Notes-Class 10-History-Chapter-1-Historiography: Development in the West-Maharashtra Board

Historiography: Development in the West

Class 10-History-Chapter-1 Maharashtra Board

Notes

Introduction : Historical research, writing and studies are carried out with an objective of understanding the chronology of the past events and their interconnections. This is a continuous process.

The empirical method (method of observation and experiments in laboratory) is used to physical science. This method cannot be used to study history present in historical time to study natural and as we were not observe and experiment, neither can we recreate the historical event.

Objectives of writing History :

  • To put the past events in chronological order and analyze
  • To verify the authenticity of the collected documents
  • To ascertain the truth.

Need of an expert : We can prove the authenticity of historical sources with the help of experts in the following fields :

  • An expert who knows the language and script of a historical document, to read and understand its meaning.
  • One who can identify, examine the authencity, the period in which the writing and lettering style was prevalent.
  • One who can identify the type of paper used, manufacturing date and the age in which it was used.
  • One who has knowledge of stamps.
  • Historian who can scrutinise various historical references.

Historical Research Method and Stages of Historiography :

  • Collect historical sources and carry out its comparative analysis.
  • Examine relevant references of the available information.
  • Understand references regarding time and space of the given historical events.
  • Critically examine various sources of history.

Disciplines contributing in the historical research :

Disciplines contributing in the historical research:

(1) Archaeology

(2) Archival Science

(3) Manuscriptology

(4) Epigraphy (study of inscriptions)

(5) Linguistics

(6) Lettering style analysing branch

(7) Numismatics (study of coins)

(8) Geneology (study of lineage)

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Traditions of Historiography :

Historical writing and historian :

  • Historical sources are critically examined and the past events are preserved in writing.
  • The writing of critical historical narrative is known as ‘Historiography’.
  • A scholar who writes such a narrative is a historian.

Historical writing :

Historical writing :

  • Historian is not in a position to include all events in his narrative.
  • So, he decides the events which he thinks should reach the people.
  • His perspective on those events depends on the conceptual framework he adopts.
  • Though historiography was not prevalent in the ancient societies, the people living in those times too felt that they should pass on the stories about the life and valour of the ancestors to the next generation.
  • So, these ancient communities used various means like cave-paintings, story- telling, songs, ballads for this purpose.
  • In modem historiography, these means are looked upon as sources of history.

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Modern Historiography :

Characteristics of modern historiography :

  • Its method is based on scientific principles. It begins with the formation of relevant questions. which are asked in logical order. Hence it is akin to scientific method.
  • These questions are anthropocentric which means they centre around man and his activities in ancient societies. History does not advocate any interrelation between Divine and human actions.
  • Answers to these questions are based on reliable evidences and are presented in logical order.
  • History presents a trajectory of man's journey with the help of his past deeds and actions.

Development of scientific perspective in Europe and Historiography

Development of scientific perspective :

  • Europe achieved remarkable progress till 18th century C.E. in the fields of Philosophy and Science.
  • Scholars belonging to one school of thought presented the idea of applying this knowledge of scientific method to study social and historical truths.
  • After that, discussions were focused on objectivity in history and historiography.
  • History gained importance over philosophical discourses and Divine phenomena.
  • In 1737 CE, the Gottingen University was founded in Germany. It had an independent department of history.
  • Later, German universities became centres of historical studies.

Annales School : :

Annales School :

  • At the dawn of twentieth century, a new school of historiography arose in France known as 'Annales School’.
  • An idea was put forward that history is not just about political events, kings, great leaders, wars, politics and diplomacy.
  • It is also about climate, local people, agriculture, trade, technology, means of communication, social divisions and their collective psychology, etc.
  • The French historians were the pioneers of The Annales School.

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Feminist historiography :

Feminist historiography :

  • The restructuring of the history from the perspective of women is called Feminist Historiography.
  • This thought was propounded by French feminist scholar Simone de Beauvoir.
  • Feminist Historiography emphasised not only to include women in history but also to rethink on the male-dominated perspective of history.
  • Later, many aspects of women's life, became the focus of historical research such as their employment, their role in trade union, family life, etc.
  • After 1990, women were portrayed as an independent class.

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Notable Scholars :

Notable Scholars :

(1) René Descartes (1596-1850):

Book-Discourse on the Method

Country : France

Thoughts :

  • It is important to verify the reliability of historical documents by critically examining them.
  • Never to accept anything as the truth till all grounds of doubt are excluded.

(2) Voltaire (Frcmgois-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778):

Book-

Country : France

Thoughts :

  • He opined that in historiography the focus should not be only on objective truth or chronology of historical events.
  • Prevalent social traditions, trade, economy, agriculture should also be considered an important part of it.
  • Understanding all the aspects of human lite is important for history writing.
  • He is known as founder of modem historiography.

(3) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831):

Book-(1) Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (2) Reason in History 

Country : Germany

Thoughts :

  • Historical reality should be presented in a logical manner.
  • The order of historical events are indicative of progress.
  • Over a period of time, the presentation of history will definitely change as new evidences will come forth.
  • In order to understand true nature of a thing, one needs to know both the sides i.e., true and false or good or bad.
  • This method of analysis which is based on opposites is known as Dialectics.
  • A theory is proposed at the beginning called Thesis, then another contrary theory called Antithesis is proposed.
  • Finally, after thorough discussion on both, a new thesis having a gist of both is reached, called Synthesis.

(4) Leopold von Ranké (1795-1886):

Book-(1) The Theory and Practice of History (2) The Secret of World History

Country : Germany

Thoughts :

  • He gave a lot of importance to information gathered through original documents.
  • He also stated that all types of documents related with the historical event should be examined minutely with great care.
  • He believed that it was possible to reach the historical truth with this method.
  • He criticised imaginative narration of historical events.
  • He influenced historical writings of the 19th century.

(5) Karl Marx (1818-1883):

Book-Das Capital

Country : Germany

Thoughts :

  • History is not about abstract ideas but about living people.
  • Human relationships are formed not only by the fundamental needs of people and the ownership but also by prevalent means of production to meet those needs.
  • The accessibility to these means may not be same for different strata of the society.
  • The class which owns the means of production exploits the rest of the classes.
  • The uneven distribution of means of production in the society leads to class struggle.

(6) Michel Foucault (1926-1984):

Book-Archaeology of Knowledge

Country : France

Thoughts :

  • To present history in chronological order is not right.
  • The objective of archaeology is not to reach ultimate historical truth but to explain the various transitions in the past.
  • He acknowledged that subjects such as science of medicine, psychological disorders, prison administration are valid for historical analysis.

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Q. In historical research, why it may not be possible to use the method of experiments and observation?

Answer

  • In physical and natural sciences, experiment and observation method is used to establish laws that remain true irrespective of the time and space.
  • These laws can be tested and proved again and again.
  • In historical research, the events had already taken place in the past and we were not present in the historical time and space.
  • Moreover, these events cannot be recreated in the present time and space.

Hence, experiment and observation method may not be used in historical research.

Q. How Historiography in the 18th century gave importance to objectivity in history?

Answer

  • A remarkable progress was achieved in the fields of Philosophy and Science till the eighteenth century in Europe.
  • It was believed that by applying scientific methods it was possible to study social and historical truths.
  • In the later period, history and historiography witnessed a lot of philosophical discussion.
  • This eliminated the imaginative and divine context in history and gave importance to objectivity.



Useful links :

Main Page : - Maharashtra Board Class 10 - History & Political Science  - All chapters notes, solutions, videos, test, pdf.

Books :  MSBSHSE -Class 10th History Text Books – Chapter wise  PDF for download 

Next Chapter : Chapter 2 -Historiography -Indian Tradition - Online Notes

4 Comments

Add a Comment
  1. Deven
    Deven

    In notable scholar section Voltaire and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich hegel there books names are wrong

    Reply
    1. Kitabcd
      Kitabcd

      Yes, It is corrected now, Thanks for information.

      Reply
  2. Abcd
    Abcd

    It was of a lot use

    Reply
  3. manthan
    manthan

    These all notes are correct or no because I am writing these notes in my school note book

    Reply

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