Readings

in Philippine History
Lesson 1:
Introduction to History
Two Meanings of History

History is everything that happened in the past.

History is an account of the past.

In short, history is both the past and the study of

the past.
 Traditional approach to History

narration of past events, arranged chronologically

Who, what when, where = basic facts

leads to memorization; lack of appreciation

usually political; centered in nation’s capital; big people and big events; wars

what is important: why

history vs. chronicle

History as story: Carlos Quirino, Nick Joaquin, Ambeth Ocampo

“No document, no history”: Gregorio Zaide, Nicolas Zafra et al

Historical interpretation: Teodoro Agoncillo

History as discourse: Rey Ileto; Vincent Rafael

Textbooks

all above pre-digested, processed - secondary or tertiary sources

Readings in Philippine History - primary sources

 • Written • Textbooks
Primary sources

Secondary Sources
• Government documents • Journals
• Speeches • News Reports
• Memoirs • Commentaries
• Letters
• Literary pieces
• Periodicals, Serials (published
during the period concerned)
• Memorabilia
• Unwritten
• Artifacts
• Clothes
• Paintings, murals
• Edifices, Churches etc
• Pictures
• Who was Pigafetta? Why did he write this?
• What did he focus on?
• What did he not write about? (compare with other
contemprary sources)

• How valuable is this work?

 Primary sources in the internet

• websites - some reliable, some not. Wikipedia vs. US

National Archives

• audio-visual resources
Secondary Internet Source/s
 Historical thinking as a method
• Instead of teaching facts, teach skill, method
• emphasis on primary sources
• ability to analyze and interpret sources, place in context
and come up with interpretations/conclusions and test
them

• student learning
• as in craftsmen teaching apprentice in guilds
 Asking questions and working
with primary sources
• Historical thinking - “set of literary skills for evaluating and analyzing
primary source documents to construct a meaningful account of the past”

• Not spoonfeeding basic data, but teaching students how to read,

evaluate and interpret primary sources.

• Historians know as part of their craft to evaluate sources: who wrote it?
When? For what purpose? How reliable? what does it reveal about the
writer and his/her times? what can one extract from the source?

• How to teach this to students so they can discover for themselves?

Historical Method – process of critically
examining and analyzing the records and
survivals of the past
• External Criticism- checking the sources’ authenticity
• Internal Criticism- checking the sources’ validity

Historiography – imaginative
reconstruction of the past from the data
derived