1st angle

The lessons of the past (1971)

The value of the study of history (1991)

Those who will not learn from history shall relive it (1992)

Introduction
Value of the lessons of history
Reasons for learning from the past
a. Generates new findings and ideas
b. Helps develop a better understanding of the world
c. Assists in understanding oneself
d. Aids in learning about others
e. Teaches the concept of change
f. Provides tools to be good citizens
g. Makes people better decision makers
h. Gives inspiration and motivation
Consequences of ignoring lessons of history
i. Allows space for conspiracy theories
j. Gives room to myths and false history
k. Creates Eurocentric worldview
Lessons of the past as the roadmap of future
Conclusion

The lessons of the past (1971)

2. Introduction
i. Roman statesman and scholar Marcus Cicero: “To be ignorant of what
occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the
worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the
records of history.”
ii. Thesis: While those who ignore (lessons of/value of) history say it is
unimportant, the numerous beneficial reasons for learning from history
prove that the subject’s knowledge is important for individuals as well as for
society.
3. Value of the lessons of history
i. Philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it”.
ii. If we heed Santayana’s warning, then remembering history – and learning
important lessons from it – should help to avoid previous mistakes and
prevent previous misdeeds from happening again.’
 iii. Studying history enables people to develop better understanding and
knowledge of historical events and trends which has led to the world of
today.
iv. It allows one to make more sense of the current world.
v. One can look at past socio-economic and cultural trends and be able to offer
reasonable predictions of what will happen next in today's world.
vi. One can also understand why some rules exist in the modern world.
vii. For example, one can understand the importance of the social welfare
programs if one looks at the Great Depression of 1929 which sent Wall
Street into a panic after a market crash and wiped out millions of investors
and New Deal enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United
States between 1933 and 1939 which consisted financial reforms and
regulations.
viii. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery from the Great
Depression.
4. Reasons for learning from the past
a. Generates new findings and ideas
i. From chariots to self-driving cars, history has provided a sea of brilliant
ideas.

ii. Ideas like these have propelled human societies into a rapid phase of
developmental expansion.

iii. Analysing these ideas helps us understand where we’ve been and make
predictions about where we’re going.

iv. On a personal level, these ideas provide useful insights to understand our
ancestors. They give us a peek into how they lived their lives and the
problems they faced.

v. We can look back in history to understand modern politics, help us make

decisions to improve the economy, or how best to react in a time of war.

vi. Not every idea in history has been brilliant. The poor decisions in history
provide us useful insights in today’s world.

vii. By analysing poor decisions and their ramifications, we know how to avoid
similar situations in the future.

viii. All of those poor ideas eventually lead to the sea of brilliant ones. As the
American inventor Thomas Edison once said: "I Have Not Failed. I Have Just
Found 10,000 Things That Do Not Work".

ix. In all aspects of life, these ideas prepare us to make accurate predictions
and better personal decisions to benefit the future of humankind.
b. Helps develop a better understanding of the world
i. One can’t build a framework on which to base a life without understanding
how things work in the world.
 ii. Through history, people can learn how past societies, systems, ideologies,
governments, cultures and technologies were built, how they operated, and
how they have changed. The rich history of the world helps people to paint a
detailed picture of today’s world.

iii. Developing knowledge of history means developing knowledge of all these

different aspects of life.

iv. Children can learn about the pillars upon which different civilizations were
built, including cultures and people different from their own.

v. All this knowledge makes them more rounded people who are better
prepared to learn about various subjects of our world.

c. Assists in understanding oneself

i. To understand oneself, the individual needs to develop a sense of self. A
large part of that is learning where the individual fits into the story of the
world.

ii. History helps provide identity, and this is unquestionably one of the reasons
all modern nations encourage its teaching in some form.

iii. Historical data include evidence about how families, groups, institutions and
whole countries were formed and about how they have evolved while
retaining cohesion.

iv. For many Pakistanis, studying the history of one's own family is the most
obvious use of history, for it provides facts about genealogy and a basis for
understanding how the family has interacted with larger historical change.

v. In Pakistan, family identity is mostly documented and established. State

institutions such as National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) use
history for the recording of identity individual citizens and their relations.

vi. Histories that tell the national story, emphasizing distinctive features of the
national experience, are meant to drive an understanding of national values
and a commitment to national loyalty.

d. Aids in learning about others

i. History is not just an essential to understand oneself, it’s also a valuable tool
when it comes to understanding other people and their cultures.
ii. Global, national, and regional history books help understand how different
cultures affect and interact with each other.
iii. They encourage people to develop a greater appreciation for multicultural
influences on their culture.
 iv. One should study African American history, immigrant history, and so forth,
regardless of their own cultural background.
v. History increases the understanding of people of national identities and
societies.
e. Teaches the concept of change
i. Every person has a different experience with the world which is shaped by
societal norms, cultural differences, personal experiences, and more. All
people observe change around and within them.
ii. History helps people to better understand how, when, and why change
occurs on a larger scale.
iii. The world is constantly changing, so understanding the role of change in
society helps people to interpret the world in its current state.
iv. The past causes the present, and so the future.
v. Whether a shift in political party dominance in a country or a major change
in the teenage suicide rate, one have to look for factors that took shape in
the past.
vi. Only through history people can understand how change occurs and
comprehend the factors that cause that change.
f. Provides tools to be good citizens
i. A study of history is essential for good citizenship.
ii. This is the most common justification for the place of history in school
curricula.
iii. Sometimes advocates of citizenship history hope merely to promote
national identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and
lessons in individual success and morality.
iv. But the importance of history for citizenship goes beyond this narrow goal
and can even challenge it at some points.
v. History that lays the foundation for genuine citizenship returns, in one
sense, to the essential uses of the study of the past.
vi. History provides data about the emergence of national institutions,
problems, and values.
vii. It's the only significant storehouse of such data available.
viii. It offers evidence also about how nations have interacted with other
societies, providing international and comparative perspectives essential for
responsible citizenship.
ix. Further, studying history helps us understand how recent, current, and
prospective changes that affect the lives of citizens are emerging or may
emerge and what causes are involved.
x. History encourages habits of mind that are vital for responsible public
behaviour, whether as a national or community leader, an informed voter, a
petitioner, or a simple observer.
xi. Good citizens are always informed citizens, and no one can consider himself
to be an informed citizen without a working knowledge of history.
xii. History helps us become better voters and more effective members of
society.
 g. Makes people better decision makers
i. “Those that do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”- George
Santayana.
ii. History gives people the opportunity to learn from past mistakes.
iii. It helps them understand the many reasons of their failures and
shortcomings due to wrong decisions.
iv. As a result, it helps them become more rational and impartial as decision
makers.
h. Gives inspiration and motivation
i. History is more than just the living record of nations, leaders, and wars.
ii. It’s packed with tales of how someone stood up for what they believed in, or
died for love, or worked hard to make their dreams come true.
iii. History remembers brilliant people and their heroic acts that have changed
the shape of nations.
iv. Those historical stories can serve to inspire individuals to greatness.
v. An individual can get a huge amount of motivation from learning about the
inspirational events that make up today’s world.
vi. It only takes one great story from the pages of history to light up one’s
imagination and spur them on to do great things.
5. Consequences of ignoring lessons of history
a. Allows space for conspiracy theories
i. Conspiracy theories are the fanciful stories of history which are whispered
and repeated ad nauseam but seldom supported with concrete evidence.

ii. Countless major events in history, from the moon landing in 1969 by United
States to the 9/11 bombings of World Trade Centre of America, have fallen
victim to conspiracy theories.

iii. Many of these theories warn of secretive and powerful groups, such as
communists, the ‘Deep State’, CIA, KGB and others.

iv. According to conspiracy theorists, these organisations formulate and

implement subversive plots to exert their control over the world, its people
and resources.

v. The problem with conspiracy theories is that they are, by their very
definition, baseless theories.

vi. Most are based on rumour, unsubstantiated stories, coincidence and

circumstantial evidence.

vii. But as the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust demonstrate, conspiracy
theories can be accepted by the mainstream and become extremely
dangerous.
b. Gives room to myths and false history
i. Popular histories are riddled with myths: stories unsupported by evidence
that are grossly exaggerated or entirely untrue.
ii. Most historians are aware of these myths and disregard them as false.
 iii. Non-historians, however, are often interested in the value of a story rather
than its historical accuracy.

iv. Over time, many myths and stories have become accepted as historical fact,
often because they sound appealing or fit a particular narrative.

v. Many myths have been repeated in print, which lends them undeserved
credibility.

vi. An example of one enduring myth is that the climate change is a hoax
despite scientific evidence of rising global temperatures and melting
Antarctic glaciers.

vii. In 2012, President of the United States Donald Trump states that climate
change was "created by and for the Chinese in order to make US
manufacturing non-competitive".

viii. While these distortions are not usually the work of historians, they tend to
create a popular but misleading narrative of historical events.

c. Creates distorted worldview

i. Eurocentrism is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a
biased view that favours it over non-western civilizations.
ii. It is when people look at the past from a purely western point of view.

iii. This perspective originates from the 17th and 18th centuries, when
European nations dominated the world politically and militarily, in
manufacturing, trade, science and culture.

iv. Unsurprisingly, Europeans came to see themselves and their societies as

exceptional.

v. They considered Western civilisation to be the perfect example of human

progress and development.

vi. In contrast, the native peoples of Africa, Asia and the Americas were
considered to have lived in barbarism and unlearned ignorance until they
were ‘discovered’, ‘civilised’ and ‘educated’ by Europeans.

vii. These perspectives gave rise to ideas like the ‘White Man’s Burden’ (a poem
by Rudyard Kipling about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902), which
exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people
and their country)

viii. And the ‘Civilising Mission’ - France’s political rationale for military
intervention and colonization of African countries purporting to facilitate the
modernization and the Westernization of indigenous peoples, especially in
the period from the 15th to the 20th centuries.
 ix. This arrogant Eurocentrism also came to dominate historiography and
historical understanding.

x. The stories, contributions and achievements of non-European peoples were

either ignored or downplayed.

xi. Chinese scientific discoveries, inventions and philosophy were largely

disregarded. Islamic mathematics, medicine and literature were also
trivialised.

xii. The histories of conquered peoples have to a large extent been defined by
how they responded to Europeans, either with resistance or passive
acceptance.

xiii. Eurocentric histories have denied many non-European peoples their own
voice while presenting a narrow and skewed account of the past.
6. Lessons of the past as the roadmap of future
i. Human beings tend to go in cycles from one milestone to the next. Starting
over is at the core of our existence.
ii. Even the 50 to 75 trillion cells that make up a human body are replaced with
new cells every 7 to 10 years.
iii. It is not only the lessons learnt from the mistakes of others that are in
question.
iv. Human beings are both cursed and blessed with forgetfulness, and
sometimes they forget the pain caused by their past mistakes which takes
them right back into a situation where history repeats itself.
v. Nostalgia is the other human trait that can be terribly deceiving.
vi. Looking at the past with a romanticised idea of mostly the good while
ignoring the bad can cause people to fall back into the same traps
repeatedly.
vii. But how should history be viewed in a more distant and holistic sense?
viii. In his book The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan talks about looking at history,
"not as a series of periods and regions that are isolated and distinct, but to
see the rhythms of history in which the world has been connected for
millennia as being part of a bigger, inclusive global past".
7. Conclusion
2nd angle

1. Introduction

“If” in history (1972)

Thesis: Even though counterfactual history presents an entertaining debate over the alternative
outcomes of historical events, severe problems and subsequent conclusions attached to it suggest
that it gives distorted account of history.

“Most of the history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice” (1999)

Thesis: Even though counterfactual history presents an entertaining debate over the alternative
outcomes of historical events, its nature of guesswork and associated prejudice leads to a
distorted version of history.

2. Nature of Counterfactual History

3. Problems associated with guessing in history
a. Lacks evidence
b. Shows wishful thinking
c. Reflects biased recording
d. Presents a narrow view
e. Ends up being impotent
4. Consequences of prejudice in recording history
a. Allows unfair account of events
b. Gives space to generalization
c. Results in distorted conclusions
5. Recommendations for accurate recording of history
a. Use reliable and accurate data
b. Avoid committing fallacies
c. Provide a fair account
6. Conclusion
1. Introduction
2. Nature of Counterfactual History
i. Writers such as Hayden White and F. R. Ankersmit have explored the literary
and subjective sources of historical interpretation and have given the
impression that although historians can infer particular facts about the past
from the evidence available to them, the way they give meaning to those
facts by presenting relations between them is a function of their own
creative imagination.
ii. The debate about the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 focuses not
on why it happened, but how things might have been if Britain had not
entered it.
iii. "Counterfactual" / "what-if" speculations are often claimed to open up the
past by demonstrating the myriad possibilities, thus freeing history from the
concept of determinism.
iv. However, it is difficult to predict the course of history if one tiny change
occurs in the timeline – Archduke Franz Ferdinand escapes assassination in
Sarajevo, the British cabinet decides not to enter the war – leads inevitably
to a whole series of much larger changes, sometimes stretching over
decades almost up to the present day.
v. It is also uncertain that among numerous possibilities from the point of one
tiny change, which course history will take.
vi. If Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not assassinated in
Sarajevo in 1914, he might have fallen victim to another assassin's bullet,
Britain might have entered the war later on; Austria-Hungary might have
collapsed in the face of nationalist revolts; and so on.
3. Problems associated with guessing in history
a. Lacks evidence
i. Based on presumptions rather than evidence.
b. Shows wishful thinking
i. American philosopher Alfred Mele, in a recent book entitled Autonomous
Agents: From Self-Control to Autonomy describes ways in which wishful
thinking can produce biased counterfactual account of history.
ii. He outlines four ways this can happen. "Negative misrepresentation" is not
seeing that data which counts against a proposition which the historian
supports.
iii. "Positive misinterpretation" is supposing certain data that supports
proposition of the historian but lacks relationship with the account being
recorded.
iv. "Selective focusing/attending" is focusing upon evidence supporting the
historian’s proposition because of wishful thinking for the position and
failing to attend to evidence against that proposition.
v. Finally, "selective evidence gathering" is overlooking easily obtainable
evidence against historian’s proposition because of wishful thinking that it
should be true.
c. Reflects biased recording
i. A desire to reach an outcome of a certain kind which influences historians
when they draw inferences from data, or design accounts of historical
 subjects, or construct historical explanations, reflects bias which leads to
unfair recording of history.
ii. Cultural bias, in which a historical inference, description, or explanation is
later found to be untrue or unfair, relative to the evidence available,
because of a culture-wide interest in information of one kind rather than
another.
iii. Several cultural biases in historical writing have been detected and
corrected.
iv. For instance, history was once written by intelligent white males who
assumed that only intelligent white males made history.
v. Indeed they assumed that the only history worth recording was produced by
leaders, and that the role of others such as employees, servants, wives, and
mothers was insignificant.
vi. This bias has been largely overcome.
vii. Gender bias still exists.
d. Presents a narrow view
i. Guessing one line of events while the possibilities are many.
e. Ends up being impotent
i. Article 'What if' is a waste of time by Richard J Evans in The Guardian
published in 2014.
ii. In the postmodern age of today, ideas of progress have largely disappeared
and replaced by uncertainty and doubt due to numerous global issues such
as climate change and complex world order.
iii. Linear notions of time have become blurred;
iv. Even though Historians still have licence to be subjective, people are
sceptical about the trend of counterfactual history.
v. People want to understand why the First World War happened, not to wish
or argue that if it had not taken place, the world would have been different.
vi. In the effort to understand the nature of an event itself, counterfactuals are
impotent.
4. Consequences of prejudice in recording history
a. Allows unfair account of events
i. When historians compile an account of a historical subject, be it a person, an
institution, or an event, what they say about it might be justified and
credible.
ii. However, due to prejudice, the account might distort significant facts about
the subject so that it is unbalanced and unfair.
iii. For instance it might elaborate upon an individual’s virtues but ignore the
vices, giving an unfair impression of the character.
iv. Women's history is a response to the conviction that traditional history,
written usually by white males, in which women were largely invisible, was
unfair and biased.
v. English writer Virginia Woolf in her book A Room of One's Own (1929) writes
that history in her day was often lopsided which considered women as ‘the
other’.
vi. Similarly, colonial history written by the colonizers used to ignore the views
of the colonized.
vii. Dutch Historian Henk Wesseling in his book Overseas History states that
Indonesia’s history constituted a distorted perspective and ignored vast
 areas of historical reality," seeing history only through the eyes of Dutch
rulers and traders.
viii. In each case historians have identified with the powerful, seeing events
through their eyes, and with those whose culture is closest to their own.
ix. For a long time the bias was unconscious and culture wide, but with the
liberation and education of women, indigenous people, and the poor it
became widely recognized and was largely corrected.
b. Gives space to generalization
c. Results in distorted conclusions
i. National histories often draw distorted conclusions because of the presence
national prejudices at work in stereotyping both other nations and their
own.
ii. Historian Hanna Schissler in her book Perceptions of History writes that one
of the problems of stereotyping is that although they present warped
images of reality, stereotypes have proved extraordinarily resistant to
enlightenment.
iii. She suggest that foreigners might be able to detect distortions in a country's
history. They may be able to perceive biases and gaps which elude the
indigenous historian educated in a particular national tradition of looking at
the past.
5. Recommendations for accurate recording of history
a. Use reliable and accurate data
i. To minimize the possibility of bias, historians should check that their
descriptions, interpretations, and explanations are well supported by the
data concerning their subjects.
b. Avoid committing fallacies
i. A commitment to rationality will help historians overcome personal and
cultural bias, motivating them to check the adequacy of their
preconceptions and descriptions of historical subjects, the scope and
intelligibility of their interpretations and the completeness of their genetic
explanations.
ii. To correct such residual bias, historians must depend upon their colleagues
to point out their inadequacies.
iii. As Thomas Haskell says in his Objectivity is not Neutrality that history should
be viewed as a cooperative enterprise, with historians working together to
arrive at adequate accounts of the past.

c. Provide a fair account

i. A historic account must describe all the predominant features of the chosen
aspect of the subject, so that the account is not at all misleading.
ii. For example, it would be misleading to mention only the good features of a
person's character and not the bad; only the dominant political group in a
political structure and not the opposition groups; or only the beneficial
changes that occurred during an event and not the suffering it produced.
iii. One way to ensure that all predominant features of the chosen aspect of a
subject are included is to provide an exhaustive description of it.
 iv. A quite brief summary description of things would support the other sides of
the subject.
6. Conclusion

3rd angle

History as ‘the biography of great men” (1998)

Even though history has largely been dominated by “Great Men”, historians of today underscore the
problems and implications of the approach on historical record.

1. Introduction
2. History and its Relation with Great Men
3. Problems Associated with History as Great Men’s Biography
a. Neglects socio-economic conditions
b. Omits factors of cultural environment
c. Overlooks role of women
d. Ignores contributions of common individuals
4. Implications of Recording History as the Biography of Great Men
a. Results in an incomplete record
b. Presents an unfair account
c. Contributes to a biased history
5. The Great Men History in 21st century and Beyond
6. Conclusion
1. Introduction
i. Why do people memorize the names of their past leaders, exalt their
stations and study their lives? Why does history emphasize the famed and
the named, but ignore the rest?

ii. Thomas Carlyle, the 1840s-era Scottish writer, philosopher and historian. He
formulated the “Great Man Theory” in his book Heroes, Hero-Worship and
the Heroic in History, and stated: “the history of the world is but the
biography of great men.”

iii. Carlyle believed that heroic, towering individuals shape and mould history.

iv. In his book, he listed poets like Dante and Shakespeare, kings like Cromwell
and Napoleon along with many other notable personalities of world history
as the primary agents of change in the world.

v. So the Great Man theory put forth the concept that individual people or
small groups of people, through the power of their character or their
intellect or the force of their will, determine the course of history.

vi. The ‘Great Man’ idea of history incorporates at least three concepts: that
history is made by individuals; that those individuals are mostly men; and
that they are to be regarded as great.

vii. There is much to dislike in a Great Man style of history.

viii. It neglects a range of important historical processes and topics: the

economic and cultural systems of historical societies; the lives of the
"common people" of history, including slaves, lower-class men, women and
so on;

ix. While neglecting other subjects of society, it attributes large changes in

societies to a handful of notable individuals and events, rather than the
actions of the many.

2. History and its Relation with Great Men

i. The Great Man Theory, which explains history as the result of actions taken
by extraordinary individuals who, because of their charismatic personalities,
their superior intellect, or because of divine providence, single-handedly
changed the course of history.
ii. The problem with Carlyle’s theory is that he celebrated the individual man
without taking into account the larger circumstances that shaped the world
and the times that great man lived in, and in doing so, tells only one part of
a full, complex story of the past.
 iii. In history, looming larger than the individual are the rigid structures of
society, reluctant to change.
iv. The suggestion is that the Great Men are centrally important to the course
of history, and their deeds can be invoked to explain many general features
of historical societies.
v. To understand the Roman Empire one must study Julius Ceasar and
Augustus, to understand the Holy Roman Empire one must study the
Ottonians and the Hapsburgs, to understand twentieth century physics one
must study Einstein and so on.
vi. Historical inquiries should have room for the doings of "Great Men" on the
grounds that it is plausible that social structures that give a great deal of
power and influence to individuals are likely to give rise to influential actions
of those individuals.
3. Problems Associated with History as Great Men’s Biography
a. Neglects socio-economic conditions
i. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,"
wrote Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto.
ii. For them, history should be the story of the masses and their record of
struggle.
iii. As such, it needed to appreciate the economic realities, the social contexts
and power relations of that time.
b. Omits factors of cultural environment
i. Focus on cultural environment blurred.
ii. That culture contributes to several events.
iii. In case of positive outcomes, the credit is shifted towards great men.
iv. While negative outcomes are reflected towards common people and the
surrounding socio-political and cultural environment.
c. Overlooks role of women
i. They were excluded from a large period of world history.
ii. Historians are much more aware than they used to be of the role played by
women, not just in society generally, but within areas of history, including
politics, religion, science and military history.
d. Ignores contributions of common individuals
i. Insistence that figures in the past should be revered as heroes or derided as
villains.
ii. This has arisen in relation to the ‘statues war’ over controversial figures such
as Cecil Rhodes and Winston Churchill.
iii. These rows underline the importance of individuals in history: campaigners
against imperial or military statues tend to support the erection of
monuments to other, more ‘acceptable’ individuals.
4. Implications of Recording History as the Biography of Great Men
a. Results in an incomplete record
i. Abraham Lincoln, the g American president who defended democracy and
freed the slaves according to several historical records.

ii. However, historians who focused on holistic view of the crisis of that time
rather than focusing on one individual show that Lincoln’s legacy did not last
very long beyond his death.
 iii. Even into the early 20th Century, four decades after Lincoln’s assassination,
America’s Congress and its courts created and enforced so-called Jim Crow
laws that functionally re-instituted slavery, at least economically.

iv. Racism roared back with a vengeance.

v. The American South, although technically re-united with its mother country,
continued to rebel, resisting integration with all its might.

vi. A century after Lincoln left, Americans were still fighting the same battles.

vii. He had an impact but a limited one.

b. Presents an unfair account
i. When historians compile an account of a historical subject, be it a person, an
institution, or an event, what they say about it might be justified and
credible.
ii. However, due to their focus on great men only, the holistic account gets
distorted as and results in an unbalanced and unfair record.
iii. Women were largely invisible, was unfair and biased.
iv. English writer Virginia Woolf in her book A Room of One's Own (1929) writes
that history in her day was often lopsided which considered women as ‘the
other’.
v. Similarly, colonial history written by the colonizers used to ignore the views
of the colonized as they considered them insignificant.
vi. Dutch Historian Henk Wesseling in his book Overseas History states that
Indonesia’s history constituted a distorted perspective and ignored vast
areas of historical reality," seeing history only through the eyes of Dutch
rulers.
vii. In each case historians have identified with the powerful and seeing events
through their eyes.
viii. For a long time the unfair recording of history was unconscious and culture
wide, but with the liberation and education of women, indigenous people,
and the poor, it became widely recognized and was largely corrected.

c. Contributes to a biased history

ix. A desire to reach an outcome of events around great men influences
historians when they draw inferences from data, or design accounts of
historical subjects, or construct historical explanations, reflects bias which
leads to unfair recording of history.
x. History was once written in favour of white men who assumed that they
were part of the ‘great men’ group.
xi. Indeed they assumed that the only history worth recording was produced by
leaders, and that the role of others such as employees, servants, wives, and
mothers was insignificant.
xii. This bias has been largely overcome.
xiii. Gender bias still exists.
5. The Great Men History in 21st century and Beyond
a. Today, Carlyle’s great man theory is not a working theory of history.
 b. Great men are out of focus.

c. Digitised sources are allowing historians to excavate the lives of ordinary men and
women – until now forgotten by history – in a way never before possible.

d. The biography of a great man does not pretend to answer the why question.

e. But it should tell us how the great man achieved things.

6. Conclusion
4th angle

All recorded history is contemporaneous (2004)

Subject: Recorded History

Direction: Contemporaneous

1. Introduction

Thesis: Even though recording history contemporaneously consists several hurdles, the
numerous reasons prove that all history is recorded contemporaneously.

2. Contemporaneous nature of recording history

3. Reasons for recording history contemporaneously
a. First-hand account
b. Results in accurate history
c. Provides reliable record
d. Offers relatable account
e. Easily understandable
f. Gives useful information
4. Challenges to contemporaneous recording of history
a. Holds narrow scope
b. Gives selective account (Great man theory)
c. Inconsistent perspective
d. Possibility of bias
e. Likelihood of ill-intentioned recording
5. Contemporaneous recording of history in 21 st century
6. Conclusion

Contemporaneous: (recorded at that time or shortly after the event)

 All Recorded History Is Contemporaneous

Subject: Recorded History

Direction: Contemporaneous

1. Introduction
1. ‘For most historians contemporary history does not constitute a
separate period with distinctive characteristics of its own; they
regard it rather as the most recent phase of a continuous process…’
- -Geoffrey Barraclough, 1964. An Introduction to
Contemporary History.
2. Fernandez-Armesto ‘What is History Now’ claims that ‘Everything
that we do or think, everything that we imagine about the future
passes instantly into the past and becomes a proper subject for
historical enquiry’.

2. Contemporaneous nature of recording history

 All history is contemporary history,” the Italian philosopher

Benedetto Croce once said, meaning, no doubt, that all history was
written from the point of view of contemporary preoccupations.
 Inevitably, perhaps, we look at the past through the eyes of the
present.
 First, it is necessary to analyse some of the problem areas
concerning contemporary history.
 That is to say; problems such as that of definition, the nature of
evidence, the problem of perspective and indefinite scope: just
some of the problems facing contemporary historian
 It should be emphasised that the definition of contemporary history
is a fundamental problem.

 According to Barraclough An Introduction to Contemporary History

“contemporary” is a very elastic term, with a different meaning for
different people. For example, today there are people living who
remember the Second World War, or who may have met Hitler and
Mussolini. On the other hand, for the generations born in the past
30-40 years, these are as much a part of history as Alexander the
Great, Suleiman the Magnificent or Queen Victoria.
3. Reasons for recording history contemporaneously
a. First-hand account
1. English Philosopher R.G. Collingwood (The Principles of History and
Other Writings in Philosophy of History) (1999) defines
contemporaneous history as ‘history of the recent past in a society
which the historian regards as his own society’, that is of which he
has personal experience ie. as a ‘participant observer’.
 2. Another important advantage for the contemporary historian is that
he/she is able to remember the influence of events.

3. In addition, he/she can also remember the public opinion or public

reaction of the period, and he/she is therefore more easily able to
utilize the atmosphere of the period.

4. Furthermore, he/she has the opportunity to consult other

contemporaries and to check his/her own recollections.
b. Results in accurate record
1. American historian James Sheehan explains that the invention of a
nation always involves the invention of a national past, an
established version of the nation’s creation which absorbs or
overwhelms alternative points of view”.
2. It is necessary that contemporary historians record the true account
of events.
c. Provides reliable record
1. As far as the availability of sources is concerned, twentieth century
historians have a vast amount of material, and therefore, with
regard to the quantity and range of source material, contemporary
historians have a distinct advantage over “medieval” and “classical”
historians
2. Not only the number of sources but also the nature of evidence has
changed. The requirements of the modern society have forced
people to record information and this is why contemporary
historians are faced with such an enormous number of sources.
3. Therefore, it is not question of the quantity of sources, but rather
how one can find and use those sources.
4. One of the great advantages for contemporary historians is the
variety of material. As a result, of technological progress the world is
now dominated by information and communication systems. There
are huge numbers of newspapers, magazines, television stations,
political statements, radio stations, experts’ announcements and
such like providing a permanent record of contemporary events, and
in many cases a forum for social comment.

5. Therefore, as in the case of the Water Gate scandal and the illegal
selling of arms to Iran during Iran-Iraq War, little avoids the scrutiny
of the public eye in one form of the media or another.
d. Offers relatable account
1. Historian has an obligation as a member of society. He should help
people to understand not only what happened in the distant past,
but also what has occurred during their own lifetimes.

e. Easily understandable
1. There is a public demand for a better understanding of the recent
past in order to understand what is happening in the world.
 2. In particular, in the twentieth century international relations have
become far more complex than that they used to be.
3. In short, the public’s special demands for understanding their
current events have always forced historians to study their
contemporary period.
f. Gives useful information
1. English history after 1878 was not part of the programme of studies
in Oxford and other universities in 1914
2. The absence of contemporary history in schools until the 1960s is
also a well-known phenomenon.
3. The result of this was that politicians and high civil servants, who
were educated in this tradition at the public schools and universities
often knew more about the ancient Greeks and Romans than about
the world of their own time (British historian Ernest Woodword, The
Study of Contemporary History 1966)
4. Another use: Can make future predictions
4. Challenges to contemporaneous recording of history
a. Holds narrow scope
1. The contemporary historian can only be aware of consequences and
the results of the events he has studied, to a very limited degree, i.e.
the short terms facts. He has an inadequate perspective.

2. It is true that the contemporary historian necessarily focuses his

attention on more recent events, but this does not mean that his
perspective is shorter than that of other historians.

3. In other words, for the most part it is not possible to understand

and analyse the contemporary period without employing a broader
historical perspective.

4. For example, in order to understand the reason behind the Gulf

War, the historian must date back to the nineteenth century and
study the geographies of Kuwait, Iraq and Middle Eastern politics.

5. Therefore, it can be said that the study of contemporary history

requires as much depth of research as earlier periods of history.

b. Gives selective account

1. There was also the fear that the status of academic history would be
reduced to that of journalism (French historian Rene Remond)
2. As the old adage said “History is written by the winner”
c. Inconsistent perspective
1. With regard to this although traditional views of perspective are not
wholly wrong, they might easily cause error.
2. In some cases, perspective has no meaning, for example, when an
event is over. What we mean by the term perspective is the
standpoint of new generations with regard to the past.
 3. One thing, which should be remembered, is that this standpoint may
easily change, not just because of newfound evidence, but because
a historians’ new experience may have given him a new perception
and new understanding.

4. For example a twentieth century American historian does not see

the American Civil War in the same light as a nineteenth century
historian.

5. Perhaps, the most obvious example, however, is that of our current

concept of the middle ages which is quite different from that of an
eighteenth or nineteenth century historian.

6. This is because our experience has given us a new point of view, a

new perception.

7. This is one of the main reasons why each generation has the desire
to rewrite recent history and particularly to re-examine
controversial issues.
d. Possibility of bias
1. Reichmann (The Study of Contemporary History as a Political and
Moral Duty-1960) points out, contemporary history is “too near, too
closely interwoven with our lives, too much part of our destiny and
our prejudices and passions”

2. Whether or not it is possible for the historian, in dealing with issues

with direct or indirect impact on his own life, to practice the
objectivity necessary for his work.

3. It is clearly a problem for a historian to describe objectively the

world and events in which he himself is involved and it would be
foolish to suggest that personal involvement is an event poses no
threat to this objectivity.

4. As Bullock (On the Track of Tyranny-1960) points out the reason why
people have such a great interest in contemporary history is that,
they have strong feelings about the political issues of our time, and
this in turn makes it impossible for them to think or write
impartially.
5. It is true that the problems of bias are mostly associated with
contemporary history. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that these are
problems only associated with contemporary history.
6. In other words, there are problems involved with the study of
history, whichever period is chosen. In particular, if the subject
chosen were related to any sensitive issues (such as religion) it
would need special care.
7. The French Medieval historian Marc Bloch-The Historian’s Craft
(1992) says “Here, with the nineteenth century, there is little
 danger, but when you touch the religious wars of the sixteenth
century, you must take great care”.
8. In this sense, it is not only difficult for the historian writing about the
contemporary period, but also difficult for any historian writing
about any controversial period of history.
9. From this point of view, what the historian has to do is to try to
overcome the biases and prejudices.
e. Likelihood of ill-intentioned recording
1. Secondly, if historians did not deal with contemporary history, this
area would be left to the people who may provide false information
or speculative knowledge about recent events.

2. There are some grounds for this fear: Bullock (On the Track of
Tyranny-1960) says “there is no more powerful force of propaganda
in moving people to anger and indignation, in string up political,
racial and religious passions than false history”.

3. Some examples from the past show just how serious a danger this is.

4. The most well-known example is perhaps that of Hitler. In every

speech, his main theme was his own version of what had happened
to German people after they had been defeated in the First World
War.

5. Following the Treaty of Versailles, the German people felt cheated

and humiliated, and consequently it was not so difficult for Hitler to
manipulate them.

6. The result was the Second World War, which claimed millions of
hints worldwide.
5. Contemporaneous recording of history in 21st century
i. Technology
ii. Social Media
6. Conclusion