OVERVIEW
In this article, we will explore history, the debates within it, and various historical methods. We will also see the different nature of history. Now, let’s understand what history is. And how other scholars have defined history in their perspectives.
HISTORY: INTRODUCTION
The word ‘history’ originates from the Greek word ‘historia,’ meaning an inquiry designed to uncover the truth. History refers to the study of past events and cultures of societies within different civilizations. It critically examines and analyses historical sources, artifacts, documents, and other historical-related sources. The archeologists use all these sources to evaluate and explain the different civilizations of the past, through which they get to know about the development, and they also identify patterns related to it. Now, let us see different definitions of history by different scholars, which include:
Burckhardt: “History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another”
Henry Johnson: “History, in its broadest sense, is everything that ever happened.”
NATURE OF HISTORY
PRESENT IN LIGHT OF THE PAST:
Through understanding the past events of different civilizations, we can easily understand about how the present societies have been formed. Through the help of historical things, we get to understand the causal relationship between what happening underneath which helps in revealing the nature of happening events and general laws.
STUDY OF MAN:
History also deals with the struggle of the growth of man within different civilizations through the ages. With the help of historical research, we can easily understand the living conditions of man in a social context. It also helps us to understand how men developed at different ages with diverse technological uses or other methods.
CONCERNED WITH MAN IN TIME:
History helps to understand human progress with the point of time, through which we can understand how development has occurred in different periods. The time of development helps a person to see the affords of particular events which lend a charm to the past event.
CONCERNED WITH MAN IN SPACE:
The dynamic concept is the relationship between human beings and the environment. History also helps by describing the physical environmental, and geographical things in which the early age people had done various activities for their nations.
RECORD OF HAPPENINGS:
The main objective of recording the happening of past events is that it helps the person to clearly understand the events of the past, and through this, it will enable us to make well-informed decisions. That’s why historians always take every precaution while taking the data from sources, and also make them free from subjective interpretations.
DEBATES IN HISTORY
INTERPRETATION OF EVENT
Many historians often debate on the interpretation of past events because according to them they often say that sometimes this interpretation of past events leads to diversification in perspective, and methodologies regarding the same historical event.
AGENCY AND CASUALTY:
Sometimes the debate occurs around these factors which affect the historical events because it often happens where we see the whole broader social, economic, and political concept raise figure on the individual.
OBJECTIVITY:
Historians often grapple with biases just because of sources, and interpretations of past events. Sometimes the objectivity of past events gets striving while acknowledging the subjectivity of historical account.
REVISIONISM OF HISTORY:
By the revisionism of the past event the historian often challenges the traditional narratives of historical things. By seeking alternative interpretations, and different perspectives it reevaluates historical events, which led to challenges to the tradition of different civilizations.
HISTORICAL METHODS
SOURCES:
Many or almost every scholar or historian often uses primary and secondary sources to find evidence related to past events.
ARCHEOLOGY:
Archeology is the method that refers to the process of excavation, and analysis of remaining materials through which historians reconstruct the past events and cultures of different civilizations.
HISTORIOGRAPHY:
It includes the process of study of different development of historical interpretation over time, through which they identify historical perspectives and ideologies.
ORAL HISTORY:
Historians also use living witnesses’ oral testimonies through which they get to know about historical events, from different perspectives, and preserve their memories.
QUANTITATIVE HISTORY:
This method is used to analyze statistical and quantitative data, demographics, and patterns to understand the past events or population of historical events.
CONCLUSION
At the end of this topic history, debates in history, and historical methodologies. We can conclude here that history always emphasizes the dynamic, and evolving, and it is always open to new perspectives, and interpretations. It also engages every scholar and historian to uncover untold stories about the world, through which a person can understand the diversification of different eras with different perspectives. It helps to enrich our understanding of human history.
REFERENCES
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