HISTORICAL METHOD

Edi t ed by
Cenon R. Agbayani, Jr., LPT, Ph.D.
Associ at e Prof essor

Ori gi nal PPT by:

Ma. Fiorina Orillos-Juan, Ph.D.
Department of History, De la Salle University Manila
SOURCE: GOTTSCHALK, LOUIS, (1 969).
UNDERSTANDING HISTORY: A PRIMER OF HISTORICAL METHOD, NEW YORK, A. A. KNOFF
 “Subjectivity” of History

The facts of history are derived from testimony. They cannot be seen, felt, tasted,
heard, or smelled.
They exist only in the observer's or historian's mind and thus may be called
"subjective".

The word "subjective" has also come to mean “illusory” or "based upon
personal considerations," and hence either "untrue" or "biased."

The word subjective is not used here to imply disparagement of any sort, but it
does imply the necessity for the application of special kinds of safeguards
against error.
 ArtifactsasSources of History

Artifacts, are the results of events; documents are results or the records of
events. Whether artifacts or documents, they are raw materials out of which
history may be written.

The historian aims at being interpretative (explaining why and how things
happened and were interrelated) as well as descriptive (telling what happened,
when and where, and who took part).

A historical context can be given to them only if they can be placed in a human
setting. Without further evidence the human context of these artifacts can
never be recaptured with any degree of certainty.
 Historical Knowledge Limited by Incompleteness of theRecords

“Only a part of what was observed in the past was

remembered by those who observed it; only a part of
what was remembered was recorded; only a part of what
was recorded has survived; only a part of what has
survived has come to the historian’s attention. Only a
part of what is credible has been grasped, and only a
part of what has been grasped can be expounded or
narrated by the historian.”
 Historical Knowledge Limited by Incompleteness of theRecords

The historian has an external object to study it is not the

perished history that actually happened (history-as-actuality)
but the surviving records of what happened (history-as-
record).
Hs
itory canbetoldonly fromhistory-as-record; andhistory as
told (spoken-or-written-history) is only the historians
expressed part of the understood part of the credible part of
thediscoveredpart of history-as-record.
 History asthe Subjective Process of Re-creation

The historian must do what he can to restore the total-

past of mankind in terms of his own experience.
Lesson from his experience: (1) that yesterday was
different from today in some ways as well as the same
as today in others, and (2) that his own experience is
both like and unlike other men’s.

The historian must try to get as close an approximation

to the truth about the past.
 The Historian

the historian is many times removed

(if you are studying Dagohoy rebellion, then you are 276 years away
from the event) from the events under
investigation

historians rely on surviving records

 The Historian
Fallible and capable of error
Biases - personal, political, religious, personal
idiosyncracies ( unique personality traits or mannerisms)
Each has his own frame of reference – a set of
interlocking values, loyalties, assumptions,
interests and principles of action
 History isnot fiction

Historical accounts must be

based on all available relevant
evidence
A version of the past that can’t be
supported by evidence is
worthless
 Are you familiar with the movie Letters to Juliet? What was the work of
Sophie? How is it related with The Kiss?

Letters to Juliet is a 2010 American romantic George Mendonsa, the young sailor
comedy-drama film starring Amanda Seyfried, and a dental assistant Greta Friedman. in one of the
Christopher Egan, most iconic photos The Kiss from the end of World
https://w.tt/3jYt8Fd War II. https://bit.ly/32b58J3
Anastasia is an American animated film released by Fox Animation
Studios, and United International Pictures in 1997. The film was Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
loosely based on the historic tragedy of the Execution of the was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the
Romanov Family, and the possibility of there being a lone survivor, last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife,
the youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia. Tsarina Alexandra
https://bit.ly/32bv8UL Feodorovna. https://bit.ly/3bLJSN5
 What isHistorical Method

Agreed ground rules for

researching and writing academic
research or professional history.

Core protocols historians use for

handling sources.
 What isHistorical Method
The process of critically examining and analyzing the
records and survivals of the past is here called historical
method. The imaginative reconstruction of the: past from
the data derived by that process is called historiography
(the writing of history).
The historian must be sure that his records really come
from the past and are in fact what they seem to be and
that his imagination is directed toward re-creation and not
creation. These limits distinguish history from fiction,
poetry, drama, and fantasy.
 What isHistorical Method

Historians have to base their accounts on source

materials.
Historians need to be able to locate and organize
the relevant sources on which they will base
their account.
Historians have to verify sources, to date them,
locate their place of origin and identify their
intended functions.
 Historical Method

The process of critically

examining and analyzing the
records and survivals of the past.
(1) the selection of a subject for investigation;
(2) the collection of probable sources of information( on that subject;
(3) the examination of those sources for genuineness (either in whole or in part); and
(4) the extraction of credible particulars from the sources (or parts of sources) prove
genuine.
 Imagination inHistoriography

The historian is not permitted to imagine things that could

not reasonably have happened. But he is frequently
required to imagine things that must have happened.
 What isHistorical Criticism

In order for a source to be used

as evidence in history, basic
matters about its form and
content must be settled.
1. External Criticism
2. Internal Criticism
What is External Criticism?

The problem of authenticity

To spot fabricated, forged, faked
documents
To distinguish a hoax or misrepresentation
 Test of Authenticity
1. Determine the date of the document
to see whether they are anachronistic:
(belonging to a period other than that being portrayed, a chronological misplacing of persons, events,
objects, or customs in regard to each other.)
(ex, paper was rare in Europe before the fifteenth century, and printing was unknown; pencils did not exist there
before the sixteenth century; typewriting was not invented until the nineteenth century; and India paper came only
at the end of that century.)

2. Determine the author

e.g. handwriting, signature, seal
 Test of Authenticity
3. Anachronistic style
e.g. idiom, ortography (a set of conventions for writing a
language), punctuation
4. Anachronistic reference to events
e.g. too early, too late, too remote,
dating of a document at a time when the alleged writer could not possibly
have been at the place designated (the alibi)
5. Provenance or custody
creates a presumption of its genuineness.
 Test of Authenticity

6. Semantics is the linguistic and philosophical study

of meaning in language

7. Hermeneutics
- the science of interpretation, especially of the Scriptures.
-determining ambiguities
 What is Internal Criticism?
The Problemof Credibility
A historical "fact" is defined as a particular derived directly or
indirectly from historical documents and regarded as credible after
careful testing in accordance with the canons of historical method.
Relevant particulars in the document - is it credible?
Verisimilar - as close as what really happened from a critical
examination of best available sources.
- describes something that appears to be true or real but
may not be.
 Test of Credibility

1. Identification of the author

e.g. to determine his reliability; mental processes, personal attitudes

2. Determination of the approximate date

e.g. handwriting, signature, seal

3. Ability to tell the truth

e.g. nearness to the event, competence of witness, degree of attention

4. Willingness to tell the truth

e.g. to determine if the author consciously or unconsciously tells falsehoods

5. Corroboration
i.e. historical facts - particulars which rest upon the independent testimony of two or more
reliable witnesses.
Three Major Components toEffective Historical Thinking

Sensitivity to Multiple Causation

Sensitivity to Context
Awareness of the interplay of
continuity and change in human
affairs
 Sensitivity to Multiple Causation

Every event or situation is the product

of multiple causes or factors, short-term
or long-term.
Inquiry into all relevant condition and
circumstances that determine the
direction of human affairs.
 Sensitivity to Context

Consciousness about how other times

and places differ from our own
Bridging the cultural and temporal gap
Interpreting the past using values and
beliefs of the past and not the yardstick of the present.
(historical mindedness)
 Continuity and Change

There can be
“history” only when
there is change
 Prayer of St. Arnold Janssen

May the darkness of sin

and the night of unbelief
vanish before the light of the Word
and the Spirit of grace,
and may the heart of Jesus
live in our hearts and in the hearts of all.
Amen.