What is History, Meaning by E H Carr, Scope, Importance, History-Art or Science.

1. WHAT IS HISTORY
• Meaning and Definition
• What is History? By E H Carr
• Nature
• Scope and Importance
• History-a Science or anArt

2. INTRODUCTION
 History is the study of life in society in the past, in all its aspect, in relation to present
developments and future hopes. It is the story of man in time, an inquiry into the past based on
evidence. Indeed, evidence is the raw material of history teaching and learning.
 It is an Inquiry into what happened in the past, when it happened, and how it happened. It is an
inquiry into the inevitable changes in human affairs in the past and the ways these changes
affect, influence or determine the patterns of life in the society. History is, or should be an
attempt to re-think the past.
 History aims at helping us to understand the present existing social, political, religious and
economic conditions of the people. Without the knowledge of history we cannot have the
background of our religion, customs institutions, administration and so on.
 History helps us to explain the present, to analyze it and to trace its course. Cause and effect
relationship between the past and the present is lively presented in the history. History thus
helps us to understand the present day problems both at the national and international level
accurately and objectively.

3. CONCEPT OF HISTORY
 History is the analysis and interpretation of the human past enabling us to study
continuity and changes that are taking place over time. It is an act of both
investigation and imagination that seeks to explain how people have changed over
time.
 Historians use all forms of evidence to examine, interpret, revisit, and reinterpret the
past. These include not just written documents, but also oral communication and
objects such as buildings, artifacts, photographs, and paintings.
 Historians are trained in the methods of discovering and evaluating these sources and
the challenging task of making historical sense out of them. History is a means to
understand the past and present.
 The different interpretations of the past allow us to see the present differently and
therefore imagine—and work towards—different futures.

4. DEFINING HISTORY
 The origin of the word History is associated with the Greek word ‘Historia’ which means
‘information’ or ‘an enquiry designed to elicit truth’.
 The popular meaning of the word ‘History; is “a narrative of recording or inquiry of past
events of men in society.”
 History is the knowledge relating to the development in science, in arts, in politics, in war,
in religion and in law with human efforts in a particular country.
 The quest about knowing the past is known as history. History is the branch of knowledge
dealing with past events, political, social, economic, of a country, continent, or the world.
 The development of History started with the ancient Greek Historians such as Herodotus
andThucydides.
 Herodotus popularly known as the father of History wrote about the Greko-Persian Wars.
This contains a mine of information including those relating to the ancient Egyptians and
Persians.
 Thucydides developed this subject on scientific lines. He wrote the Peloponnesian War on
the basis of evidence and showed relationship between causes and effects or results.

5. WHAT IS HISTORY ? BY E.H CARR
 E. H. Carr in 1961 delivered a series of six lectures at Cambridge University
examining the question “What is history?” the title by which it was later published.
 The book discussed history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality,
individuals and society and moral judgements in history.
 It discussed the nature of historiography in six sections; however, the content of
these chapters can be simplified under three primary areas which embody Carr’s
main arguments:
(1)The influence of historians on history
(2)The nature of historical facts
(3)The subject matter of history

6. THE INFLUENCE OF HISTORIANS ON HISTORY
 E. H Carr defines history as “a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his
facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past”.
 This dialog is accomplished through historians as such he concludes, “History… [is] both the
inquiry conducted by the historian and the facts of the past into which he enquires”.
 He, however, argues that historians are susceptible to bias since every person is born into a
society and invariably they are moulded by it through its environment and language as such
their interpretation of history will be subjective to meet the criteria of their own culture.
 Hence, Carr describes the historian as “the conscious or unconscious spokesman of the society
to which he belongs.” Consequently, it is argued history is perceived through the environment
in which the historian lives.
 The author uses various works by historians, such as Mommsen and Meineckes, to illustrate
how historians change their own views of history due to the changing of their society. For
example, Meineckes, from 1907 to 1946, went from championing German nationalism to
showing conflict then distress and finally declaring that history was at the mercy of chance.

7. THE NATURE OF HISTORICAL FACTS
 In the nineteenth century, the emphasiswas on collecting facts and then drawing
conclusions from them.This was known as the ‘empiricist tradition.’ According to the
empiricist tradition, there were certain basic facts which are the same for all historians and
form the backbone of history.
 Carr differs from his predecessors in his definition of what constitutes as historical facts.
He claims in his book that facts only become historical facts when the historian selects it
to be as such. He argues that it is the historian who dictates what constitutes history.
 Since Carr believes historians to be a product of their own environment and society, it
follows that historical facts selected by such individuals will be biased as they will
invariably be chosen to meet their society’s criteria for what constitutes significant.
 Consequently, Carr concludes that history in effect is determined by historian and as such
it is the reflection of the historian’s time and environment.

8.  Carr illustrates his point by citing how historians have concentrated only on Caesar’s crossing of
the Rubicon River whilst neglecting the many others who have crossed it prior to Caesar as well
as after him.
 According to E. H Carr, therefore, an element of interpretation enters into every fact of history.
The historian is necessarily selective
 Carr then gives the example of ancient Greece. Our picture of Greece in the fifth century BC is
defective not primarily because so many of the bits have been accidentally lost, but because it is,
by and large, the picture formed by a tiny group of people in the city of Athens. We know a lot
about what fifth century Greece looked like to an Athenian citizen but hardly anything about
what it looked like to a Spartan, a Corinthian, or a Theban – not to mention a Persian, or a slave,
or other non-citizen residents inAthens.
 Our picture has been preselected and predetermined for us, not so much by accident as by
people who were consciously or unconsciously imbued with a particular view and thought the
facts which supported that view worth preserving.

THE NATURE OF HISTORICAL FACTS

9. THE SUBJECT MATTER OF HISTORY
 While earlier historians attributed much of the subject of history to ‘great men’ Carr has
taken a standpoint which is in contrast to them in this respect.
 He refutes the assumption that one individual can affect an entire event and concludes
that, “The view I would hope to discourage is the view which places great men outside
history and sees them imposing themselves on history in virtue of their greatness”.
 He attributes their greatness to the support of the masses and describes them as the
“representative of existing forces”. Hence, Carr advocates that it is the environment or
more specifically the political relations between states which should be the concern of
historians.
 Consequently, as according to Carr, since people did not form into political
organisations in the modern sense until the last two centuries he considers the history
of the masses prior to the 1800s as insignificant and ‘unsound’.

10. NATURE OF HISTORY
1. A study of the present in the light of the past: The present has evolved out of
the past. Modern history enables us to understand how society has come to its
present form so that one may intelligently interpret the sequence of events.
The causal relationships between the selected happenings are unearthed that
help in revealing the nature of happenings and framing of general laws.
2. History is the study of man: History deals with man’s struggle through the
ages. History is not static. By selecting “innumerable biographies” and
presenting their lives in the appropriate social context and the ideas in the
human context, we understand the sweep of events. It traces the fascinating
story of how man has developed through the ages, how man has studied to use
and control his environment and how the present institutions have grown out
of the past

11. NATURE OF HISTORY
3. History is concerned with man in time: It deals with a series of events and each
event occurs at a given point in time. Human history, in fact, is the process of
human development in time. It is time which affords a perspective to events and
lends a charm that brightens up the past.
4. History is concerned with man in space: The interaction of man on environment
and vice versa is a dynamic one. History describes about nations and human
activities in the context of their physical and geographical environment. Out of this
arise the varied trends in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres of
man’s activities and achievements.
5. Objective record of happenings: Every precaution is taken to base the data on
original sources and make them free from subjective interpretation. It helps in clear
understanding of the past and enables us to take well informed decisions.

12. NATURE OF HISTORY
6. Multisided: All aspects of the life of a social group are closely interrelated and
historical happenings cover all these aspects of life, not limited only to the political
aspect that had so long dominated history.
7. History is a dialogue between the events of the past and progressively emerging
future ends. The historian’s interpretation of the past, his selection of the significant
and the relevant events, evolves with the progressive emergence of new goals. The
general laws regulating historical happenings may not be considered enough;
attempts have to be made to predict future happenings on the basis of the laws.
8. Not only narration but also analysis: The selected happenings are not merely
narrated; the causal relationships between them are properly unearthed. The
tracing of these relationships lead to the development of general laws that are also
compared and contrasted with similar happenings in other social groups to improve
the reliability and validity of these laws

13. NATURE OF HISTORY
9. Continuity and coherence are the necessary requisites of history: History carries
the burden of human progress as it is passed down from generation to generation,
from society to society, justifying the essence of continuity.
10. Relevant: In the study of history only those events are included which are
relevant to the understanding of the present life.
11. Comprehensiveness: According to modern concept, history is not confined to
one period or country or nation. It also deals with all aspects of human life-political,
social, economic, religious, literary, aesthetic and physical, giving a clear sense of
world unity and world citizenship.

14. SCOPE OF HISTORY
 The scope of History is vast; it is the story of man in relation to totality of his behavior. The
scope of history means the breadth, comprehensiveness, variety and extent of learning
experiences, provided by the study.
 History which was only limited to a local saga, has during the course of century become
universal history of mankind, depicting man’s achievements in every field of life-political,
economic, social, cultural, scientific, technological, religious and artistic etc., and at various
levels-local, regional, national, and international.
 It starts with the past; makes present its sheet-anchor and points to the future. Events like
wars, revolutions, rise and fall of empires, fortunes and misfortunes of great empire builders as
well as the masses in general are all the subject matter of history.
 History is a comprehensive subject and includes-History of Geography, History of Art, History
of Culture, History of Literature, History of Civilization, History of Religion, History of
Mathematics, History of Physics, History of Chemistry, History of Education, History of
Biology, History of Atom, History of Philosophy-in fact history of any and every social, physical
and natural science we are interested in.
 History today has become an all-embracing, comprehensive subject with almost limitless
extent.

15. SCOPE OF HISTORY
 The scope of history includes both human and nature. Though history excludes from its scope the
study of nature and confines its attention to the story of man’s evolution from humble beginnings to
complex achievements, nature also comes within the scope of history if it has anything to do with
man. For, the rivers, hills, lakes, mountains and seas figure greatly in history in the context of
their shaping man’s destiny.
 The scope of history includes all activities of human. The historian must look beyond government to
people, beyond laws to legends, beyond religion to folklore and the arts, and he must study every
phenomenon, whether intellectual, political, social, philosophical,material, moral or emotional
relation to man in society. History has to consider all humanachievements in all their aspects such as
science, technology, discoveries, inventions andadventures. But primarily the social life of man, his
political achievements, his culturalattainments, his constitutional management and his economic
endeavours form the mainscope of history, as it is through the medium of state and society that man
finds his identity.Further, it was always the great man who had become the centre of attraction even
though thecommon men were the one who played the vital role in assisting the great man to
achievefame. Now, the common man and his life is attracting the attention of the historian, who had
so long neglected the study of this essential element.

16. SCOPE OF HISTORY
 The scope of history includes the study of economic and social change which is gaining greater
prominence in recent year. In communist countries the entire orientation is on Marxist-
dialecticism. The labour movement, the class struggle, inland and international trade,arts, crafts,
industry, business, commerce, agriculture, peasant movement and so on are receiving increasing
attention. Likewise social reforms, caste and class distinctions, family life, position of women,
customs, manners, and way of life are exciting the interest of historians.
 Anthropology has also excited the interest of the historians and much useful work has been
done in this field by scholars who have traced historically the customs and manners of the
aborigines; social stratification of small communities who are a little higher up than the aborigines
has been greatly facilitated by the availability of modern sophisticated techniques.
 Further the scope of history has been enlarged from objective empiricism to historicism. Objective
empiricism means the establishment of facts as they really were. It is sometime like presenting a
photographic copy of how things really existed in the past. Historicism means tracing the growth
and development of an event from its early stages. It is like a genetic process which takes into
account evolutionary trends and how progress has been made from age to age.

17. IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY
 History builds a better understanding of the world.
 History helps us understand humanity
 History can teach us to be better citizens
 History can help the world make better decisions
 Studying history can improve critical thinking
 History shapes cultural (and national) identity
 History can facilitate empathy
 It gives us understanding of our society and shows us effects of change in the society.
 It provides us a sense of identity and preserving ancient stories to inspire someone to
succeed
 It provides understanding needed for people to live in harmony

19. HISTORY-A SCIENCE OR AN ART
 Opinions are very much divided on the question whether history is a science or an
art. History is a science in the sense that it pursues its own techniques to establish
and interpret facts.
 Like other natural sciences such as the Physics and Chemistry uses various
methods of enquiry such as observation, classification, experiment and
formulation of hypothesis and analysis of evidence before interpreting and
reconstructing the past.
 History also follows the scientific method of enquiry to find out the truth. Though
historian uses scientific techniques, experiment is impossible since history deals
with events that have already happened and cannot be repeated.

20. ARGUMENTS AGAINST HISTORY AS A
SCIENCE
1. No forecasting: A historian cannot arrive at general principles or laws which may enable
him to predict with certainty the occurrence of like events, under given conditions. A
scientist on the other hand, looks at knowledge from a universal angle and arrives at certain
generalizations that help him to control the present and predict the future.
2. Complex: The facts of history are very complicated and seldom repeat in the real sense of
the term.
3. Varied: The underlying facts of history have wide scope. They are so varied that they can
seldom be uniform.
4. No observation and experimentation: Historical data are not available for observation
and experimentation.
5. No dependable data: Historical data are the products of human thoughts and action
which are constantly changing. They therefore cannot provide dependable data for the
formation of general principles and laws.

21. HISTORY IS BOTH A SCIENCE AND AN ART
 History is a unique subject possessing the potentialities of both a science and an art. It
does the enquiry after truth, thus history is a science and is on scientific basis.
 It is also based on the narrative account of the past; thus it is an art or a piece of literature.
 Physical and natural sciences are impersonal, impartial and capable of experimentation.
Whereas absolute impartiality is not possible in history because the historian is a narrator
and he looks at the past from a certain point of view.
 History cannot remain at the level of knowing only. The construction and reconstruction of
the past are inevitable parts of history. Like the work of art, its wholeness, harmony and
truth are inseparable from a concrete and vivid appreciation of its parts.
 History, in fact, is a social science and an art. In that lie its flexibility, its variety and
excitement