HIS 2213 Learning Unit One Lecture

1. Learning Unit #01 Lecture:
Why study history?
“What is History?”

2. Part One:
Defining History & Explaining
What Historians Do
2

3. What is history?
• NOT the study of “the past” BUT the
study of surviving evidence and
sources about the past; the account of
change over time.
• Part social science, BUT also like the
humanities, BECAUSE:
• It’s all about interpretation & narrative
(i.e., storytelling).
• It’s also about ‘facts,’ BUT facts are
made of words, and words can be
manipulated, distorted, and shaped to
their author’s purpose.

4. What do historians do?
Analyze & interpret
evidence:
Primary Sources – the
actual records that have
survived from the past,
including all traces left by
humans—their ideas, social
customs, institutions,
languages, literatures,
material products, & even
their physical remains.
Primary sources always
date from the time period
being studied & are
frequently eyewitness
accounts left by persons
directly involved in the
historical event.

5. Secondary
Sources --
Interpretations
of primary
sources by
historians
having an
open-ended
conversation
with each
other.
Our textbook contains a few
primary sources (in the
“Individual Voices” sections
that conclude each chapter),
but most of it is a secondary
source written by a committee
of historians.

6. Objectivity:
The Impossible Ideal?
In the “hard sciences,” such as
chemistry & physics, the results of
lab experiments can be
independently confirmed &
duplicated again & again. These
scientists have an easier task
maintaining an impartial, unbiased,
objective attitude about their work
b/c in their areas of study outcomes
can be reliably predicted. BUT
social scientists (psychologists,
anthropologists, historians, etc.)
study human behavior, which often
seems irrational & is affected by
many random variables. History is not an exact science. Moreover, social
scientists themselves are humans trying to make sense of human behavior &
frequently their own societies. Everyone carries around “intellectual baggage”--
i.e., persistent attachments to unexamined beliefs/assumptions that impede our
seeing things clearly--but the historian must judge the past on its own terms &
the merits of the evidence, leaving his/her own biases out of it.

7. It is not the social
scientist’s job to
be a missionary or
a patriot but to
study the subject
on its terms,
following the
evidence wherever
it leads.
Ethnocentrism--an emotional attitude
that regards one’s own group or
culture as superior & is
contemptuous of other groups &
cultures is certainly one obstacle to
objectivity.

8. Presentism—
faulty way of
interpreting history
that attempts to
apply present-day
ideas, standards,
attitudes, & morals
to historical figures Lewis Carroll
took photos
& events. of little girls
in the 1800s,
Presentism can but does that
mean he was
be a pitfall for all a closet
pedophile?
students of (See “LU1 Visual
Sources Quiz,”
history. Questions 1&2.)

9. Part Two:
Guiding Principles of Social
Sciences in the late 20th-early
21st centuries
9

10. 1. Human Minds are “Blank Slates”
The 17th-century English
philosopher John Locke
compared the human mind
to a sheet of “white
paper” (others have since
termed it a “blank slate”)
upon which EXPERIENCES
are then inscribed. We are
not born with pre-existing,
innate ideas about anything.
Our experiences, which
begin in the womb, add up
to form each of our
individual personalities/
identities. 10

11. 2. Our Worldviews are “Socially
Constructed”
Much of what we Many social
assume to be “natural” scientists
explain not
& refer to as “universal just all human
customs &
human nature” is social
actually invented or arrangements
as the product
“socially constructed.” of
You are who you are b/c socialization,
but also the
of the surrounding emotions
culture into which you people are
permitted to
were socialized as a express; our
child. Change the ideas about
race, kinship,
experiences & the gender, illness
& even nature.
person can change.

12. 3. Cultures are Not Superior or
Inferior to Each Other, Just Different
What is culture? In the sense
that social scientists use the
term, culture means all
patterns of human behavior
& all products of human
work & thought (arts, beliefs,
institutions, etc.) that are
spread by language & other
forms of social expression.
Differences among human “races” & ethnic groups come not from
their physical biology but from their cultures. All groups of humans
are endowed with the same basic mental abilities & possess equal
potential. Cultural relativism is the idea that because all cultures
result from particular historical circumstances, each is equally valid
in the context of its respective society, time, & place. 12

13. THEREFORE:
According to Feral
Child
Social Scientists,
“NURTURE”
(Environmental
Determinism)
Trumps
“NATURE”
(Biological
Determinism). 13

14. HOWEVER:
Environmental determinism
cannot explain everything about
human behavior. What accounts
for the remarkable similarities in
the life experiences of twins,
particularly those separated-at-
birth & reared far apart in
different settings? What explains
human sexual orientation? If
some underlying universal
human nature does not exist,
why do ALL societies share so
many commonalities, such as
religion, greed, war, & prescribed
gender roles? Biology offers
important insights to these
questions. So, while
environment & experience
would still be the most
important determinants,
biology should not be ignored. 14

15. Part Three:
Why Study History?
15

16. 1. How & What We Remember
Matters
A society’s identity is the product of the myriad
individuals, forces, & events that constitute its
past. History, the study of the past, is society’s
collective memory. Without that collective
memory, society would be as rootless & adrift
as an individual with amnesia. Of the many
legitimate reasons for studying history, this is
one of the most compelling. Individually &
collectively what we are is the product of what
we have been. In the words of philosopher
George Santayana, “A country without a
memory is a country of madmen.”

17. 2. To Excite & Inflame Citizens to
Action Large-scale social
movements always
begin with small
groups of informed
& engaged citizen-
activists. In a
democracy,
uninformed, non-
voting citizens have
essentially
abandoned their
civic responsibility
to the community.
We might not think
change was
possible if we did
not know from
history how others
have stopped
injustices in the
past. 17

18. 3. Self-Improvement through
Cultural Literacy
There are some things
a college-educated
person simply ought
to know. Knowledge
of factoids & trivia,
however, is less
important than
becoming familiar
with how the world
works (& has worked)
& how things came to
be the way they are.

19. People engaged with
the macro-world, who
have some wider
perspective, experience,
& public knowledge
interest me.
People too absorbed with
their micro-world &
limited personal
experiences bore me.

20. 4.
Some habits/skills that historians value & so
should you. ALWAYS:
• distrust information that cannot be
independently verified;
• remain skeptical; don’t attach yourself
to an idea simply because you read it
on the Internet or heard it from
someone you know;
• remember that the simplest
explanation (i.e., the one that makes
the fewest new assumptions) is the
best explanation. 20

21. Part Four:
American Exceptionalism?
21

22. American Exceptionalism
The belief that the USA
has a special, unique
history & destiny that
sets it apart from other
nations & exempts it
from the cycles of
history & the patterns
of development &
decline experienced by
other countries; history
somehow does not
apply to the USA.

23. History is like a game
of dice (“shooting craps”).

24. Maybe the dice
were not
“loaded” at the
beginning of the
game, but by this
late stage, they
have become so.
Future outcomes
can only arise from
past outcomes;
history is full of
winners & losers.
America was once thought of as, “The best poor man’s country in the world,”
because of the opportunities available here for ordinary people. In the 21st
century, however, statistics show that for the first time in U.S. history, it can be
said that greater upward social mobility existed for Americans in the past than
in the present. Simply working hard, even with a college degree, no longer
guarantees you will attain a high living standard.

25. So, how should we assess the United States & the varied experiences of
diverse Americans? Historian Seymour Martin Lipset offers a reasonable
answer: “...It is impossible to understand a country without seeing how it
varies from others. Those who know only one country know no country.”
Our perspective, therefore, should be a comparative one:
How has the USA’s experience been similar to or different
from other economically developed countries?
25

26. FOR EXAMPLE:
The USA is not the first
country to invade Iraq &
Afghanistan
& get bogged down in Southwest
Asia/the Middle East. Who might
you guess
authored the quotations on the
next slide?

27. “We come here [to Iraq]
“It is not for the
not as conquerors, but as benefit of the
liberators to free you from people of [Iraq]
generations of tyranny.” that it should
be governed so
as to enable
them to
develop this
“The
land which has
violence in
Baghdad been withered
can be and shriveled
blamed on up by
local oppression.
political What would
agitation
happen if we
which
originated withdrew? We
outside will not
Iraq....” abandon Iraq
to anarchy and
“I imagine that the view held by many people about confusion.”
[Iraq] is that the local inhabitants will welcome us
because we have saved them…, and that the
country only needs developing to repay a large
expenditure of [our nation’s] lives and money....”

28. If you named anyone
from President George
W. Bush’s Administration,
you were incorrect. All
those quotations were
spoken by British
political & military
leaders--in
the 1920s! When the
USA invaded Iraq in
2003, American political
leaders had the attitude
that, quote, ''We're an
empire now, & when we
act, we create our own
reality”--as if Iraq’s
history did not apply to
the USA. & Beyond

29. The idea of American
exceptionalism cuts both ways.
•Positives:
-- For almost a century, the
United States was the only
successful republic in the world.
-- In the U.S. political system,
pluralism & egalitarianism have
become enshrined as core
ideals.

30. American Exceptionalism
PLURALISM EGALITARIANISM
A framework of The moral doctrine
interaction in which which holds that
groups show equality ought to prevail
sufficient respect & throughout society. One
tolerance of each can best understand
other, that they various types of
fruitfully coexist & egalitarianism by asking
interact without
"Who is supposed to be
conflict or
assimilation. equal?" & "In what
respect are they
supposed to be equal?"

31. Other ‘Exceptional’ Traits of
USA
• Most sectarian &
religious country
in the West.
• Most
‘educated’ (at
some formal
level) population
in the world (in
terms of %).

32. ‘Exceptional’ Negative Traits
• History/legacy of racialized slavery in America.
– The USA’s national wound;
• Ecology.
– The myth of a ‘people of plenty’; Americans
today make up 3% of the world’s population but
consume 25% of the world’s resources;
• Isolation
– The lack of cross-cultural interest breeds a
hyper-ethnocentrism among Americans;
• Highest crime rate
– most people in prison (per capita)
– 75% of all serial killers have been Americans;
• Lowest voter turnout among democratic countries;
• Worst health care coverage among the world’s
industrialized democracies.