READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY

TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)

Meaning and Relevance of History by E. Carr

What is history? How should history be written? E.H. Carr, the historian diplomat, journalist,
philosopher, and author of a fourteen-volume history on the Soviet Union set out to answer this question in
1961. The book is considered a classic. Carr starts by discussing the common-sense view of history. In essence
that history is about facts and simply collecting as many facts as possible. In this view, facts are like fish on a
fishmongers’ slab ready to be chosen and cooked. There are basic facts – raw materials – but the facts only
speak when the historian calls on them.

Carr compares the fact that the Battle of Hastings happened in 1066 with the fact that in 1850 a
gingerbread vendor was killed by an angry mob. The latter is not well known, it is unimportant. One is selected
over the other because it's considered useful. We use the facts to understand something larger. So, on the one
side, we have the historian in the present making a judgment about what facts to select. On the other side,
there are documents, letters, diaries, treaties, etc. These are facts of a certain kind but tell us no more than
what the author thought and are of course invariably one-sided. Carr says that the classical liberal view of
history, popular across the 19th century, proposes that like the hidden hand of the market, letting historians
pick from this fishmongers’ slab of facts would result in a universal harmony. The truth would emerge. Carr
starts to point out a few problems with this view, (1) first the facts of the past are only accessible through the
present. He says of the historian, “The very words which he uses – words like democracy, empire, war,
revolution have current connotations from which he cannot divorce them.” A historical event looks very
different through the eyes of 17th century Frenchman than it does to a 21st century American but does this
lead to what Carr calls total skepticism?

If there are different views at different times, how can any of them be the right one? Is there no
objective position from which to view history? To answer the problem of total skepticism, Carr starts with the
common view of historical work that is that (1) the facts are collected, and (2) they are interpreted and written
into a narrative. Though this isn't accurate, it's much more likely that the process is reciprocal: (a) some facts
are collected, (b) a tentative interpretation is made, (c) more facts are collected, (d) the interpretation is
revised, and so on. He says, “The historian is engaged in a continuous process of molding his facts to his
interpretation and his interpretation to his facts. It is impossible to assign primacy to one over the other.” This
process is a dialogue between facts in the past and the historian contextualized in the present. He says, “The
past is intelligible to us only in the light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in the
light of the past.” He then goes on to say that the process is not just an individual one. The man whose actions
the historian studies were not isolated individuals acting in a vacuum. They acted in the context and under the
impulse of a past society. He argues them that this means it's obvious we must look at social forces, class
vested interests, as well as individuals. So, as well as history being a dialogue between the past and the
present, it's now a dialogue between the individual and society. He's painting a picture on multiple axes: past
and present, individual and societal.

But how then do we retain any sense of objectivity? How do we know where to look and which facts to
pick up? To begin to get out of this predicament, Carr moves to compare the process of the historian to the
process of the inductive method in Science. He says scientists no longer really spend their time searching for
the laws of nature, but instead come up with a hypothesis test whether it's a fact then reassess. Science is also
driven by a back and forth and by values in the present. He explores a number of objections to history being a
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TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)
Science problematizing them in turn. For example, it is said that science deals with the general and history
with the particular with unique events but he argues that history is also general. For example, the historian
looks for the causes of the phenomenon of war or revolutions, these are general categories. Another objection
is that history is unable to predict the future but he points out that although science predicts, it only predicts
probabilities. Gravity might predict how an Apple falls from a tree but it can't predict things getting in the way
or someone catching it before it hits the ground. He also notes that modern physics, after Einstein, is also
relative not as universal as was one thought. Ultimately, he says that, “The word science already covers so
many different branches of knowledge, employing so many different methods and techniques, that the owner
seems to rest on those who seek to exclude history rather than on those who seek to include it.”

Carr's view of history as a Science is probably the view that would receive the most criticism today. He
moves on to look at causation. For a long time, historians and philosophers looked for universal laws of history
to try and make it more scientific. Historians now look for multiple causes. For example, the Bolshevik
Revolution might be said to be caused by the failure of the Tsar, the impoverished proletariats, Lenin's
character, etc. Usually, a primary cause is given then maybe a hierarchy of causes. Carr rules an analogy:
Driving back from a party, a man who has drank too much in a car with defective brakes, kills a man crossing
the road to get cigarettes at a blind corner. What was the cause and what is our motivation in finding out what
the cause is? To make road safer, to reduce drinking, maybe he was killed because he was desperate for
cigarettes, but by intuition we distinguish between rational and accidental causes. Carr’s point here and he
quotes the German historian, Frederick Mayneck, is that “The search for causalities in history is impossible
without reference to values. Behind the search for causalities, there always lies directly or indirectly to search
for values.” We are always trying to learn something from history. This leads Carr to argue that to avoid total
skepticism, the facts and interpretations historians choose should be organized around the idea of progress.
Maybe not as an unbroken straight line without reverses and deviations, as he says, but progress all the same.
Ultimately, he says that a belief in progress means belief not in any automatic or inevitable process but in the
progressive development of human potentialities. Being objective of choosing the facts and the hierarchy of
causes means
considering the future. He says, “When we call a historian objective, we mean I think two things. First of all,
we mean that he has a capacity to rise above the limited version of his own situation in society and in history.”
and “Secondly, we mean that he has the capacity to project his vision into the future in such a way as to give
him a more profound and more lasting insight into the past than can be attained by those historians whose
outlook is entirely bounded by their own immediate situation.” In other words, historians should work to
transform society as much as other disciplines do. Carr has been criticized for having a relativistic view of
history that the facts and questions are determined by the present so that no objective reading of the past is
possible. But through an optimism about the future, Carr also tries to draw a route back to objectivity, picking
facts through the value of progress. It's a unique argument and many have claimed it doesn't hold today but
the text. Both short and rich, is still held as a classic introduction to the question, “What is history?”

Reference:
Then and Now. (2018, October 11) What is History? E.H. Carr [Video]. Youtube.
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 READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY
TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkdzu8X84fo

Primary and Secondary Sources

The content of your research project will be made up of primary and secondary sources. Primary and
secondary sources come in many different formats and there are benefits for referencing both types in your
assignment. It can be difficult to figure out if a source is considered primary or secondary but don't worry
because we'll explain the differences here so that you can decide which are best to use in your assignment.

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event, topic, or historical time period. Anything that
contains original information on a topic is considered a primary source. Examples of primary sources include
things like letters, or personal Diaries, or journals, original photographs, speeches, newspaper reports, creative
works like paintings, plays, and music, and research data, or surveys. It's a good idea to use primary sources in
research papers because it allows you to form your own argument to defend your thesis since the information
you're using is unfiltered by another person's point of view. You're able to critique an original work using your
own ideas.

Secondary sources interpret critique or analyze primary sources. It is an information that is created or
published from primary sources. Examples of secondary sources include things like textbooks, essays, or
reviews, encyclopedias, newspaper articles, that analyze or discuss events and ideas and criticisms and
commentaries. It's a good idea to use secondary sources in research papers because you can learn about new
perspectives that you may not have even considered and they can also strengthen your own argument in the
assignment. For example if you're writing a history paper about how the diversity of the city shifted during a
certain time period, you could use data from the US Census Bureau to compare populations across the
decades. This type of information would be considered a primary source, as its data that's simply been
collected and compiled, there is no analysis, that's what you'll be doing in the paper.

For the same topic, you could also use an article from a newspaper that reviews the data and draws
conclusions or analysis from it such as other ways in which the population might change or grow over time.
Some sources like scholarly journals and newspapers can serve as both a primary and a secondary source
depending on which article you're reading. Articles that include things like eyewitness accounts or interviews
and are published close to the time of the event you're researching would be a primary source. Articles that
are published after the fact and include analysis or critique are secondary sources. Primary and secondary
sources can both strengthen and improve your research immensely by providing you with information to
create an argument and defend your thesis statement. Now that you know how to differentiate between
them try using them in your own assignment.

Reference:
Imagine Easy Solutions (2014, June 2) Understanding Primary & Secondary Sources [Video]. Youtube.
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 READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY
TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmno-Yfetd8&feature=emb_logo

Historical Analysis

Historical criticism, also known as the historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a branch of
literary criticism that investigates the origins of ancient text in order to understand “the world behind the
text.”

The primary goal of historical criticism is to discover the text’s primitive or original meaning in its
original historical context and its literal sense or sensus literalis historicus. The secondary goal seeks to
establish a reconstruction of the historical situation of the author and recipients of the text. This may be
accomplished by reconstructing the true nature of the events which the text describes. An ancient text may
also serve as a document, record, or a source for reconstructing the ancient past which may also serve as a
chief interest to the historical critic. In regard to Semitic biblical interpretation, the historical critic would be
able to interpret the literature of Israel as well as the history of Israel.

In 18th century biblical criticism, the term” higher criticism” was commonly used in mainstream
scholarship in contrast with “lower criticism.” In the 21st century, historical criticism is the more commonly
used term for higher criticism, while textual criticism is more commonly used expression” lower criticism.”

Historical criticism began in the 17th century and gained popular recognition in the 19th and 20 th
centuries. The perspective of the early historical critic was rooted in Protestant Reformation ideology, in as
much as their approach to biblical studies was free from the influence of traditional interpretation. Where
historical investigation was unavailable, historical criticism rested on philosophical and theological
interpretation. With each passing century, historical criticism became find into various methodologies used
today: source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, tradition criticism, canonical criticism, and related
methodologies.

Reference:

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 READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY
TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)
The Audiopedia (2016, August 17) What is HISTORICAL CRITICISM? What does HISTORICAL CRITICISM mean?
HISTORICAL CRITICISM meaning [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmno-
Yfetd8&feature=emb_logo

Repositories of Primary Sources

Types of sources and where to find them. Part one, primary sources. Historians and other scholars classify
sources as primary or secondary. This distinction is important because it will affect how you understand these
sources. In this first video of a two-part tutorial, we will discuss primary sources.

Primary sources are most often produced around the time of the events you are studying. They reflect what
their creator observed or believed about the event. These sources serve as the raw material that you'll analyze
and synthesize in order to answer your research question, and they will form key pieces of evidence in your
paper’s argument. Secondary sources, in contrast provide, an interpretation of the past based on primary
sources. This newspaper article is an example of a primary source, it describes a visit Nixon made to the Soviet
Union in 1959. It was written the day after, by a journalist who witnessed the event and it reflects what the
journalist and his editors thought the readers would care about at the time. Another example of a primary
source is this pamphlet, which compiles legal testimony from a witch trial. It was published in 1646, the same
year as the trial it documents. But, given the nature of the topic, you would probably want to research the
pamphlets author, John Davenport, to determine the reliability of the transcription, or what might have
motivated him to publish it. You should be aware that there is nothing inherent in a source that makes it
primary or secondary. Instead, its category depends on how you treat it, which in turn depends on your
research question. For example, black reconstruction in America written in 1935 by W.E.B. Du Bois, could be
used as a secondary source for research about 19th century America, since Du Bois draws on a range of
government reports, biographies, and existing historical narratives in order to make a claim about the past.
However, it could also be used as a primary source for research about Du Bois’ life, or black intellectual culture
during the 1930s. One of the main challenges of dealing with primary sources is locating them.

Many historical documents have never been published and they may only be available in archives. For
example, here is a page from the expense book of a student enrolled in the university of Illinois in 1930. It is a
unique document located in the student life and culture archive here on campus and it is only accessible to
those who can come to the archive in person. This on the other hand is a published primary source: a diary
written in 1912 and first published several decades later. Our copy is in the Main Stacks. Some of these
materials, like letters, were not published at the time of creation but have been subsequently published in a
book or digitized and made available online. For some topics, historical documents might be difficult to find
because they have been lost, or were never created in the first place. In other cases, the primary sources
might exist, but not in English. Therefore, when you begin to formulate a topic, you'll want to think about
what kinds of evidence will be available to you. When thinking about how to find or make sense of primary
sources, you should ask yourself three questions: (1) When and where was it created? (2) Who created it? (3)
For what purpose or what audience was it produced? Depending on the topic and the time period that you are
studying, you'll have to look for different kinds of primary sources. For example, if you're interested in the
issue of birth control in 20th century America, you can expect to find many primary sources, including: court
cases, legislative documents, newspaper articles, and letters. If you are interested in a topic from a more
distant historical time period, such as the status of Jews during the Renaissance, you may have to look harder,
but you can still find documents such as: histories,, laws, novels, and pamphlets. If you're interested in first-
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TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)
person accounts, you'll want to take a look at sources like letters, diaries, autobiographies, oral histories,
literary works, or polemical writings. You'll have to determine if the source is a reliable account or created
with the intention of imposing a particular understanding of an event or situation. Were they created at the
time of events they recount, or were they written many years later? Some sources might make this point of
view obvious. Whereas others might pretend to be authoritative. In other cases, you want to think about what
kinds of organizations might have created records related to your topic. You might be able to find statistics,
government reports, legislative documents, court records, transactions of an association, annual reports and
financial records, or reports of non-governmental organizations. You want to determine the circumstances of
the documents creation. Was it an internal document created to gather information, or was it intended to
persuade others inside or outside the group to take a certain course of action? Visual material can also provide
a powerful window onto the time period you are studying. For instance, maps not only reveal contemporary
political boundaries, but also how people thought of them. Other visual sources include: photographs, posters,
advertisements, cartoons, travel narratives, and motion pictures. Keep in mind that primary sources can have
multiple meanings. For example, this 1854 map provides evidence about the 1854 London cholera outbreak,
but it also reflects a new understanding of how disease spreads and a concern with illness as a social problem.
You can find published primary sources by using the online catalogue or by searching in a digital collection of
historical documents such as: The Garretson Collection Of Women's History, Chronicling America, And Empire
Online. The history library maintains a list of these collections on its website. Remember, though, that these
databases will not explicitly categorize the items they list as primary and secondary, and may even contain
documents that you might want to use as a secondary source, so you'll have to use your own judgment. For
example, you might be interested in this dictionary of women's employment for the information it contains
about wages or for the attitudes that it conveys about what kinds of jobs are appropriate for women. You can
also find primary sources by consulting published bibliographies, and by looking at the secondary literature on
your topic to see what sources other scholars have used in their research.

Reference:
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1A10 – SY: 2020-2021
 READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY
TRANSCRIPT OF WEEK 1 YOUTUBE VIDEOS (1ST SEM – PRELIMS)
IllinoisPHN: (2012, November 28) Types of Sources and Where to Find Them: Part I: Primary Sources [Video].
Youtube. https://youtu.be/KI-zwW4KzWg

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1A10 – SY: 2020-2021