Major Approaches in History

By Hafiz Zakariya

 historians merely recite the facts of the past-names, dates and chronologies? History is nothing more than a subjective fictional narrative, inseparable from a novel or a short story?

 While names and dates are important building blocks, history is much more than that. The discipline of history rests instead on analysis and interpretation. Students need to be exposed to the various possible methodologies open to historians.

 These methodologies can come in the form of sweeping allinclusive theories (such as Marxism or liberalism), historically useful conceptualizations (borderlands, the "frontier," national identity or nationalism) or particular areas of study (diplomatic history, social history, gender history, political history). The methodology used by the historian can influence the questions asked, the types of evidence consulted (oral histories, government documents, cultural artifacts, public speech), the accepted evidentiary standard, and the nature of causation.

General remarks
In history, it helps to keep in mind that there are many different ways of determining how history happens. (cf. major approaches/schools in psychologystructuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, humanism.) Historians disagree very much over why almost any event happened. The following list of selected historians can give you some ideas of how the great historians "did" history

MAJOR APPROACHES
Major Approaches

Great Men

Marxist

Toynbee

Radical History

Boorstin

Geographical determinism

Great Men
a theory held by some that aims to explain history by the impact of "Great men", or heroes: highly influential individuals, either from personal charisma, genius intellects, or great political impact. E.g. study the Second World War by focusing on the big personalities of the conflict Sir Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, Hirohito, etc. to view all of the historical events as being tied directly to their own individual decisions and orders.

 It is often linked to 19th century philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle, who commented that "The history of the world is but the biography of great men." The Great Man approach to history was most popular with professional historians in the 19th century lengthy and detailed biographies about the great men of history, but very few general or social histories

Name any one great-man in history Why do you considered him so? Great man may not necessarily be great in a positive sense. He/she may also be terrible & brutal, but his decisions and actions are significant in shaping the development in the world. Name a person whose life has been most filmed about? His character appeared in most movies produced so far?
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Can you identify him?

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(Napoleon) r. 17991814

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Napoleonic Europe ca. 1810

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Any other great man? What about him?

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 Today the great man theory is out of favor as a singular explanation for why things happen. Historians look at other factors such as economic, societal, environmental, and technological which are just as or more significant to historical change. Many historians believe that a history which only follows around single persons, especially when their significance is determined primarily by political status, is a shallow view of the past Danger: tendency to be hagiography: a study of holy persons, free from errors/Uncritical biography

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A Man of Destiny (born to be a hero) or great at seizing the moments/opportunities

A theory of a great man Did a great man changed history Or rather a great man was good at manipulating history (historical contexts and forces in his favor?) Was a great man alone enough to make things happen? A Great Man: Infallible or just a super-talented human being?
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Hegel (1770-1831)
Hegels dialectic theory (everything evolves & changes in history due to the clash of opposing forces) Hegel's Dialectic Theory of History says that for every old idea, there is a new one which conflicts with it. Out of the struggle a new idea is created (Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis). He felt that this was how God led us to perfection and revealed new truth. History is just the product of conflict

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Example of the Clash of Opposing Ideas

Synthesis (Secularism)

Thesis(Christianity) Dialectic process

Antithesis (reason)

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Example of the Clash of Opposing Ideas

Synthesis (nationalism)

Thesis (Colonialism) Dialectic process

Antithesis (colonized people)

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Hegels Dialectic Theory

Synthesis

Thesis Synthesis/NewThesis

Antithesis

Thesis

Antithesis

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Thesis-AntithesisSynthesis

Antithesis New Ideas

Thesis Old Ideas

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The Great German Philosopher: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Marx--Material Dialectic. Marx used Hegel's ideas and applied them to classes of people throughout history. Saw history as a product of class struggle Between class controlling economy & politics & the one oppressed

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Marx
An example is how the Businessman and his money destroyed the power of the old Aristocracy based on land and hereditary ownership

Bourgeoisie

Workers

Aristocrat

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Marxist Dialectical Materialism

Utopian Communism
Capitalism Era

Bourgeois Democracy CONFLICT Feudalism Era

Proletariat

Landed Aristocracy

CONFLICT ->

Bourgeoisie

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Arnold Toynbee (British Historian)

Challenge and response. Toynbee's theory is that all civilizations are faced with a crisis which is either one of ideas, or one of technology. How they respond determines whether they will survive/collapse An example is the Fall of Rome. Many blame Christianity for destroying the Pagan strength of Rome and causing her downfall.
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Toynbee
Toynbee points out that the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) used Christianity to revitalize and reform the Roman Empire for another thousand years.

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Radical History
Radicals--History is the story of who won. This thesis says that history is little more than mythmaking. "History is the history of winners." Those who win, write the history books. Those who have lost are excluded or demonized. History is determined by who has the political power to write the books. Eg. Treaty of Versailles in 1919 assigned blamed for WW1 on Germany

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Daniel J. Boorstin (19142004)

Daniel J. Boorstin ( 1914 2004), an American historian The unexpected--Daniel J. Boorstin's books suggest a thesis that ideas and practices simply come together in various places and time and can hardly be predicted

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Boorstin
What matters, is that the great Creators and Discoverers have been open to the challenge and took previously unrelated ideas and put them together in a way that was entirely new. They thus change the world. An example is how an anonymous optician in Belgium created the first telescope to be used in combat

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Boorstin
It found its way to Italy where Galileo began to look at stars with it. His findings undermined the Ptolemaic system (earthcentered theory of the universe). Boorstin is hostile to the Hegelian-Marxist school as it can only tell what the future is like based on the past. The Hegelians could never have predicted the impact of the telescope. Boorstin basically argues that no one can predict; you can only remain open to change. Change cannot be managed.
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Oswald Spenglar (1880 8 May 1936)

German philosopher-historian His famous work, The Decline of the West His view- cyclical civ is like a living organism or seasonsbirth, growth and decay

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