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 McCullough
American 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 45-120
A. 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 Forces
A. 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 Historians
A. 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 Brinkley
B. Michael Beschloss
C. Joseph Ellis
D. Stephen Ambrose
E. Barbara Tuchman
F. David McCullough
G. Robert Dallek
H. Doris Kearns Goodwin
I. Others