British Politics in Uncertain Times
Alexander123
masterHistoriography2lecture.pptx
British·Politics·in·uncertain·times
Lecture·historiography· part 2
structure
Approaches to historiography
marxist
Social
Micro
Cultural – feminism – race - sexuality
postmodernism
whig
Coined by Herbert Butterfield in The Whig Interpretation of History
Notable example would by Thomas Babington Macaulay
See history as the progress of great men
Sees the past in terms of the present
Hutton R 2006 Revision in Britain in Bentley M ed Companion to Historiography Routledge London p374
whig
“Thanks in part to Butterfield, we now recognize such [whig] narratives as teleological, and we rightly suspect them of doing violence to the past by understanding and judging it with reference to anachronistic values in the present, however dear those values may be to our own hearts.” -- TWO CHEERS FOR THE WHIG INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY
William Cronon 2012
- Contemporary history can suffer from “whiggism”
- Especially around issues such as progressivism
- And we must be mindful of choosing the past to suit the present
Marxist historiography
Shaped by Marxist theory
That the engine of history is class conflict
Emphasises examining how economic exploitation engenders historical action
Fifty Key Thinkers p221:
Marxist historiography
It is largely structural but still has a place for individuals
It sees history as teleological – can be deterministic
Is suspicious of the intentions of bourgeois leaders. Is political.
See for example: Christopher Hill; Eric Hobsbawn; See for example EP Thompson. Richard Seymour (zer0 books).
Has declined in direct influence, though has recently characterised a broad approach to contemporary political activity and therefore spills over into some contemporary historical analyses, such as books by Owen Jones, Owen Hatherley.
Contemporary history can be exciting because it is mixed up with contemporary political activity, but this can also be an issue
Social history
But Marxist historiography has had a more lasting impact as “social history”.
A broader term for a studying of history beyond elite actions to look at the lives of ordinary people.
Here Marxist teleology is lessened but the focus on the “everyday” and “modernisation” remains.
It is first guise it emphasised economic history, and quantitative data – and was linked to the social sciences and structural approaches.
Interested in broad changes to where people lived, how they worked, and how the economy functioned.
The past can be recaptured through large data sets.
See Charles Tilly (and critique by Judt).
Fairburn M 1999 Social History p13:
Social history
But it moved beyond this to cover a range of methods that studied ordinary people:
Fairburn M 1999 Social History p13:
Micro history
Micro history is an off shoot of social history – but rather than looking at groups or collectives it looks at individuals
So it can take a different method – using oral history or individual sources to look at everyday lives
Interested in experiences for their own sake – because they happened – or because they are representative
But not trying to capture a broad causal explanation for history
Trying to uncover lesser known stories
So, though they take the “social” as the focus, they disagree with social science history that looks at the long duration of big changes, through quantitative methods.
Iggers G 2005 Historiography in the Twentieth Century p103
Micro history
Wants to study named individuals
Begins to posit how people thought in the past, so interested in psychological history
Seen as full of conjecture and triviality.
See again, for example, EP Thompson; George Orwell; Ken Coates; mass observation project
Microhistory also led to a wider embracing of culture as part of history…
Cultural History:
The study of past beliefs and cultural practices.
Merges microhistory’s interest in real people with the broader sweep of social history
But retains on interpretive method
Brings in issues of gender, sexuality, and race
So we have feminist history, or queer history, or post-colonial history
Brings in high and low culture, so everything from literature to fast food
Interested in language and discourse, and this shapes understanding and change.
We must study the contemporary understanding of terms such as justice; woman/man; gay/straight; family; country; patriotism.
See Richard Hoggart; Raymond Williams; Wallach Scott.
The history of everything?
1 Schools, Methods, Disciplines, Influences
T.G. Ashplant and Gerry Smyth Explorations in Cultural History
p4
Cultural History:
Can move into post-modernism, so that Foucault would argue against any fixed interpretation of history.
Keith Jenkins in particular became a proponent that all history tells us only about the present and the historian.
Fifty Key Thinkers p 171
Contemporary History:
Must be mindful between all these approaches
Does not necessarily have to pick one
Would depend on the topic and the research question
The nearness of contemporary history means that the long view of social history is difficult
But some of the methods are useful
We must be weary of wiggism – but leaders are still important
More can be interested in the particular but must speak to the general
Contemporary History:
Must be mindful between all these approaches
Does not necessarily have to pick one
Would depend on the topic and the research question
The nearness of contemporary history means that the long view of social history is difficult
But some of the methods are useful
We must be weary of wiggism – but leaders are still important
More can be interested in the particular but must speak to the general
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