Transcript Mr. B`s Lecture Notes on History

Historians
• What do they do?
• Reconstruct (Remake)
the past
• Why study history?
• History serves as a bank
of examples for
contemplating present
problems.
• What tools do they use?
Think like a Historian, Look
for:
• bias
• evidence
• argument
• sources
• Context of the period the document was
written
“Just the Facts”?
• Historical facts by themselves are
meaningless.
• Historical facts are only important when
we give them meaning.
Shannon Leggett 2008
TOK syllabus & History:
4 strands
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Nature of History
Methods of Gaining Knowledge
History and Knowledge Claims
History and Values
Nature of History
• What is the significance of Carlyle’s view
that “The history of the world is but the
biography of great men?’”
• “Great man,” Socrates, Napoleon,
Bismarck, Lincoln, Stalin, Mao, Hitler
• Time magazine’s recent response in
their “Person of the Year” issue
Nature of History
Who controls the past controls the future.
Who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell
Shannon Leggett 2008
Methods of Gaining Knowledge
How far can we speak with certainty
about anything in the past?”
Methods of Gaining Knowledge
“How does the context within which historians live affect
historical knowledge?”
Shannon Leggett 2008
History and Values
Are the lives of some groups of people more
historically significant than the lives of others?
History and Values
Should value-laden terms, such as hero or freedom, always
be avoided?
Can history be used for
propaganda?
If so, how?”
Shannon Leggett 2008
History and Values
Shannon Leggett 2008
History and Knowledge Claims
Can history provide a
guide to understanding
current affairs?