Historiography is the history of history, the
aspect of
history and of
semiotics that considers how knowledge of the
past, either recent or distant, is obtained and transmitted.
Formally, historiography examines the writing of history, the use
of
historical methods, drawing
upon authorship, sources, interpretation, style, bias, and the
reader; moreover,
historiography also denotes a body of
historical work.
Scholars discuss
historiography topically, i.e. the “historiography of
Catholicism”, the “
historiography of China”, etc., and
the approaches and genres include
oral
history and
social history.
Beginning in the nineteenth century, at the ascent of academic
history, a corpus of historiography literature developed, including
What is History? (1961),
by
E. H.
Carr, and
Metahistory (1973), by
Hayden White.
Defining historiography
There are two basic issues involved in historiography. First, the
study of the development of history as an academic discipline over
time, as well as its development in different cultures and epochs.
Second, the study of the academic tools, methods and approaches
that have been and are being used, including the
historical method.
The term "historiography" can also refer to a specific body of
historical writing that was written at a specific time concerning a
specific subject. For instance, a statement about "medieval
historiography" would refer to some issue in the
academic
discipline of Medieval History, and not to the
actual
history of the Middle Ages or to historical works
written
in that time (e.g., "during the last century, medieval
historiography changed its focus from the study of political events
to that of social and mental structures", or "medieval
historiography has largely benefited from the recognition of the
importance of parish records": that is, the discipline underwent
some change).
Conal Furay and
Michael J. Salevouris define historiography as
"the study of the way history has been and is written — the history
of historical writing... When you study 'historiography' you do not
study the events of the past directly, but the changing
interpretations of those events in the works of individual
historians." One should be cautious, however, that in the sense
given in the previous paragraph when a historian
does
historiography they are actually studying "the events of the past
directly".
Questions studied
Some of the common questions of historiography are:
- Reliability of the sources used, in terms of authorship,
credibility of the author, and the authenticity or corruption of
the text. (See also source
criticism).
- Historiographical tradition or framework. Every historian uses
one (or more) historiographical traditions, for example Marxist, Annales
School, "total history", or political history.
- Moral issues, guilt assignment, and praise assignment
- Revisionism versus orthodox interpretations
- Historical metanarratives
Issues engaged by
critical
historiography include:
- What constitutes a historical "event"?
- In what modes does a historian write and produce statements of
"truth" and "fact"?
- How does the medium (novel, textbook, film, theatre, comic)
through which historical information is conveyed influence its
meaning?
- How do historians establish their own objectivity or come to
terms with their own subjectivity?
- What is the relationship between historical theory and
historical practice?
- What is the "goal" of history?
- What does history teach us?
The history of written history
Understanding the past appears to be a universal human need, and
the telling of history has emerged independently in civilisations
around the world. What constitutes history is a philosophical
question (see
philosophy of
history). For the purposes of this article it is taken to mean
written history recorded in a narrative format for the purpose of
informing future generations about events.
Hellenic world
The earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in
ancient Greece, a development which
would be an important influence on the writing of history elsewhere
around the
Mediterranean.
Greek historians greatly contributed to the
development of historical methodology. The earliest known critical
historical works were
The
Histories, composed by
Herodotus of
Halicarnassus (484 BC–ca.425 BC) who later became known as the
'father of history' (Cicero). Herodotus attempted to distinguish
between more and less reliable accounts, and personally conducted
research by travelling extensively, giving written accounts of
various
Mediterranean cultures.
Although Herodotus' overall emphasis lay on the actions and
characters of men, he also attributed an important role to divinity
in the determination of historical events.
The generation following Herodotus witnessed a spate of local
histories of the individual city-states (
poleis), written by the first of the
local historians who employed the written
archives of city and sanctuary.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
characterized these historians as the forerunners of Thucydides,
and these local histories continued to be written into Late
Antiquity, as long as the city-states survived. Two early figures
stand out:
Hippias of Elis, who
produced the lists of winners in the Olympic Games that provided
the basic chronological framework as long as the pagan classical
tradition lasted, and
Hellanicus of
Lesbos, who compiled more than two dozen histories from civic
records, all of them now lost.
Thucydides largely eliminated divine
causality in his account of the war between Athens and Sparta,
establishing a rationalistic element which set a precedent for
subsequent Western historical writings. He was also the first to
distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, while
his successor
Xenophon (ca. 431–355 BC)
introduced autobiographical elements and character studies in his
Anabasis.
The proverbial
Philippic attacks of the
Athenian orator
Demosthenes (384-322 BC)
on
Philip II of Macedon marked
the height of ancient political agitation. The now lost history of
Alexander's campaigns by the
diadoch
Ptolemy I (367-283 BC) may represent the
first historical work composed by a ruler.
Polybius (ca. 203–120 BC) wrote on the rise of Rome
to world prominence, and attempted to harmonize the Greek and Roman
points of view.
The
Chaldean priest
Berossus (fl. 3rd century ) composed a
Greek-language
History of Babylonia for the
Seleucid king
Antiochus
I, combining
Hellenistic methods of
historiography and
Mesopotamian accounts
to form a unique composite. Reports exist of other near-eastern
histories, such as that of the Phoenician historian
Sanchuniathon; but he is considered
semi-legendary and writings attributed to him are fragmentary,
known only through the later historians
Philo of Byblos and
Eusebius, who asserted that he wrote before even
the
Trojan war.
China
First page of the
Shiji
In
China
, the Classic of
History is one of the Five
Classics of Chinese classic
texts and one of the earliest narratives of China. The
Spring and Autumn
Annals, the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering
the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE, is among the earliest surviving
Chinese historical texts to be arranged on
annalistic principles. It is traditionally attributed
to
Confucius. The
Zuo Zhuan, attributed to
Zuo Qiuming in the 5th century BCE, is the
earliest Chinese work of narrative history and covers the period
from 722 BCE to 468 BCE.
Zhan Guo
Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical compilation
of sporadic materials on the
Warring States Period compiled between
the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE.
Sima Qian (around 100 BCE) was the first
in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing.
His written work was the
Shiji (
Records of the Grand
Historian), a monumental lifelong achievement in literature.
Its scope extends as far back as the 16th century BCE, and it
includes many treatises on specific subjects and individual
biographies of prominent people, and also explores the lives and
deeds of commoners, both contemporary and those of previous eras.
His work influenced every subsequent author of history in China,
including the prestigious Ban family of the
Eastern Han Dynasty era.
Traditionalist Chinese historiography describes history in terms of
dynastic cycles. In this view, each new dynasty is founded by a
morally righteous founder. Over time, the dynasty becomes morally
corrupt and dissolute. Eventually, the dynasty becomes so weak as
to allow its replacement by a new dynasty.
Roman world
The Romans adopted the Greek tradition, becoming the first European
people to write history in a non-Greek language . While early Roman
works were still written in Greek, the
Origines, composed
by the Roman statesman
Cato the Elder
(234–149 BC), was written in Latin, in a conscious effort to
counteract Greek cultural influence. It marked the beginning of
Latin historical writings. Hailed for its lucid style,
Julius Caesar's (100 BC–44 BC)
Bellum Gallicum may
represent the earliest autobiographical war coverage. The
politician and orator
Cicero (106–43 BC)
introduced rhetorical elements in his political writings.
Strabo (63 BC–c. AD 24) was an important
exponent of the Greco-Roman tradition of combining geography with
history, presenting a descriptive history of peoples and places
known to his era.
Livy (59 BC–AD 17) records
the rise of
Rome from city-state to
world dominion. His speculation about what would have happened if
Alexander the Great had marched
against Rome represents the first known instance of
alternate history.
Biography, although popular throughout antiquity, was introduced as
a branch of history by the works of
Plutarch (c. 46-127) and
Suetonius (c.69-after 130) who described the deeds
and characters of ancient personalities, stressing their human
side.
Tacitus (c.56–c.117) denounces Roman
immorality by praising
German
virtues, elaborating on the
topos of the
Noble savage.
Christendom
The growth of
Christianity and its
enhanced status in the Roman Empire after
Constantine I led to the development of a
distinct Christian historiography, influenced by both Christian
theology and the nature of the Bible, encompassing new areas of
study and views of history. The central role of the Bible in
Christianity is reflected in the preference of Christian historians
for written sources, compared to the classical historians'
preference for oral sources and is also reflected in the inclusion
of politically unimportant people. Christian historians also
focused on development of religion and society. This can be seen in
the extensive inclusion of written sources in the
Ecclesiastical History
written by
Eusebius of Caesarea
around 324 and in the subjects it covers.
Christian theology considered time as
linear, progressing according to divine plan. As God's plan
encompassed everyone, Christian histories in this period had a
universal approach. For example, Christian writers often included
summaries of important historical events prior to the period
covered by the work.
Writing history was popular among Christian monks and clergy in the
Middle Ages. They wrote about the
history of Jesus Christ, that of the Church and that of their
patrons, the dynastic history of the local rulers. In the
Early Middle Ages historical writing often
took the form of
annals or
chronicles recording events year by year, but this
style tended to hamper the analysis of events and causes. An
example of this type of writing is the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, which were the
work of several different writers: it was started during the reign
of
Alfred the Great in the late 9th
century, but one copy was still being updated in 1154. Some writers
in the period did construct a more
narrative form of history. These included
Gregory of Tours, and more successfully
Bede who wrote both
secular and
ecclesiastical history and is known for
writing the
Ecclesiastical
History of the English People.
During the
Renaissance, history was
written about states or nations. The study of history changed
during the
Enlightenment and
Romanticism.
Voltaire described the history of certain ages that
he considered important, rather than describing events in
chronological order. History became an independent discipline. It
was not called
philosophia historiae anymore, but merely
history (
historia).
Islamic world
The first detailed studies on the subject of historiography itself
and the first critiques of
historical
methods appeared in the works of the
Arab
Muslim historian and historiographer
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), who wrote
historiographical writings in the
Muqaddimah (
Prolegomena in Greek)
and
Kitab al-I'bar (
Book of Advice). Among many
other things, his
Muqaddimah laid the groundwork for the
observation of the roles of
state,
communication,
propaganda and
systematic bias in history, and he discussed
the rise and fall of
civilizations. He
also developed a
scientific method
for the study of history, and is thus considered to be the founder
of historiography. or the "father of the
philosophy of history". In the preface
to the
Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun warned of seven mistakes
that he thought historians often committed. In this criticism, he
approached the past as strange and in need of interpretation. The
originality of Ibn Khaldun was to claim that the cultural
differences of another age must govern the evaluation of relevant
historical material, to distinguish the principles according to
which it might be possible to attempt the evaluation, and lastly,
to consider the need for experience, in addition to rational
principles, in order to assess a culture of the past. Ibn Khaldun
often criticized "idle
superstition and
uncritical acceptance of historical data." As a result, he
introduced a
scientific method to
the study of history, which was considered something "new to his
age", and he often referred to it as his "new science", now
associated with historiography,
Muslim historical writings first began to
develop in the 7th century, with the reconstruction of the Prophet
Muhammad's life in the centuries following
his death. With numerous conflicting narratives regarding Muhammad
and his
companions from various sources, it
was necessary to verify which sources were more reliable. In order
to evaluate these sources, various methodologies were developed,
such as the "
science of biography",
"
science of hadith" and "
Isnad" (chain of transmission). These methodologies
were later applied to other historical figures in the
Islamic civilization.
Egyptology began in
Arab Egypt from the 9th century AD,
with the first known attempts at deciphering
Egyptian hieroglyphs by
Dhul-Nun al-Misri and
Ibn Wahshiyya.
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
(838-923) is known for writing a detailed and comprehensive
chronicle of
Mediterranean and
Middle Eastern history in
his
History of the
Prophets and Kings in 915.
Until the 10th century, history most often meant political and
military history, but this was not so with
Persian historian
Biruni (973-1048). In his
Kitab fi
Tahqiq ma l'il-Hind (
Researches on India) he did not
record political and military history in any detail, but wrote more
on
India's
cultural,
scientific, social
and
religious history. He expanded
on his idea of history in another work,
The Chronology of the
Ancient Nations. Biruni is considered the father of
Indology for his detailed studies on
Indian history. Other famous Muslim
historians included
Urwah (d. 712),
Wahb ibn Munabbih (d. 728),
Ibn Ishaq (d. 761),
al-Waqidi (745-822),
Ibn
Hisham (d. 834), and
Ibn
Hajar (1372-1449).
Franz Rosenthal wrote in the
History of Muslim Historiography:
Modern era
Modern historiography began with
Ranke in the
19th century, who was very critical on the sources used in history.
He was opposed to analyses and rationalizations. His motto was to
write history the way it was. He wanted
eyewitness accounts and wanted an emphasis
on the point of view of the eyewitness.
Hegel
and
Marx introduced the changes in society
to history. Former historians had focused on cyclical events of the
rise and decline of rulers and nations. A new discipline,
sociology, emerged in the late 19th century and
analyzed and compared these perspectives on a larger scale.
The French
Annales School radically
changed history during the 20th century.
Fernand Braudel wanted history to become
more scientific and less subjective, and demanded more quantitative
evidence. Furthermore, he introduced a socio-economic and
geographic framework to historical questions. Other French
historians, like
Philippe Ariès
and
Michel Foucault, described the
history of everyday topics such as death and sexuality. They wanted
history to cover every possible topic and answer every
question.
Foundation of important historical journals
The historical journal, a forum where academic historians could
exchange ideas and publish newly discovered information, came into
being in the 19th century. The early journals were similar to those
for the physical sciences, and were seen as a means for history to
become more professional. Journals also helped historians to
establish various historiographical approaches, the most notable
example of which was
Annales. Économies.
Sociétés. Civilisations., a publication
instrumental in establishing the
Annales
School.
Some historical journals are as follows:
Approaches to history
The question of how a historian approaches historical events is one
of the most important questions within historiography. It is
commonly recognised by historians that, in themselves, individual
historical facts are not particularly meaningful. Such facts will
only become useful when assembled with other historical evidence,
and the process of assembling this evidence is understood as a
particular historiographical approach.
Some of the more common historiographical approaches are:
See also
References
- "What History Is Good For" book review by David
M. Kennedy in The New York Times July 16,
2009
- (The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide,
1988, p. 223, ISBN 0-88295-982-4)
- Dionysius, On Thucydides, 5.
- Livy's History of Rome: Book 9
- Historiography, Concordia University
Wisconsin , retrieved on 02 November 2007
- Warren, John (1998). The past and its presenters: an
introduction to issues in historiography, Hodder &
Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-67934-4, p. 67-68.
- Warren, John (1998). The past and its presenters: an
introduction to issues in historiography, Hodder &
Stoughton, ISBN 0-340-67934-4, p. 78-79.
- S. Ahmed (1999). A Dictionary of Muslim Names. C.
Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 1850653569.
- H. Mowlana (2001). "Information in the Arab World",
Cooperation South Journal 1.
- Salahuddin Ahmed (1999). A Dictionary of Muslim Names.
C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 1850653569.
- Dr. S. W. Akhtar (1997). "The Islamic Concept of Knowledge",
Al-Tawhid: A Quarterly Journal of Islamic Thought &
Culture 12 (3).
- Ibn Khaldun,
Franz Rosenthal, N. J. Dawood (1967), The Muqaddimah: An
Introduction to History, p. x, Princeton University Press, ISBN
0691017549.
- M. S. Khan (1976). "al-Biruni and the Political History of
India", Oriens 25, p. 86-115.
- Zafarul-Islam Khan, At The Of A New Millennium – II, The Milli
Gazette.
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- Keita, Maghan. "Race and the Writing of History" Oxford UP
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