History as an accepted judgement

On History

Kamala Murali

Liberal Arts

301



“The history we read though based on facts is, strictly speaking not factual at all, but a series of accepted judgements.”

Professor Barraclough



Professor Barraclough, in his book History in a Changing World, chose to use the term ‘accepted judgements’ when putting forward his opinion on the flawed topic of historiography. He simple wrote that history is only a record of facts that have been universally accepted by other historians and has failed in achieving to be factual. While reading through the same article that this quote was from, I couldn’t help feeling a bit alarmed. It had never occurred to me that the history that I had been reading here and there was history that had been through a process of selection, modification and simplification.



Who writes history and for what reason? If history could be manipulated to such an extent that facts are only facts in subjective contexts, then what do we learn from history, not just as a student, but as a society? There seems to be a great concern arising out of this process that historians do to write history which is that of selection and deletion. The concern lies in the fact that so far many facts that could have been considered significant in shaping history have been lost. What we have though is a history from select points of view, not keeping in mind general society. It seems that as history is being made everyday, society with all its problems, and its contexts through which it functions or not functions even determines in a way the greater history that till now can be said to be recorded. There is a lack of history about the contexts through which decisions about economy, health, war, terror, wealth and disasters were made. What was society like in those times? Such information can provide rich insights about the decisions that one has to make in the future.



It only seems natural that a process of filtering must happen in order to write something as big and heavy as a history. But the danger is in understanding that these judgements that have been made and that are accepted universally are actually deceiving. Judgements are very hard to get rid of. Once they exist, they don’t disappear easily. This reason is because there is a tendency as humans to agree to a general consensus without really questioning what is considered the truth. It is only recently that historians have started to engage with historiography and its accuracy. What happens to the facts that are forgotten but that could provide us with a richer understanding of the past?



One of the definitions of the term ‘history’ is that it is a series of events that have the potential to shape the future. In this ongoing debate on how authentic historiography is, it is shocking to note that maybe for decisions to be made for the future, there is very little we can understand from the past.

-KAMALA