Historicism is a form of awareness which is socially motivated by the views of

the past. It is regarded as a modified approach in the historical framework of

studying the past. In its nature historicism is an intellectual movement
widely viewed as having emerged in the 19th century Germany and finding
various intentions and spread all over the Western world. Definitions of
historicism propagated by various historians are important in exhuming the
solid meaning of historicism. It is also important to construct the strengths
and weaknesses of historicism in the context of its significance in the study
of past. Above all it is fundamental important to highlights etymological
origins of historicism as a way of creating solid flow of this study.

Historicism derives from the German word Historismus which refers to

fundamental premise that the autonomy of the past must be respected1. An
underlying notion is that each age is a unique manifestation of human spirit
with its own culture. The motive behind this can be expressed as a need to
eliminate problems of anachronism, a historical inaccuracy in which
elements from one historical period (usually the present) are inserted into
earlier one such as use of modern language or attitudes in historical films
and dramas2. This can be regarded as a strength of historicism in terms of its
endeavors of contextualizing past and its original elements as means of
creating a free distorted past understanding. However this disband the
intimacy of the past and present which is regarded as the essence in the
historical framework.

Historicism is said to be more than an antiquarian rallying cry. This might be

due to its nature of developments like during the enlightenment period, an
1J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History 4th Edition, p8.
2ibid, p9.

era characterized by critical and rational type of history. In fact historians like
Leopold von Ranke suggested historicism as a shape in creation against the
present minded devaluation of the past3. In that note historicism is regarded
as an aspiration to re-create the past.

It is important to highlight the weaknesses associated with Germany

historicism. In this point, it is said that German historicism was closely
associated with a school of political thought, best represented by Hegel
which endowed the concept of elitist history4. This intention said to be one its
weakness with regards to Annales School which challenge political and
diplomatic history5, as way of creating total historical past in this context. In
that same note, though Von Ranke is being applauded for a plausible
definition of historicism (which points it out as a strictly empirical approach
to historical scholarship which demanded an outmost value to understand
the past through its own values6), he is being criticized for overemphasizing
on the use of archival sources in his form of historicism, thereby agitating for
political thought historicism which is therefore one of its merits.

Historicism as an idea is founded upon the principle that the truth of the past
is by humanism and not by nature7. In other words history is made by
humans thereby it reflects human intentions. In that note historicism
suspends out the influence of divine or supernatural matters which therefore
3Ibid, p20.
4Ibid, p117.
5I. Sarelieva, Cultural History: Disciplinary Borderlands in The Time of Boarder
Scrapping
6GG Iggler and HP Liebel, Rise German Historicism, p16.
7R Kroner, History and Historicism,p131

creates a tangible form of historical past. This therefore supports the view
that history is a science of its own and that it enjoys autonomy and
sovereignty in the realm of historical facts. However this is being challenged
by Von Rankes understanding which draws in the influence of gods in the
historical past as a prominent feature which should not be ignored8.

Karl Popper 9defined historicism as an ideological theory of human nature to

explain how history had developed and determined its destiny10. In that line,
historicism has to do with explanation or evaluation of the past by means of
history. According to Hegel, in order to understand past society and its
human activities, one has to grasps its history and forces that shaped it11.
These forces might include culture though there is inconclusive debate about
which shapes which between culture and humanity. In that note, historicism
holds that historical knowledge is relative to the standpoint of the historian in
the integrated system of understanding pasts and its motives or
developments. This therefore creates a rich understanding of the past in the
present via future though this is not directly mentioned under historicism.
This is due to the fact that historicism in its nature strongly emphasize
closely scrutiny to the past through every element which detailed to its
development.

Vico argued that under historicism all researches must focus on those
historical events that were motivated by human agency, so that the study of
the sources will provide documentary evidence of the ideas, plans, actions
8J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History 4th Edition, p47.
9K Popper, The Poverty of Historicism
10ED Lee and RN Beck, The Meaning of Historicism, p569.
11D Smith and J Scruggs, etal. Anthropological Theories

and intended developmental consequences of the past in its own terms12.

This therefore means that historicism as a theory presupposes an attitude to
the past requiring a certain historical sensibility through which historians
cultivate their own intuition in order to make sense of the past rather than
impose their current view on it. However Vicos contribution does not quite
clearly outlines whether the events are major or minor. However in a broader
sense, the accountability of both is vital.

Furthermore, Oakeshott describes historicism as the writing of past through

an act of discover from fragmentary survivals like reconstructing a cultural
context that conducting an experiment under laboratory conditions13. In that
notion, Benedetto and Collingwood agreed that historicism in its nature
proves historical past to be an act of thought within rational structures14. This
outlines a strength of historicism in the suspension of the radical
subjectivism.

Historicism can be understood as a pre occupation with devotion to the past

and with everything old and antiquarian15. In that notion, historicism
represents not only the development of cultural world view but it also
authorizes a metaphysical reading of history which both determines and
undermines modern and past thought. This intellectual revolution is greatly
confined to the evolutionary activity carried out in the Enlightenment by
enlightenment thinkers16. This therefore overshadows the influence of great
12A Budd,The Modern Historiography Reader: Western Sources, p514.
13P Hamilton, Historicism, p154
14R Kroner,,History and Historicism, p136.
15PH Reil, The Germany Enlightenment and The Rise of Historicism, p8.

historians like Herodotus whose contributions existed before this mentioned

era as their writings were so influential in the development of historicism17.

Despite the fact that historicism is regarded as a strong approach to the

study of the past through its contents, it has been subjected to limitations
such that its attitude it represents Western world and ignores other forms of
historicism existed beyond Western. In that matter historicism has become
very conditioned and its conclusions are based on historical study of Western
culture18.

Historicism is also criticized for its in ability to grasp actual productivity. It is

said that the past recorded by history is no longer productive. In that notion
historicism is referred as the dead that buries the dead as to recall the past
is not call it to life again19. However this statement tends to undermine the
broad understanding of history that is history repeats itself. In that case the
past determines the present, thus it is being taken as naive to ignore the
past as suggested.

The study is also criticized for discovers only past thought and does not yield
bases for prediction and cause in natural scientific sense of recording all
events and deeds that actually happened as not all human past activities get
registered. In that case its limitation has led to the rise of New Historicism

16Ibid, p2.
17P Hamilton, Historicism 2nd Edition, The New Critical Idiom,
18GG Iggers, Historicism: The History and Meaning of Term, p133.
19R Kroner, History and Historicism, p134.

which suggests that historical literature should be studied and interpreted

with the context of both the history of the author and the history of critic20.

In conclusion it can be said that, historicism as mechanism or ideological

approach in the study of historical past is determined by the influence of
Germany understanding and that its understanding can be extracted through
exploration of various definitions and phenomena under its study. It is also
clear through this discussion that historicism is succumbed to strengths and
weaknesses depending on the expression of scholarly views, above all
historicism through its contributions remains a major historical development
of the Enlightenment era.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Budd A,The Modern Historiography Reader: Western Sources, Routledge,
New York, 2009.
Hamilton P, Historicism, Routledge Prints, New York, 2001
Hamilton P, Historicism 2nd Edition, The New Critical Idiom, Routledge, New
York, 1996.
Iggers GG, Historicism, The History and Meaning of the Term, Journal of
History of Ideas, Vol 56 No.1 (Jan 1995) (pp129-152).
20D Smith and J Scruggs, etal. Anthropological Theories

Iggers GG and Liebel HP, Rise of German Historicism, 18th Century Studies
Vol 5 No4 (Summer 1972) pp587-603.
Kroner R, History and Historicism, Journal of Bible and Religion Vol 14 No3
(August pp131-134), Oxford Press University.
Lee ED and Beck RN, The Meaning of Historicism, Oxford Press University,
1954.
Popper K, The Poverty of Historicism, Routledge, London, 2002.
Reil PH, The Germany Enlightenment and The Rise of Historicism, University
of California Press, Los Angeles, 1975.
Sarelieva I, Cultural History: Disciplinary Borderlands in The Time of Boarder
Scrapping, Humanities, 2013.
D Smith and J Scruggs, etal. Anthropological Theories, University of Alabama.
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