at present about what history and do not write
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As this report is being written the American Historical Association is completing the first forty years of its existence, a comparatively brief period in the life of a great cultural society, but nevertheless a period rich in progress and actual achievements. In 1884 the big universities had one or two professors of history where they now have ten or more. Most colleges had one professor of history, but he usually taught it in connection with political economy, political science, or public speaking. To-day the average college has from two to five teachers of history, and political economy and political science have been made separate departments. Forty years ago history was taught in a perfunctory manner in the public schools; now it has a strong place in the grades and in the high school. In university, college, and public schools, as compared with 1884, history is now being taught several times more in quantity and several times better in method.
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James Snell
When Historians Write About the Past, Are They Nearly Always Writing About the Present?
James Snell James Snell
5 years ago
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On one level, one must agree with the statement entirely: every historian, in the act of writing, is implicitly chronicling his or her own times. In a basic sense, this can be seen in the language or dialect they use, even in the vernacular of their work. Each is connected with history, but each is still of the present, directed by the exigencies of the present day. The words themselves might also have political connotations from which they cannot be entirely dissociated. E. H. Carr, in his seminal work of historiography What is History?, provides a pertinent example:
The names by which successive French historians have described the Parisian crowds which played so prominent a role in the French Revolution – le sans-cullottes, le peuple, la canaille, le bras-nus – are all, for those that know the rules of the game, manifestos of a political affiliation and of a particular interpretation.[1]
Terms which have extant political connotations can be almost impossible to avoid, and in the use of such words and phrases, we may glimpse the mind of the historian. This choice of words may be conscious or unconscious, but the impression to be gleaned from it can be entirely concrete.
Further, this influence is present in the analogies the historian might employ, or even the method of critical analysis that they might use to marshal their material. The deployment of Marxist analysis a la Christopher Hill or Eric Hobsbawm, for example, would most likely date a historical work between the mid 20th century and the millennium. Any allusions or references also will come with their own set of indicators; some analysts of the American rise to pre-eminence – especially those who see the present situation as one borne of imperial overstretch, an example being Graham Allison – are particularly keen to cite Thucydides. In this respect, and on an elemental level, all historians can be seen to write about the present. Other ways historians could be seen to write about the present include: geopolitical realities; the political biases of the historians themselves and public morality of the time in which they write; ever-present financial pressures; and personal experience, which might influence the tone in which the work is written. It could also be argued convincingly that some historians write directly and unambiguously with the present in mind.
Roman historians, such as Suetonius and Tacitus, wrote on Roman issues and about Roman men. They did so because Rome was worth writing about. Even Greeks, such as Polybius, who lived and wrote during the period of Roman control of his native land, wrote about primarily Roman actions and Roman matters. Tacitus wrote about Germania, a thoroughly foreign place; but he did not do so at great length, and his narrative is completed with a descriptive fascination which did not allow for anything other than shallow analysis.[2] Rome was seen as being worth writing about due to its pre-eminent position among nations at the time. This tendency in historical writing is echoed in the contemporary world with the relative abundance in which histories of China are now seen (especially ones which focus on that country’s coming economic dominance);[3] this could be perceived also as a shift away from a more Eurocentric nature of historical writing which dominated until recently. In this respect, it can be demonstrated that an important factor in the writing of history is the immediate reality of the political situation at the time of writing.
Political viewpoints can also inform the writing of history, sometimes with potentially distorting effects. Writers such as Niall Ferguson – as I have written before – have very strong and visible opinions relating to both the contemporary and the historical. Ferguson recently stated in an interview with The Guardian that Britain should not have fought the First World War. [4] This interview was undertaken ‘as a historian’, and this indicates a degree of political interest and involvement which cannot be entirely detached from his historical perspective. When he sits down to write about the First World War (as he did in his superb book The Pity of War, which I have reviewed at length), practical reasons dictate that he cannot entirely divorce this output from the rest of his thinking, be it political or not. For that reason any works of his – and works of other historians too – will bear the maker’s mark of a political perspective.