APUS - Unit 1: Orientation and Historiography - Notes

	Mrs. Ruland's Advanced Placement United States History Class
			Historiography
			Historiography
			WHAT IS HISTORY? WHY STUDY HISTORY? WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF HISTORY? What comprises history? Anthropometric study Primary sources Secondary sources Artifacts? Culture, Literature, and the Arts? HISTORIC ACCURACYCAN IT BE ATTAINED? Truth and accuracy are a matter of definition. They can also be elusive. Everyone has bias, including historians. Anticipate the bias and compensate. Point of view can also sway historical reporting HISTORIOGRAPHY — HOW HISTORIANS DO HISTORY Historians disagree greatly over why almost any event happened. In the search for how things happen, we get ideas about how to understand our present world’s events and what to do about them, if anything. PLUTARCH Great Men and Their Character The very character of men changes history. Mark Antony His love for Cleopatra blinded him to his duties in Rome. He was destroyed by Augustus; who, it turned out, was not a lightweight. HISTORICAL FORCES Certain ideas, movements, etc, become irresistible forces that will have their way. Christianity was such a force Not only survive persecution, but emerge victorious over the Roman Empire. Science in the Western World Dominant over Theology and Philosophy as authority of Truth. TOYNBEE Challenge and Response All civilizations are faced with a crisis Either one of ideas, or one of technology. Response determines whether they will survive. Christianity and the Fall of Rome Blamed for sapping the Pagan strength of Rome and causing her downfall Byzantium used Christianity to revitalize and reform the Empire HEGEL Dialectic 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 This was how God led us to perfection and revealed new truth. History is just the product of conflict. DARWIN Took Hegel’s idea and applied it to science Origin of Species. Herbert Spencer Struggle among races of people and differing nationsStrongest and most able nations ruling the world MARX Material Dialectic Hegel’s dialectic theoryapplied to classes of people throughout history. Ruling class controlled the “means of production” Gave them wealth and power to rule. Whenever a new method of production occurred conflict between the older ruling class and a newer class using the newer and superior means of production. TURNER Geography and the Frontier Geography determines the character of a people Gives them certain advantages and disadvantages. American mindopen to new things and to strive for what was new. RADICALS History is the story of who won. History is little more than myth making. 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. BOORSTIN The Unexpected Ideas and practices simply come together;can hardly be predicted. The great Creators and Discoverers were open to the challenge Took previously unrelated ideas;put them together in a way that was entirely new Change cannot be managed; you can only remain open to change. An Example—The Unexpected An anonymous optician in Belgium created the first telescope to be used in combat.In Italy Galileo began to look at stars with it.Findings undermined the Ptolemaic system.The Church used his information to create the modern Gregorian Calendar, but during of the Reformation, Galileo was ordered to remain silent. PROBLEMS WITH SOURCES —CAN THEY BE TRUSTED Inflated account John Smith’s autobiography is fiction? Inaccurate art and literature Paintings of Pilgrims Contradictory accounts Who fired the shot heard round the world? Legends, Myth, and Fact Davy Crockett What is logical is not always true Without facts, no assumptions PROBLEMS WITH SOURCESWorld Wide Web (WWW) Reliability? Editors? Ease of Publishing Safeguards Referencing Name of Site Address of Site - http:// mruland@comcast.net Report any Broken Links Last updated Sept. 2, 2002 © Marcella Ruland 1998-2011, All rights reserved