Introduction to Readings

in Philippine History
Prepared by:

Alfie Anthony N. Neodama, MA

 Outline
• Kumustahan

• Self-introduction

• How was Philippine History taught in high school?

• What comes into your mind when you are asked what is Philippine history?

• What is history to you?

• What do we get from it? Is it important? Helpful in anyway? why or why not?

• For whom is history?

• How much (time and space) does it cover? Can you/we identify the time period?

• When did Philippine history begin?

• Present course outline, requirements, and grading system

 Readings
The Decline of Historical Thinking by Eric Alterman
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-decline-of-historical-thinking?
fbclid=IwAR0SqTiusT6QGjCliFbOrsVn1zfNvs_YDmu4qTT5sBdmSAonjshMJ0Pdvko

Jenkins, Keith. Re-thinking history. London: Routledge, 1991.

https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-
roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-24-what-lies-ahead-for-the-philippines-(1945)/when-did-
philippine-history-begin
 Guide questions

• How to distinguish between history and past?

• How to know whether or not history is valid?

• History, is it objective or subjective? Or both?

• What are the flaws/limitations of history?

• What is Philippine history?

 Learning outcomes
• At the end of the class meeting, students should be able
to

• Define what is history, Philippine history

• Differentiate history, past and historiography

• Identify sources of history

• Differentiate internal criticism vs external criticism

• Discuss the importance and problems of history

• History, history, past, historiography

• History is an argument

• History is a representation

• History lacks objectivity

Limitations that control the historical
knowledge claims of historians

• Epistemological fragility (limits to what can be known)

• Methodologically flawed (no definitive ways to write

history)

• Ideologically flawed (history is never for itself; it is always

for someone)
 The strength of historical
research
The strength of historical research is that it takes the big picture
approach which considers developments in information systems within
the context of wider changes at the organisational, regional or national
level. However the big picture approach can also prove a weakness as well
as a strength; tackling a large scale problem often means that the
contribution of any one piece of research is rather limited. Historical
research should be regarded as a transcript which needs to be placed
within the context of previous work (Mason et al., 1997b). It is often
incomplete and provisional, providing a rich, thick description of events that
is particular and descriptive rather than analytical and general (Neuman,
2003). A major goal of historical research is organising and giving new
meaning to evidence rather than providing an authoritative account.
New historical research in information systems should be regarded as
providing only part of the big picture and should not be judged in
isolation but evaluated on the contribution it makes towards building up that
authoritative account.
 History
…is a shifting, problematic discourse, ostensibly about an
aspect of the world, the past, that is produced by a group of
present-minded workers… who go about their work in
mutually recognizable ways that are epistemologically,
methodologically, ideologically and practically positioned
and whose products, once in circulation, are subject to a
series of uses and abused that are logically infinite but which
in actuality generally correspond to a range of power bases
that exist at any given moment and which structure and
distribute the meanings of histories along a dominant-
marginal spectrum.
 Types of historical
questions
• Contextualization

• Comparison

• Causation

• Continuity and change

• Can we know through history whose better between the

past and the present?
The Practice of History

• Sources: Primary and secondary written sources

• Internal and external criticism

• Oral history???
 Reflection

• How can history be useful to you, and the larger

community you live in?

https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/
historical-archives/why-study-history-(1998)