WHY STUDY HISTORY?

History 203

Because you don’t wanna be a DUMBASS!

“History” is a Greek word which means, literally, just “investigation.”

Arnold Toynbee-British Historian

“To be ignorant of the past is to remain a child.” Cicero-Roman Philosopher

History and Attitude

A. The Proper Attitude

1. Attitude is Everything

2. What you should expect from this class

3. Frame of Mind

History’s “Bad” Reputation

A. Mindless Memorization

1. History’s basic form

B. “Other History”

1. Economic, cultural, diplomatic, and hundreds of other variables

What We Need to Study History

A. Positive Attitude

B. Sense of Time

C. Television and Film?

D. Study of your life?

Why Study History at All?

A. Because it’s required?-If so, WHY is it required??

B. What history offers other majors

C. History repeats itself?

D. Predicting the future?

E. Socratic Philosophy

Understanding the World

1. History is essential to individuals and society

2. History helps us understand people and societies

3. **History is the story of human life on Earth

4. History contributes to moral understanding

5. History provides Identity

History, through cumulative skill and interpretation of the unfolding human record, provides a real grasp of how the world works

**HISTORY IS CONFLICT**

“History is, indeed, an argument without end.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

“History does not refer, merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us.”

James Baldwin-American Writer

“History should be taught for pleasure, the joy of history, like art or music or literature, consists of an expansion of the experience of being alive. And that is what education is largely about.”

David McCulloughAmerican Historian and Author

Historiography or How Historians “do” history

A. There are different ways to keep in mind when determining how history happens.

B. Historians disagree very much over why almost any event happened.

C. For this class you must keep in mind we are “doing” history. The idea that history “just happens” is ludicrous.

How has History been “done?”A. First recorded accounts are from the

Peloponnesian Wars.

1. Herodotus and Thucydides

431 B.C.

Putarch-Greek Historian 45-120A. The very character of

man changes history.

1. Example: Mark Antony’s love for Cleopatra blinded him as to his duties to Rome and was destroyed by Augustus

Historical ForcesA. Certain ideas and movements will have

their way.1. Example: Christianity being such a force that eventually it would not only survive persecution but emerge victorious over the Roman Empire.

2. Or- the dominance of science in the West over Theology and Philosophy would become the authority for determining truth.

Leopold Von Ranke-German

A. Linear History

B. History is an accumulation of facts and details

C. Black and white history

D. Primary sources

Arnold J. Toynbee- British Historian

A. All civilizations are faced with a crisis which is either one of ideas, or one of technology-how they respond determines how they will survive.

George Frederick Hagel-German

A. History says that for every old idea, there is a new one which conflicts with it. Out of this struggle, a new idea is created.

(Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis)

History is just a product of conflict.

Charles Darwin-Not a Historian

A. Took Hagel’s ideas and applied them to science

B. Biological forces-led to superiority

C. Victory in combat meant the superiority of a nation or people.

Frederick Jackson Turner-American

A. Geography and Frontier

B. Geography determines the character of a people and, depending on the situation, gave them a certain advantage

School of Radical HistoriansA. History is the story of who won

B. Those who win write the history books

C. History is determined by those who have the political power to write the history books

D. Those who have lost are excluded or demonized

Daniel J. Boorstin-American

A. Ideas and practices simply come together in various places and time and can hardly be predicted

B. The great creators and discoverers have been open to the challenge and took previously unrelated ideas and put them together in a a way that was entirely new

C. One can only remain open to change- Change cannot be managed

Modern Historians

A. Alan BrinkleyB. Michael BeschlossC. Joseph EllisD. Stephen AmbroseE. Barbara TuchmanF. David McCulloughG. Robert DallekH. Doris Kearns GoodwinI. Others