The extent of which historians own history. (1 Viewer)

itoki228

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Is it safe to assume that historians don't own any part of 'history', rather they own their interpretation of history which contains and conveys their opinions and perspectives to the masses. Historians own and control what the reader sees which may or may not be 'history' but what they want them to see (selectivity, bias etc etc).

I have to write an essay on this soon but I'm not quite sure what I'm conveying will get through to the examiner.
 

D94

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You need to make a clear distinction on what "history" is defined as.

History is the events that occurred in the past, but to what extent has our understanding of history been influenced by the interpretations and perspectives of historians?

It's not safe to assume historians don't own history, because you haven't defined history yet. Do past events have meaning without the influence of historians? Why is it that there are numerous schools, numerous fields, different interpretations? Yes the past events are an objective occurrence, but how do we know what has happened without historians telling us the 'story'? If we take a simple, yet sophisticated history - the history wars of Australia, is oral testimony acceptable as evidence of what happened? Are the only reliable records the records which the white settlers owned?

If we don't know what has happened, what history do we have? Yes, on an objective scale, something did happen. We need to be told what has happened in order for us to understand the history. But as humans, in a (post)post-modern era, with many old-school schools still influencing society (such as empiricism, revisionism etc.), we may misconstrue the truth, however, this becomes our personal truth, this becomes what we understand as history.

You might think history is black and white, and there are many events which are black and white. But historians write the history, they write according to the existing social policies and practices of the country and time. Why do we not accept say a Marxist view of history? Why isn't the Aeneid a reliable source? At their times, the historian writing about that event believed that their history is history. We can look at in from a contemporary point of view and say it's inaccurate, but maybe 200 years later, our descendants will say our interpretation is wrong even though right now, the way I record an event is what I believe to be as objective as possible and the history is as objective as possible.

So the historian does own history in many respects, they need not determine what can go in and what can be left, but they are influenced by society and it becomes their history. We have evidence of a past event, but the history of that event needs to be written, and it is in that action of writing which the historian owns.

I should point out that this is my understanding, whether it's right or wrong is based on how strong I can make an argument. When you write your essay, you could be arguing something which the marker disagrees with, but as long as you have the evidence/sources/historians to support your view, your response will be fine.
 

Kittikhun

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D94, I have to say that that is an awesome answer. Tops, :).
 

itoki228

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I think what we see as 'history' are just the many different interpretations and attempts at reconstruction of past events that did occur. I understand that one cannot 100% accurately record an event as it is simply because everyone has perspective, everyone will be biased in one form or another. I just thought that because of this, historians don't own actual history in terms of events that have gone past but more that they own the writing and recording of history. I do agree with " So the historian does own history in many respects, they need not determine what can go in and what can be left, but they are influenced by society and it becomes their history " but I just think that just because the historian controls what is written, what is selected and what is seen, does not mean that they in a sense have ownership over history but more of them having ownership over our interpretation and reconstruction of history.
 

History 101

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I think what we see as 'history' are just the many different interpretations and attempts at reconstruction of past events that did occur. I understand that one cannot 100% accurately record an event as it is simply because everyone has perspective, everyone will be biased in one form or another. I just thought that because of this, historians don't own actual history in terms of events that have gone past but more that they own the writing and recording of history. I do agree with " So the historian does own history in many respects, they need not determine what can go in and what can be left, but they are influenced by society and it becomes their history " but I just think that just because the historian controls what is written, what is selected and what is seen, does not mean that they in a sense have ownership over history but more of them having ownership over our interpretation and reconstruction of history.
I completely agree with you. Where students may take different approaches to this question, you have taken a relativist view. Your essay should DISCUSS the view of whether historians own history. Therefore it would be empiricist vs. relativist essay. Use historians such as Elton + Von Ranke VS. Carr + Nietzche. Empiricist historians view history to be owned by them as they claim they are able to remove their subjrctivity as they do not "design their own experiment" (Elton) but rather examine and analyse evidence thoroughly as they come across it, hence allowing the 'true' past to be emerged. However on the others hand, relativists claim historians do not own history, but rather a perspective of history. This is clearly evident through historians having differing views on the one past. These differing views arise from the historians personal and periodic context. For example historian Von Ranke believed history was the "Devine of the will" used to seek God's plan of the world - hence this created inbuilt bias and it ultimately questions the validity of the past. This therefore gives evidence that historians don't really own history, but an interpretation of it.
"Facts speak only when the historian calls on them; it is he who decides which facts to give floor, and in what order or context" - E.H Carr

Hope that helps, good luck with it all!
 

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