THE MEANING OF HISTORY meaningful and organized

rebuilding of the past

Lesson 1: The Meaning of History
HISTORIOGRAPHY
HISTORY – derived from the Greek
word “historia” which means learning ● THE PRACTICE OF HISTORICAL
by inquiry. WRITING

● THE TRADITIONAL METHOD IN

Looked upon history as the systematic
DOING HISTORICAL RESEARCH
accounting of a set of natural
THAT FOCUS ON GATHERING
phenomena, that is, taking into OF DOCUMENTS FROM
consideration the chronological DIFFERENT LIBRARIES AND
arrangement of the account. ARCHIVES TO FORM A POOL
OF EVIDENCE NEEDED IN
TWO KINDS OF HISTORY MAKING A DESCRIPTIVE OR
● Factual History ANALYTICAL NARRATIVE
● Speculative History
● MODERNING HISTORICAL
WRITING DOES NOT ONLY
FACTUAL HISTORY INCLUDE EXAMINATION OF
DOCUMENTS BUT ALSO THE
● PRESENTS READERS THE USE OF RESEARCH METHODS
PLAIN AND BASIC FROM RELATED AREAS OF
STUDY SUCH AS ARCHEOLOGY
INFORMATION
AND GEOGRAPHY.
● ANSWERS THE WHAT, WHEN,
AND WHERE
THE LIMITATION OF HISTORICAL
KNOWLEDGE
SPECULATIVE HISTORY

● The incompleteness of records has

● GOES BEYOND FACTS limited man’s knowledge of history.
● CONCERNED ABOUT THE ● Most human affairs happen without
REASONS FOR WHICH leaving any evidence or records,
EVENTS HAPPENED (WHY), no artifacts, or if there are, no
AND THE WAY THEY further evidence of the human
HAPPENED (HOW) setting in which to place surviving
artifacts.
● The whole history of the past
HISTORIANS (called history-as-actuality) can be
known to a historian only through
● Seek to understand the present the surviving records
(history-as-record), and most of
by examining what went before.
history-as-record is only a tiny part
● Undertake arduous historical
of the whole phenomenon.
research to come up with a
 ● Historians study the records or
evidence that survived the time.
They tell history from what they
understood as a credible part of
the record.

● However, their claims may remain

variable as there can be historical
records that could be discovered,
which may affirm or refute those
that they have already presented.

● This explains the “incompleteness”

of the “object” that historians study.

HISTORY AS THE SUBJECTIVE

PROCESS OF RE-CREATION

● From the incomplete evidence,

historians strive to restore the total
past of mankind.

HISTORICAL METHOD AND

HISTORIOGRAPHY

● Historical method – the process

of critically examining and
analyzing the records and survivals
of the past.
● Historiography – the imaginative
reconstruction of the past from the
data derived from the process of
historical method.

The past is conceived of as something

that “actually occurred”, places
obvious limits upon the kinds of record
and of imagination that the historian
may use. These limits distinguish
history from fiction, poetry, drama, and
fantasy.