At the same time, it is a ‘story’, in that it is an interpretation, placing those ‘facts’ within a wider framework or narrative.” “…history is ‘true’ in that it must agree with the evidence, the facts that it calls upon or else it must show why those ‘facts’ are wrong, and need reworking. He asserts that history is above all else an argument: between historians, between past and present, between accounts of what actually happened, and what is going to happen next.Īt the end of Chapter 1, Arnold provides an interesting definition of history as “true stories”. For example, he highlights that we cannot tell every story from the past, but only some of them, and so, history is made up only of those things that caught up our attention, and we are often caught up with bundles of interests, morals, ethics, philosophies, and ideas on how the world works. He then explores how past events - gets processed into becoming - a history, and the subjectivity that surrounds that process. He distinguishes between ‘past events’, historiography (“the process of writing history”) and history (“the end result of that process”). Arnold breaks these questions down, by recounting stories of the pasts, and exploring how history gets to be written.Īrnold started the book examining what history is. “History: A Very Short Introduction” by John H. These are often questions we ask ourselves when we talk about history, of course, besides “ why the hell am I obliged to memorize these random dates and names in school”. “ Why are there different accounts of historical events?”
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