of several centuries

Lentement rythmes

“Slow rhythms”; Annales term for historical patterns such as commerce that changed more slowly than politics but more quickly than the longue duree changes of geology and climate.

Histoire evenementielle

Event-oriented history; used by Annales historians for political narratives favored by previous eras’ historiographical schools

La vie quotidienne

“Daily life”; a new focus of interest in Annales School historiography—the patterns of daily life of ordinary people

Psychohistory

Style of writing history popular in the mid-twentieth century that employs the terminology and analytical methods of psychoanalysis; generally seek evidence of a biographical subject’s inner mental state as evidenced in diaries, letters, or other personal writings (Erikson)

Economic history

History that relies primarily on economic data as its source and statistics as its analytical method

Modernization theory

Societies begin with “traditional” patterns of life that include a culture permeated by irrational religious values and attitudes, normative values located in the past (static), extended families with kinship-based social relations, tribal political organization, a labor-intensive agrarian economy, and a limited capacity to respond to challenges. Societies will naturally progress toward “modern” patterns of life that include a culture with secular rational values and attitudes, normative orientation toward the present and openness to change (dynamic), nuclear families, nation-state political organizations, industrial-technical economies, and ability to respond effectively to most challenges. (Rostow)

Cliometrics

Use of economic theory, numeric data, and statistical and mathematical analyses to explain certain aspects of history that narrative sources do not; AKA New Economic History; associated with mid-twentieth century American historiography and economic history (Robert Fogel)

Counterfactual contingent concept

The “concept” was something crucial on which subsequent historical development was supposed to have depended, making later developments “contingent” on it; in this analysis, a historian examines the evidence for that contingency and suggests a possible counterfactual history (in which the “concept” is absent or didn’t happen) in order to test our assumptions about the concept’s importance. (Fogel)

Axiom of indispensability

The proposition that something is necessary to subsequent historical developments (e.g. the railways were essential to the nineteenth-century American economic prosperity) (Fogel)

Fallacy of composition

Assuming that what is true for part of the whole is also true of the whole itself (ex: “Nebraska suffered poor economic conditions because it had few railroads, so the whole U.S. would have suffered poor economic development if it had few railroads”)

Clock-time

The measurement of time in hours, minutes, and seconds; associated with the rise of factory-based industry in Europe (E.P. Thompson)

Imagined community

Vast interest groups that are not real in the same sense as kin groups or occupational groups or regional affiliations are real; created first by print capitalism that brings large groups of people under the influence of a single print language and provides them with a set of ideas about themselves and their interests

Print capitalism

Sellers of printed books sought to widen the markets for their products by printing books in the languages that were both most widely used and most easily accommodated to typesetting, thereby creating print languages. Other languages and dialects that could not be easily set in type tended to die out, consolidating the reading public into groups that identified themselves with others who could read the same language; leads to nationalism (Benedict Anderson)

Invented tradition

A set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values or norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past; part of the superstructure in historical materialist framework (Eric Hobsbawm)

Paradigm

A philosophical and theoretical framework that shapes how a discipline’s experiments, theories, laws, and generalizations are formulated; defines what it is to be observed and experimented on, the kinds of questions that should be asked, how the questions and experiments are to be structured, and how the results of experiments should be interpreted (Thomas Kuhn)

In historiography: a) the dominant historiographical school on a particular subject and b) the dominant methodology used in historical research and writing