After I read "What is History" - Julian Kim

After I read “What is history”

 

  The book, “What is history”, by E.H. Carr, the author explains some ideas that people never think before about history and facts. He said “History… is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past.” It can look so naturally to us but that time it was not. First of all, He pointed that people can’t be fee from his background like where they were born, where they grow up, and what time they were born. It means that historian also is influenced by his background. E.H.Carr also confess that he has positive prospect about future and history because he grow up the time in which people think future positively.

  Next, He pointed out that the pure fact in history cannot exist. Because when historian choose the time or facts, that time his supervision intervene to the choice. So historian can’t show pure facts that what did in past. Some historian facts which historian think it is important are chosen and  written in the way historian thinks. Historians interpret the facts and it turns to new things mixture of historian and facts. That is why Carr said History is the interaction between the historian and his facts. His facts means that the fact which he chosen. And Historians lives in present that time. So it can be dialogue between the present(the historian) and the past(the fact). Then Why Did Carr say it continuous and unending? Its because life goes on and history keep going. Historians continue to interpret past and it makes history continuously. Before Carr said, Many historians thought that historians should show history as it really was. And they tried to eliminate their own thinking when they wrote history. But Carr pointed that their thinking starts to intervene before writing. And after Carr, many historian thinks it is impossible that show past as it was.

Carr said study in history is study of cuases. Cause is from the question why and answer of it. And the method of study is diversification from many causes and simplification from choosing one cuase. In one historic event, there are usually a lot of causes. What historian should do is searching that facts which influence to the event and choosing the most influential cause. It can show what important the historian think. For example, there is a car accident, and there are several causes like drinking alchol and bad weather and curvy road.. etc. And historian can choose the fact which he think most important. If he choose drinking alcohol as most critical cause, he might insist the dangerousness of drunk driving. If he choose a bad condition of road as the most important reason of the accident, he will claim about construction roads.

 

It will be continue.. I done already more than 400words.. but this essay is not finished.