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History

University

Introduction to the Degree in History. Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Concept, etymology, and study of history

  • Definition: Narration of past events and study of human evolution.
  • Historiography: The name of history as an academic discipline.
  • Classification: Factual science (social or natural depending on the object of study).
  • Purpose: Research and objective interpretation of past processes.
  • Historiology: Epistemology or theory of history (studies methodology).
  • Professional historian: Specialist in the academic discipline.
  • Chronicler: Non-professional historian.
  • Etymology: From the Greek ἱστορία (investigation), Proto-Indo-European root *wid-tor- (to know, to see).
  • History vs. Philosophy: History represents 'change', philosophy represents 'essence'.
  • Natural history: Past without human presence (e.g., geology, paleontology).
  • Environmental history/ecohistory: Fields that complement natural history.

Nature and status of history as a discipline

  • Classification: History is a social science or a bridge between sciences and humanities.
  • Artistic stance: Some authors associate it with art due to the use of imagination.
  • Scientific stance: Predominant since the second half of the 20th and 21st centuries.
  • Multidisciplinarity: Integration of geography, political science, economics, psychology, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology.
  • Scientific rigor: Does not imply determinism or a single methodology.
  • Scientific mechanisms: Use of research ethics, peer review, debate, and consensus.
  • Auxiliary sciences: External disciplines that are subordinated or autonomous depending on the purpose of the research.

Evolution, institutionalization, and awards of the historical discipline

  • Sima Qian (2nd century BC): pioneer of bureaucratized official historical records in China.
  • Methodological renewal of history: initiated in Western Europe in the 19th century.
  • Real Academia de la Historia (Royal Academy of History): a Spanish institution founded in the 18th century that replaced official chroniclers.
  • History education: the basis of nation-building since the 19th century.
  • French Lycées (1830): a prestigious social educational model for teaching history.
  • Temporal subdivision: ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary (Anglo-Saxon systems use 'modern era').
  • Spatial subdivision: national, regional, local, and continental.
  • Thematic subdivision: political, military, economic, social, civilizations, mentalities, etc.
  • Sectoral subdivision: art, music, religion, law, science, medicine, technology, etc.
  • Grand History: a unified study from the Big Bang to the present day through Historical Sciences.
  • National History Prize (Chile): biennial, awarded to a personality.
  • National History Prize (Spain): annual, awarded to a published work.
  • Nobel Prize in Literature for historians: 1902 (Mommsen) and 1953 (Churchill).
  • Nobel Prize in Economics for historians: 1993 (Fogel and North).
  • Pfizer Prize (History of Science Society): established in 1958 for history of science books.
  • International Prize for Historical Sciences (CICH): founded in 1926, with a 12-member jury, considered the 'Nobel Prize' of the discipline.

Perspectives, objectives, and branches of history

  • History: a social science to explain the past and understand the present
  • Cicero: history is the master of life
  • Cervantes: history is the mother of truth
  • Benedetto Croce: all history is contemporary history
  • Subject-object relationship: the researcher aligns with the object of study
  • Objective of the historian: a tool for social change and transformation
  • Research imperative: situating facts within their context to achieve understanding
  • Biases: they are inevitable but must be identified and analyzed
  • Historiography: the science that studies history through the historical method and the scientific method
  • Historiography: includes literary production and schools of thought

Fundamental concepts of history, historiology, and the philosophy of history

  • History: object, science, and resulting document
  • Prehistory: the period prior to the appearance of writing
  • Invisibilization: the historical exclusion of lower classes, women, and dissenters
  • History from below: the reconstruction of the view of the vanquished
  • Protohistory: history based on written sources from colonizers about indigenous peoples
  • Alternative methodologies: archaeological sources (material culture) and oral history
  • Herodotus: author of the first History (5th century BC) based on documentary sources
  • Historiology: the study of the structure, laws, and conditions of historical reality (Ortega y Gasset)
  • Philosophy of history: the study of the meaning, teleological end, and progress of human history

Periodization of history and criteria for temporal division

  • Academic consensus: Ancient, Middle, and Modern Ages (coined by Cristóbal Celarius)
  • Division criterion: Greco-Roman classical world and its Renaissance
  • Prehistory division: Stone Age and Metal Ages (proposed in 1836 by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen)
  • Technological ruptures: Neolithic Revolution and Industrial Revolution
  • Technological periods: Hunter-gatherers, pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial
  • Periodization requirement: Synchronic and diachronic coherence
  • Resolution models: Intermediate terms, overlapping, and transition

Chronology and evolution of Prehistory

  • Prehistory: from 2 million years ago until the 4th millennium BCE
  • Paleolithic: predatory economy and density lower than 1 inhabitant/km²
  • Lower Paleolithic: modes 1 (Oldowan) and 2 (Acheulean)
  • Middle Paleolithic: mode 3 (Mousterian); 130,000 to 35,000 years ago
  • Upper Paleolithic: mode 4; 35,000 to 10,000 years ago
  • Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic: post-glacial transition (X to VIII millennium BCE)
  • Neolithic: mode 5; VIII to IV millennium BCE
  • Neolithic Revolution: shift to a productive economy (agriculture/herding) and sedentism
  • Metal Ages: beginning approx. IV millennium BCE
  • Copper Age (Chalcolithic): approx. III millennium BCE
  • Bronze Age: approx. II millennium BCE
  • Iron Age: approx. I millennium BCE

Historical evolution of writing and periodization of Antiquity and the Middle Ages

  • Origin of writing: 4th millennium B.C. in Sumeria
  • Protohistory: records of indigenous peoples by colonizers
  • Early Antiquity: centers in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant, and Asia
  • Classical Antiquity: 8th century B.C. to 2nd century A.D.; Greece and Rome; based on slavery
  • Late Antiquity: 3rd century to 8th century; transition from slavery to feudalism
  • High Middle Ages: 5th century to 10th century; predominance of feudalism and monasticism
  • Late Middle Ages: 11th century to 15th century; urban revolution, the bourgeoisie, and scholasticism
  • Final transition: from feudalism to capitalism and from authoritarian to absolute monarchy

Chronology of the Modern Age and the Contemporary Age

  • Modern Age: 15th - 18th century
  • Starting milestones: Printing Press, fall of Constantinople, discovery of America
  • Ending milestones: French Revolution, American Independence, Industrial Revolution
  • Economic axis: Shift from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
  • Key movements: Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Counter-Reformation, Baroque, Enlightenment
  • Key concepts: Nation and State
  • Contemporary Age: 18th century - present
  • Initial Revolutions: Industrial, bourgeois, and liberal
  • 19th Century: Triumph of capitalism and imperialism
  • Demographic transition: Population explosion and shift in social balance
  • Second Industrial Revolution: Oil, internal combustion engine, and electricity
  • First half of the 20th Century: Two World Wars and totalitarianisms
  • Second half of the 20th Century: Cold War, decolonization, and the third industrial revolution
  • Since 1989: Globalization and United States hegemony

Flashcard preview (6 of 40)

  1. 01

    The academic discipline that studies the evolution of man in society and through time is called:

    historiography

  2. 02

    History, by its classification and method, is part of the classification of science as:

    factual (or fáctica)

  3. 03

    The study of facts and processes of the past and their interpretation under criteria of objectivity is the object of:

    historiology (or theory of history)

  4. 04

    Etymologically, the Greek word ἱστορία (historia) means:

    investigation (or information)

  5. 05

    In the study of history, the concept opposed to 'essence' or 'permanence' is:

    change (over time)

  6. 06

    In the division between sciences and humanities, in which category is history usually classified along with other social sciences?

    Humanities

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