History and Theory of Historiography (lecture)

Level:

Master's

CEU credits:

ECTS credits:

Academic year:

2008/2009

Semester:

Fall

Start and end dates:

10 Jul 2009

Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]:

Department of History

Instructor(s):

László Kontler

Additional information:

Representing history as a branch of cognition that has been found directly relevant to the human condition since antiquity, it highlights a number of influential and controversial ways of engaging with it. At the same time it will challenge you to engage both with these approaches, and in some cases with the ways in which they are presented in the assigned literature. Shortly, it will invite you to think historically in dialogue with some of the most outstanding practitioners of the profession, past and present. Particular emphasis will be given to the purposes of historical composition, forms of historical discourse, schemas of history, including world history and salvation history, and conceptions and techniques of historical verification. This is a lecture course, offered by members of the faculty of the Department of History and the Department of Medieval studies. For students in the Comparative History stream of the two-year program, it is combined with the seminar of the same title. The lectures address historical controversies and philosophical issues involved in the study of history. The topics presented in the lectures are underpinned by a set of readings found in the course reader, available in hard copy as well as online. The course begins with an overview of the emergence and development of historiography and of historical thought from the earliest times through to the end of the Latin, Byzantine and Arabic Middle Ages. Emphasis will be placed on universal modes, continuities and mutations of the historical craft and for the purposes of historical writing. The relationship between history and empires with universal vocations until the fourteenth century will receive particular attention. We shall then explore the incomplete demise of the “historia magistra vitae” approach in post-Renaissance times, and the equally incomplete and problematic rise – during the Enlightenment and its historicist aftermath – of history as a scientific discipline with “objective” knowledge claims. Having reviewed the resulting requirements of professionalization (the rise of the “critical and philological method”, the implications for the training of the historian, etc.), we look at the turn of historical research from political narrative, first, towards the social sciences (hallmarked by the Annales school), and then to the more recent cultural, linguistic and other inter-disciplinary “turns” in the second half of the twentieth century. Throughout, the presentation of the material is thoroughly contextualized against the socio-cultural and intellectual environment in which historical thought is taking place and historical literature is produced. This course is supplemented by the one in Historical Methodology, and the two together prepare the ground for the course on Theories and Methods in Recent Historical Studies (mandatory in the third term for two-year students in the Comparative History stream).

Learning Outcomes:

The main goal of this course is to develop a comprehensive and critical understanding of the essence of historical inquiry as an epistemological pursuit, to establish students’ awareness of (a) tradition(s) of such inquiry, and enable them to “place themselves” into these traditions. The readings represent some of the classic texts and interpretations in the history of historiopgraphy and are designed to elaborate the various topics necessary to understanding the overall patterns of historical thought.

Assessment :

Attendance at all lectures is mandatory and will be kept record of. Grading will be based on two closed book written examinations (mid-term and end-term). Both exams will test your knowledge of key facts, ideas, concepts etc. gleaned from the lectures and the readings (“quiz part”), but the main emphasis will be on the understanding of key issues and sensitivity towards historical interpretation (“mini essay part” – which may be the analysis of passages from the readings). The contribution of both exams towards the final grade will be 50 %.

COURSE SCHEDULE AND READINGS

(lectures 1-6 by A. Al-Azmeh)

1. The Purposes of the Past
Kelley, Donald R., Versions of History from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, New Haven and London, 1991, pp. 18-28, 69-88
Kramer, Lloyd and Maza, Sarah (eds.), A Companion to Western Historiography, Oxford 2002, ch. 2

Supplementary reading:
Collingwood, R. G., The Idea of History, Oxford 1946, part 1

2. Political and Imperial History
Cameron, Averil, “Remaking the Past”, in Late Antiquity. A Guide to the Postclassical World, ed. G. W. Bowersock, P. Brown and O. Grabar, Cambridge, Mass., 1999, ch. 1
Kelley, Versions of History, pp. 28-47, 89-116
Kramer and Maza, Companion, ch. 3

3. God and Ecumenical Empire -- Salvation History
Kelley, Versions of History, pp. 118-121, 142-156
Eusebius, The History of the Church, tr. G. A. Williamson, Harmondsworth 1989, pp. 14-18, 38-40, 303-322, 328-333
Kemp, Anthony, The Estrangement of the Past, New York, 1991, ch. 1
Löwith, Karl, Meaning in History, Chicago 1970, ch. X

Supplementary reading:
Eusebius’ Life of Constantine and his Tricennial Orations, available online at www.ccel.org/fathers2/
Cameron, Averil, “Eusebius of Caesarea and the Rethinking of History”, in Tria corda. Scritti in onore di Arnaldo Momigliano, ed. E. Gabba, Como 1983, pp. 71-88

4. Entry into the Middle Ages
Bloch, Marc, Feudal Society, tr. L. A. Manyon, London, 1967, vol. 1, ch. VI
Kemp, Estrangement of the Past, ch. 2
Kramer and Maza, Companion, ch. 4
Mango, Cyril, “Discontinuity with the Classical Past in Byzantium”, in Byzantium and the Classical Tradition, ed. M. Mullets and R. Scott, Birmingham 1981, pp. 48-57
Robinson, Chase, Islamic Historiography, Cambridge 2004, ch. 6, 9, 10

5. Medieval Latin Historiography – Chronicle and Universal History
Otto von Freising, The Two Cities, A Chronicle of Universal History to the Year 1146 A.D., tr. C. C. Mierow, New York, 2002: Introduction (pp. 1-79), Prologue and Dedication (pp. 87-97), Plan of the book (pp. 99-122), Prologues to the eight Books (pp. 153-154, 217-222, 270-274, 322-324, 360-361, 402-405, 453-456), and sections on Charlemagne (pp. 351-355)

Supplemetrary reading:
Tanner, Marie, The Last Descendant of Aeneas. The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor, New Haven and London 1993, ch. 2, 3 and 5

6. Medieval Arabic Historiography – Historical verification
Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History, tr. F. Rosenthal, Princeton 1967, vol. 1, pp. 3-85
Al-Azmeh, Aziz, Ibn Khaldun, Budapest 2003, ch. 1

7. “Philosophy teaching by example”: humanism and beyond (L. Kontler)
Donald R.Kelley (ed.), Versions of History from Antiquity to the Enlightenment (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991), excerpts from Bruni, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, Camden, Hotman, Bodin, Bacon, Bossuet (236-246, 284-302, 354-369, 380-397, 400-417, 425-434)
Paula Findlen, „Historical Thought in the Renaissance”, in Lloyd Kramer, Sarah Maza (eds.), A Companion to Western Historical Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 99-122.

8. Time, change and progress: Enlightenment histories (L. Kontler)
Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV and Other Selected Writings (New York, 1963), 122-127, 312-313, 318-327, 331-333.
William Robertson, “A View of the Progress of Society in Europe”, in The History of the Reign of Emperor Charles V (1769), in Works (London, 1835), 308-335.
Edward Gibbon, “An Address”, in Donald R.Kelley (ed.), Versions of History from Antiquity to the Enlightenment (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991), 461-471.
Edward Gibbon, “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West”, in idem., The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London and New York: Frederick Warne, n.d.), vol. II. 575-582.
Johnson Kent Wright, “Historical Thought in the Era of the Enlightenment”, in Lloyd Kramer, Sarah Maza (eds.), A Companion to Western Historical Thought (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 123-142.

9. Whiggism, Romanticism, historicism (L. Kontler)
Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), 275-295.
Jules Michelet, History of the French Revolution (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 161-180.
“The Idea of Universal History: Leopold von Ranke”, in Fritz Stern, Varieties of History. From Voltaire to the Present (New York: Meridian Books, 1963) 53-62.
Leopold von Ranke, Author’s Preface, in Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg and History of Prussia (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), v-x.
Jakob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (London: Penguin, 1990), 99-119, 312-323.
Ernst Breisach, Historiography Ancient, Medieval and Modern (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 238-255.
Harry Liebersohn, “German Historical Writing from Ranke to Weber: The Primacy of Politics”, in Kramer, Maza (eds.), Companion, 166-184

10. The Annales school (Jacek Kochanowicz)
Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), 114-156.
Fernand Braudel, “History and the Social Sciences: The Longe Durée,” in Fernand Braudel, On History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 25-54.
R. Forster, “Achievements of the Annales School,” Journal of Economic History, XXXVIII (1978), 58-76.
Krzysztof Pomian, “Impact of the Annales School in Eastern Europe,” Review, I, 3/4, Winter/Spring 1978, 101-118.
Recommended (not in the reader):
Peter Burke, The French Historical Revolution: the Annales School, 1929-89, Oxford: Polity Press, 1990.
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, London: Harper Collins, 1992, part II, chapter I, section 3 [on the possibility of building a model of Mediterranean economy]; or chapter VI [Civilizations].
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The Peasants of Languedoc, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1976, „Conclusions.”

11. History as Cultural Representation: From Interpretive History to New Historicism (Endre György Szõnyi)
Clifford Geertz: "The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man". In Kiernan Ryan ed., New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. A Reader (London: Arnold, 1996), 5-11.
Roger Chartier: "Texts, Printings, Readings". In Lynn Hunt ed., The New Cultural History (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1989), 154-76.
Laurenz Volkmann: "Reconstructing the Usable Past: The New Historicism and History". In
Rüdiger Ahrens ed., Why Literature Matters (Heidelberg: Winter, 1996), 325-45.

12. “Coming to Terms with the Past” (István Rév)
W. G. Sebald, “Air War and Literature (Zurich lectures)” in idem., On the Natural History of Destruction (New York: Random House, 2003), 1-104 (these are very small pages).
W. G. Sebald, Emigrants (Chapter 2: Paul Bereyter)
Saul Friedlander: ‘History, Memory, and the Historian: Facing the Shoah’ in M. S. Roth and Ch. Salas (eds.) Disturbing Remains: Memory, History, and Crisis in the Twentieth Century (L.A. Getty, 2001)
Ian Hacking: Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory (Princeton, 1995), chapters 14 (Sciences of Memory) and 15 (Memory-Politics)