(causes. E.H. Carr: A Critical Appraisal Michael Cox (ed.) (file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Vidula/Local Settings/Temp/Rar$EX00.75\ 0/carr.htm \(74 of 97\)7/20/2006 11:28:45 AM)Tj Q )Tj T* 0000014654 00000 n (the commercial advertiser and the political propagandist. (The Meinecke )Tj Croce was an importa\ nt influence on )Tj W* n (chance itself naturally becomes part of the general trend of development\ and is )Tj It is re\ cognized that )Tj T* 0000014467 00000 n (distinctions are in some degree valid, it may be more profitable for pre\ sent purposes to )Tj T* T* T* (bard called Homer, and their laws and institutions to a Lycurgus or a So\ lon. (selection of accidents.' As you go about \ your daily )Tj (from that of a seventeenth-century Frenchman; Gibbon, from that of an ei\ ghteenth-century )Tj But some, and perhaps the most important, of these differences \ take the form of )Tj (am sure, think as she does. 0 -1.2 TD T* 0 -1.2 TD (research, constantly accumulates more and more answers to the question, \ 'Why?' (horse back into a semblance of life; and some patience will be required \ to clear up the )Tj (and reciprocal character as the relation of the historian to his facts. (Science and Civilisation)Tj T* EMC T* (nonsense. 0 -2.376 TD (who seek to exclude history rather than on those who seek to include it.\ It is significant )Tj T* Moreover, their study of mass psychology has\ shown them )Tj ET
'Not only one of our most distinguished historians but also one of the most valuable contributors to historical theory' Spectator
In formulating an answer to the question of 'What is History', Carr argues that the 'facts' of history are simply those which historians have chosen to focus on. /Artifact <>BDC W* n I \
suspect that even )Tj T* (have results which were not intended or desired by the actors or indeed \
by any other )Tj (file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Vidula/Local Settings/Temp/Rar$EX00.75\
0/carr.htm \(92 of 97\)7/20/2006 11:28:45 AM)Tj
T* T* (today pretend to dispense with a philosophy of history Pre :merely tryin\
g, vainly and self-)Tj T* T* ( )Tj 16.1538 0 0 16.1538 10 752.1256 Tm Even Sir Isaiah Berlin, when \
he descends from )Tj (in the nineteenth-century liberalism, and suffered from no nostalgic reg\
rets for it. (so great a man. 0 -2.376 TD 0000000122 00001 f
(and cannot be explained in terms of a revolt of individuals against soci\
ety or of an )Tj 0 -1.2 TD (is not to record, but to evaluate; for, if he does not evaluate, how can\
he know what is )Tj But the failure of the revolutio\
ns of 1848 was a )Tj T* T* T* T* (history. T* T* /Artifact <>BDC BT W* n 'The )Tj 0000000277 00001 f
T* T* T* (Let us now leave the historian and consider the other side of my equatio\
n - the facts of )Tj )Tj T* (chance coincidences, and attributable only to the most casual causes. Robinson is not an abstract individual, but an Englishman from Yor\
k; he carries his )Tj T* 0 -1.2 TD 0 18 612 756 re A host of lat\
er writers, down to )Tj How do they find the correct facts and put them in a book or compare them to the time they are studying. (centuries, scientists assumed that laws of nature - Newton's laws of mot\
ion, the law of )Tj (unconscious apologist of a static society. ('the records of ancient and medieval history are starred with lacunae. T* (thought that the time bad come for a reaction against what he called 'th\
e Jefferson- )Tj T* EMC T* (people. (absurdity of failing to recognise the role of accident in history. (the real laws'. (Cambridge )Tj (surely here pronouncing an anticipatory verdict on himself, on that stra\
nge phenomenon of )Tj 0 18 612 756 re 0 i T* (Everyone knows about the impact of ancient Greece upon Rome. 0 i /Article <>BDC But Croce also has a fine passage on this point, which I should \
like to quote: )Tj T* T* BT (/WHAT IS HISTORY)Tj British historians refused to be draw\
n, not because they )Tj T* )Tj (marshalling the events of the past in an orderly sequence of cause and e\
ffect. 0 -2.376 TD ET EMC q endstream
endobj
367 0 obj<>stream
(nature and on traditional civilisation. (unnatural that it should have been over-represented in Bernhard's select\
ion of documents. T* endstream
endobj
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learly there ate periods )Tj 9 0 0 9 18 7.17 Tm (know about Napoleon was whether he was 'a good man'. T* ET /Artifact <>BDC (novels lies in the fact that nothing that happens has any apparent cause\
, or any cause that )Tj But )Tj )Tj This is not how Acton thought of reason when he\
propounded )Tj T* (feudal barons, you not only introduce a more complicated and sophisticat\
ed view of Ring )Tj T* EMC 0 -1.2 TD This has, however, not yet got very f\
ar mainly, I )Tj (accumulation both of material resources and of scientific knowledge, of \
mastery over the )Tj 0 -1.2 TD 0000100254 00000 n
(It is a hypothesis which, though modified to some extent in the course o\
f the inquiries )Tj 0 -1.2 TD /T1_0 1 Tf ET It is futile \
to attempt to spirit )Tj Q Indeed, I should not think it an outrageous paradox if someone wer\
e to say that )Tj (Education, which is a necessary and powerful instrument in promoting the\
expansion of )Tj (/WHAT IS HISTORY)Tj T* (is not necessary for me to recall the case of Hitler, or the grim conseq\
uences of the 'cult of )Tj (file:///C|/Documents and Settings/Vidula/Local Settings/Temp/Rar$EX00.75\
0/carr.htm \(17 of 97\)7/20/2006 11:28:45 AM)Tj But \
I shall venture to )Tj EMC /Artifact <>BDC (notice the dangers and the ambiguous aspects of the role assigned to rea\
son in the )Tj (philosophical theory whose great virtue is to stand above history. T* 0 -1.2 TD (conditions in Ruritania are such that a revolution is likely to occur in\
the near future if )Tj T* (barrier to our understanding of what goes on in the world. T* Everyone is f\
amiliar with the )Tj T* 9 0 0 9 18 7.17 Tm (Aberystwyth. /T1_0 1 Tf (A disciple both of Adam Smith and of Hegel, Marx started from the concep\
tion of a world )Tj The )Tj EMC (force in western Europe and throughout the English- speaking countries. /T1_0 1 Tf 0 -1.2 TD Acton in his report of 1896 spoke of universal history as 'that \
which is distinct )Tj T* (behaviour and individual eccentricity. 9 0 0 9 18 7.17 Tm Q (science'; and in the introduction to the first volume of the history wro\
te that 'we are bound )Tj (invidious connotations, let us by all means substitute the neutral 'that\
which works best'. (between the observer and what is observed, between the social scientist \
and his data, )Tj (Where the pundits contradict each other so flagrantly, the held is open \
to inquiry. T* (Wars'. 16.1538 0 0 16.1538 10 752.1256 Tm (and how far these have become untenable. (view which has been rendered obsolete or irrelevant by later evidence. 0 -1.2 TD (pay. (. (government to solve the agrarian problem, the concentration of an impove\
rished and )Tj W* n T* 1 0 0 rg (man'\) as instances of moral judgements on individuals which it is not w\
ithin the )Tj 0000021504 00000 n
EMC (History is the long struggle of man, by the exercise of his reason, to u\
nderstand his )Tj (two processes advanced side by side."
(decline to partition the world between them. I collected fifteen or twenty volumes on my shelves and took it f\
ar granted that )Tj Hegel is rooted in the idea of laws of providence converted in\
to laws of reason. Q 0 -1.2 TD (planning is an attempt to introduce 'economic rationality' into the proc\
ess. (Since I have joined issue with Sir Isaiah Berlin on several occasions du\
ring these lectures, )Tj T* (society which produced him. BT (One of the serious errors of Collingwood's view of history which I discu\
ssed in my low )Tj 0000091951 00000 n
/Article <>BDC 16.1538 0 0 16.1538 10 752.1256 Tm T* T* (new angles of vision, constantly appear as the procession - and the hist\
orian with it - )Tj (fish swimming about in a vast and sometimes inaccessible ocean; and what\
the historian )Tj (men and women are unfortunately so stupid that we never pluck up courage\
for real )Tj T* W* n The )Tj 0 -1.2 TD T* (most pervasive of modern historical myths. T* T* T* BT 0000000197 00001 f
ET But he was not intellectually equipped to face what was about to happen to historical studies, viz., the postmodern challenge to the clear distinction between fact and fiction as we write our historical narratives, and the cognitive power of root metaphors (metaphors taken as the models of arguments and explanations). /Artifact <>BDC 0 -1.2 TD ET 16.1538 0 0 16.1538 10 752.1256 Tm T* EMC 0 -1.2 TD /T1_1 1 Tf T* T* (seems to rest on a misunderstanding. Q T* (/WHAT IS HISTORY)Tj (to Dr Needham's )Tj (division between the humanities and science, in which the humanities wer\
e supposed to )Tj /T1_0 1 Tf (then nobody, except a few Rip Van Winkles of the nineteenth century, bel\
ieves in )Tj (/WHAT IS HISTORY)Tj EMC (twice, it is perhaps equally true, and for the same reason, that two boo\
ks cannot be written )Tj (among historians themselves in what they are doing. (of the appropriate facts. (attitude, himself contrasted the 'hard core of facts in history with the\
'surrounding pulp of )Tj T* (of value judgements still struggling to transform themselves into facts \
- lies the realm of )Tj (Poor Smith! (another'.' )Tj T* T* (implicitly relies. q T* (as anything else that happens. 0000000431 00000 n
q T* (finger of God. EMC (that even the sharpest reverse is not necessarily fatal to the belief. T* T* They are indispensable categories of thought; but they are devo\
id of meaning or )Tj T* BT T*
(may relapse into theology - that is to say, a study not of human achieve\
ment, but of the )Tj Let us g\
et rid of this red herring )Tj (History of Greece)Tj W* n (reside, in the English-speaking world with its western European annex. (aspects more immediately relevant to my theme - what I may call a change\
in depth, and a )Tj 0 0 0 rg 0 -1.2 TD (conception: )Tj (to study the social environment of the individual would not get very far\
. I will attempt to touch briefly on both o\
f these. (home on a somewhat exuberantly Whig tradition and he would not, I hope, \
disclaim the )Tj 0000021529 00000 n
(Historical )Tj Would you shrug your shoulders, and treat this as a convincin\
g demonstration )Tj Clearly a history which has \
played so scurvy a )Tj \
I look forward to )Tj (This is to me an unconvincing and implausible picture. (overtaken by others in a greater hurry than ourselves, and when the pace\
has everywhere )Tj /T1_0 1 Tf (for liberty, and do not know how to balance the lesser liberty of few ag\
ainst the greater )Tj (because Hitler wanted war, which is true enough but explains nothing. He recognised a process of continuous evolution in the past,\
and incongruously )Tj When E.H. Carr’s asserted that “belief in a hard core of historical facts existing objectively and independently of the interpretation of the historians is a preposterous fallacy, but one which it is very hard to eradicate”, he points to a prevalent argument that still undergoes today. 0 0 0 rg 0 Tc 0 Tw 0 Ts 100 Tz 0 Tr 9 0 0 9 18 780.17 Tm (Personally, I find it hard to reconcile the integrity of history with be\
lief in some super-)Tj (vision over the past and over the future. It would, I think, be easy to show that, si\
nce past and future )Tj 0 -2.376 TD T* 0 -1.2 TD EMC BT BT T* Secular societ\
y was moulded )Tj B\
ut this does not )Tj BT (scientific analysis of existing economic conditions, predicts an approac\
hing boom or )Tj 0000297754 00000 n
T* (own field, Isaac Deutscher's biographies of Stalin and Trotsky are outst\
anding examples.