WHAT IS HISTORY? Class 11th

 Class 11th History

WHAT IS HISTORY?

Right from the origin of the idea, history has been explained by philosophers in various ways. Beginning with Greeks like Dionysius of Halicarnassus (40-8 BC) who defined History as philosophy teaching by examples. It was these Greeks particularly Ionians who laid the foundation of History writing. The Greek word ‘Historia' meant learning or collection of information obtained as a result of an inquiry. Learning by the inquiry past of mankind developed into discipline by the ancient Greek historians- Herodotus and Thucydides.

Latin ‘Istoria’, French ‘Histoire', English ‘History' originally meant inquiry, investigation and research, and not a data accumulated thereby. Similarly, words   like   German "Geschichute" stood for an event, Arabic word ‘Tarikh’  for dates and the Sanskrit word ‘Itihasa’ for history.

Oxford Talking Dictionary defines history as "the continuous methodical record of important or public events especially those connected with a particular country, individual, region, etc". Greek Historian Herodotus is popularly known as the Father of History.

DEFINITIONS OF HISTORY BY HISTORIANS

1. Thomas Carlyle describes history as “Biography of great men”.

2. E. H. Carr defines “History is a Continuous process of interaction between historian and facts”. It’s also ‘an Unending dialogue between the present and the past’. He further says, “The past is intelligible to us only in the light of the present and we can fully understand the present only in the light of the past.”

3. Eric Hobsbawm “In theory the past- all the past, anything and everything that has happened to date - constitute history.”

4. Sir Francis Bacon said, “History is a discipline that makes men wise.”

5. Trevelyan, "History is a Storehouse in which all subjects dwell."

6. Sir Walter Raleigh, "The end and scope of history are to teach us by the example of times past such wisdom as may guide our desires and activities."

7. Ernest Barnheim, “History is a science that investigates and presents in their context of psycho-physical causality the facts determined by the space and time of the evolution of men in their individual as well as typical and collective activity as social beings.”

8. be defined as "A which have molded the destiny of mankind".

Thus, to enable man to understand the society of the past and to increase his mastery over the society of the present is the dual function of history.

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