From the Beginning to the Enlightenment: Western Historical tradition begins with Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Livy, Tacitus

and Plutarch. History was then quite unabashedly a preparation for life, especially political and military life. Essentially it was a narration of memorable events designed t o preserve the memory and propagate the knowledge of glorious deeds or of events which were important to a man, a family, or a people. Political incidents, wars, and revolutions predominated. n the post!classical period, the tradition was left almost e"clusively in the hands of monkish chroniclers whose annalistic accounts lack the elements of reflection or analyses which would make them history. The #enerable $ede %&'() was an e"ception* he paid special attention to chronology, enumerated his written sources and made some effort to test and evaluate oral tradition. n medieval times, there was some difficulty in separating the sacred from the profane. +iracles were accepted. ,ot much analysis due to belief in divine intervention. -enaissance historians . rational, secular approach and critical scholarship. /ue to e"ternal features such as geographical e"pansion, printing etc. -eformation and counter! reformation lent impetus. +achiavelli and 0uicciardini . the inductive method. 1onclusions based on evidence rather on some accepted a priori theory. 2ollowed by $acon and Hyde. The greatest advances were made in seventeenth century 2rance where men like /uchesne, $alu3e, +abillon and +ontfaucon created the 4science of history5 and placed new tools like palaeography, archaeology and diplomatics in the historian5s hands. $odin %6('7!89) declared history to be both of intellectual interest and of pragmatic value. #oltaire and +ontes:uieu were the 2rench Enlightenment historians. Voltaire insisted that historians must give due attention to the civilisations of India and hina, that religions should be treated comparatively, with no suggestion that any automatic primacy was inherent, and that economic, social and cultural matters were as much the concern of the historian as the doings of popes and !ings" ;cottish historians< Hume5s idea of history . a man ac:uainted with history can be said to have lived since the beginning of time. =dam ;mith . economic history. +illar . sought to trace back the history of society to its most simple and universal elements . to resolve almost all that has been ascribed to positive institution into the spontaneous and irresistible development of certain obvious principles . and to show with how little contrivance or political wisdom the most complicated and apparently artificial schemes of policy might have been erected.

0ibbon . Wars and public affairs are the principal sub>ects of history. Three fundamental weaknesses of the Enlightenment period< #$ Innocent of any sense of human development and change % using one standard to measure behaviour and actions" &$ 'lthough important scholarly wor!s continued side(by(side with the great interpretative wor!s, there was little contact between the two" ') History was not taught as an intellectual discipline. )an!e: His *isciples and his ritics #ico . human history divided into 4divine5, 4heroic5 and 4human.5 He appreciated cultural differences between different nations. Herder . History is an onward march. mportance of geography. 1oncept of 4national character5. 1oncept of sympathy . ?2irst sympathise with the nation, go into the era, into the geography, into the entire history, feel yourself into it.5 @pposed the enlightenment notion that everything, relatively, is right in its own historical conte"t. -anke . aimed to show what really happened. ;tress on an ob>ective account of the past. 1oncept of 4genetic relationism+ .genetic because of the stress laid on origins and the notion of every phase developing out of a previous phase. -elationism because every person, activity and institution must be seen in relation to the age. The historian may >udge, instruct . but first he must understand. 1ritical method, precision of documentation. Emphasis on primary sources. -igorous research. =ll of which created a more refined historical methodology. -anke also played an important role in the establishment of history teaching at the university level. ;ome reactions to -anke from -omantics like $urckhardt and Thierry. ,roblems with romanticism % over(dramatisation and emotionalism" ,ositivism and -ar.ism: Positivism . treated history as a science and aimed to discover broad, universal laws which would help predict the future. =ugust 1omte. +ar" . +aterialist conception of history. First of all a distinction is made between the basic economic structure of any society, constituted by the /conditions of production ta!en as a whole+, and the /superstructure+ of laws, institutions and ideas. History has unfolded through a series of stages, 'siatic, antique, feudal and modern bourgeois, each determined by the prevailing conditions of production" 0he motor for this development from era to era is provided by the /class struggle+, classes themselves being determined by the relationships of particular groups to the conditions of production" 10he history of all hitherto e.isting society is the history of class struggles"2 3hen a stage is reached where the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the e.isting relations of production, there begins an epoch of social revolution"

'nglo(4a.on 'ttitudes: +acaulay . focussed on the literary aspect, less of scholarship. =lso notorious for the ?whig interpretation of historyA, i.e. a product of the intellectual and material developments of the time and the reaction of the liberal upper!class intellectuals to these developments. 1arlyle . overemphasised the role of the ?great men in history.A ;tubbs . 1onstitutional history. 0he End of the entury: Langlois and ;eignobos . The aim of history is knowledge pure and simple. Everything else is secondary. B $ $ury . History is a science, no less, no more. He also believed that history has developed since the time of -anke, and it was no longer merely political history. ,ow it was more comprehensive, looked at both material and spiritual aspects, social institutions, law, trade, industries and fine arts, religion, philosophy, folklore etc. Wanted a broad conception of history concerned with ?the constant interaction and reciprocity among all the various manifestations of human brain power and human emotion.A Lord =cton sought ob>ectivity through The Cambridge Modern History. %/escription of Waterloo).

0he *evelopment of Historical 4tudies: 0he 0wentieth entury 5iterary History % $egun by Trevelyan. Trevelyan argued that History could perform neither of the functions properly e"pected of a 4physical science5 which he defined as 4direct utility in practical fields5 and 4in more intellectual fields the deduction of laws of cause and effect.5 The only fashion in which history could be scientific was in 4the collection of facts, the weighing of evidence as to what events happened.A He went on to say that ?no one can ever give a completely or wholly true account of history, but several imperfect readings of history are better than none at all* and he will give the best interpretation who, having discovered and weighed all the important evidence obtainable, has the largest grasp of intellect, the warmest human sympathy, the highest imaginative powers" To sum up Trevelyn5s stand< ?in the most important part of its business, history is not a scientific deduction, but an imaginative guess at the most li!ely generalisation" Trevelyn believed that history5s primary purpose was educative. t provides a basic training in citi3enship. Trvelyn believed there were three distinct functions of history . the scientific 6collecting and weighing evidence as to facts), the imaginative %selection and classification, interpretation and generalisation) and the literary %that which would attract and educate). 7ew 'pproaches % Economic % ;ombart and +einecke. /evelopment of 4intellectual history5, fusing -anke and $urckhardt. Pirenne . ?every effort at synthesis, however premature it may seem, cannot fail to react usefully on investigations, provided one offers it in all frankness for what it is.A Lefebvre . Without scholarship, there can be no history. =dmired social psychologists. 1lapham . Economic historian, early twentieth century England. Intellectual History and 0otal History % Turner . frontier thesis. ?$ehind institutions, behind constitutional forms and modifications, lie the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet changing conditions.A ;ignificance of sections. Bames -obinson . History used to e"plain the present. Lucian 2ebvre . geography and tomorrow. =lso 4psychological history.5 +arc $loch . 1omparative method . comparisons within a country, or between countries. -egressive method . using customs etc. of a later period to learn more about an earlier period. #iewed feudal society from the standpoint of peasants. ?E"emplary virtues of honest labour backed by solid and conscientious research, e"act impartiality.A $loch . ?history is the science of men in time.A $elief in a ?total integrated history.A ,hilosophies: $ury . Historical relativism . truthfulness of history can be only assessed relative to the age in which it was written.

$ecker . History keeps getting outdated . true only in one sense, that is relative to the needs of the age which fashioned it. 1roce . historical knowledge is a kind of intellectual intuition. The past has no e"istence . therefore history is only in the mind of the historian . all history is contemporary history . it has e"istence only in the minds of the contemporaries. -elativity of history not a symbol of weakness, but one of intellectual and imaginative power. 1ollingwood . History is the creation of the historian, not synonymous with the past . the facts of the past only e"ist when the historian envisions them through sheer historical thinking. =ll history brings its narrative down to the present day. Therefore, every age must write history afresh. ?Everyone brings his own mind to the study of history, and approaches it from the point of view which is characteristic of himself and his generation* naturally therefore, one age, one man, sees in a particular historical event things which another does not, and vice versa. The attempt to eliminate this sub>ective element from history is always insincere . it means keeping your own point of view while asking other people to give up theirs. The historian5s goal is knowledge of the present . and as a historian, how it came to be what it is. n this sense, the past is an aspect or function of the present* and that is how it must always appear to the historian who reflects intelligently on his own work. =ll history is the history of thought. Toynbee . comparative study of civilisations which passed through similar stages of growth, breakdown and eventual dissolution . advanced 4laws5 to e"plain the same. The ob>ective of the historian is to help his fellow men of different civilisations to become more familiar with one another and, in conse:uence, less afraid of one another and less hostile to one another by helping them to understand and appreciate one another5s histories and to see in these local and partial stories a common achievement and common possession of the whole human family. 0he 4traight 5ine ,rofessionals: