History is written by the victors...

 

One goal throughout this semester was to gain a deeper understanding for the questions:

  1. What is history anyways?
  2. And how do we do historical work?

To reveal our progress we have been asked at the start and at the end of the semester. Here my answers:

Before:

“History is a question of interpretation that is bound to the interpreter. His or her work therefore depends on the social, personal and historical background.”

After:

Short Version

“History is the flexible product of the person who interprets the data. The outcome depends on the interpreter’s person and the texts/items he or she uses for the interpretation. Therefore historical work should be interdisciplinary, intercultural, and constantly revised.”

Long Version

“Historical text and depictions are always a question of interpretation.

It is important to compare several sources to gain a more and more diverse picture of events. Crucial is also to know who the authors of sources are in order to determine their social and psychological background, as well as their historic environment and any possible political or personal motivation. In addition to that, the suspected intended audience also plays a major role. All these broad items which can be further fragmented are significant influential factors and have to be taken into consideration.  Primary sources are crucial in the historical work since secondary sources are only another person’s interpretation of the primary source.

It is important to take a holistic approach to historical work which means taking accounts from different genders, cultures and social stands into consideration, analysing as many diverse sources as possible (aka. written and oral accounts, pictures, architecture, biological and environmental fields) and acknowledging the fluidity and interdependence of past, present and future. Additionally, the historian has to be aware of his own bias, created by his psychological, social, political and cultural and environmental background that will influence his or her interpretation. One has to know that his/her opinion is always only just one possible interpretation.

Therefore, a historian has to be tolerant to other views and understands that it is essential to constantly revision of history.”