Writing History ‒ Respect for Evidence
Scrupulous honesty is the duty of every writer of history
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historiography
scrupulous honesty is the duty of every writer of history
(Marcellinus 1986) p. 420
historiography can mean either the process of writing history, or the study of that process
(Arnold 2000) p. 5
historiography – the history of history: the history, that is, of what successive generations have imagined the past to be like. The reconstruction of the past is not an end in itself. Historical inquiry is an affair of selection and arrangement, and is controlled by the dominant problems and conceptions of the culture of the period in which it is written. The writing of history is itself an historical event. The past is of logical necessity the past-of-the-present
(Meyerhoff 1959) p. 132, 155, 169
the book, at least the history, that wants to be abridged, does not deserve to be read
(Bolingbroke 1972) p. 63
the essential feature of the second millennium BC was the development of the narrative treatment of events and the emergence of history as a literary genre
(Butterfield and Watson 1981) 44
the ancient Israelites were a history-haunted people, and some eminent scholars have seen in the David story the very beginnings of genuine history writing in the Western tradition
(Alter 2000) p. 14
[T'ang] 'historiographers (shih-kuan) are responsible for the compilation of the national history; they may not give false praise, or conceal evil, but must write a straight account of events'; to make a veritable record setting this out in chronological form and incorporating the principles of praise and blame; they were held to be the custodians of precedents and traditions; the basic aim of official historiography was the writing of a record of the exercise of dynastic power; official history was written by officials for officials
(Twitchett 1992) p. 13, 199
the ability to predict was the central purpose of the traditional historiography of China
(Chang 1983) p. 88
the History of Herodotus (c. 430) shows oral habits of thought and expression giving way to written modes
(Hooker 1990) p. 10
the entire work of Herodotus is in nine books, each of which bears the name of one of the Muses
(Thompson and Holm 1942) p. 26
Caesar's historical writing represents about the cleverest ex parte exposition in all historical literature
(H. E. Barnes 1962) p. 37
according to Polybius, 'by far the most important part of historical writing lies in the consideration of the consequences of events, their accompanying circumstances, and above all their causes'
(Burrow 2008) p. 76
just as a living creature, if it is deprived of its eyesight, is rendered completely helpless, so if history is deprived of the truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale. We must therefore not shrink from accusing our friends or praising our enemies. We must therefore detach ourselves from the actors in our story, and apply to them only such statements and judgments as their conduct deserves. In the writing of history it is just as misleading for an author to conceal what actually happened as to report what did not
(Polybius 1979) p. 55, 436
if we remove from history the analysis of why, how and for what purpose each thing was done and whether the result was what we should reasonably have expected, what is left is a mere display of descriptive virtuosity, but not a lesson, and this, though it may please for the moment, is of no enduring value for the future. It is my contention that by far the most important part of historical writing lies in the consideration of the consequences of events, their accompanying circumstances and above all their causes
(Polybius 1979) p. 207
being political, it was difficult for Roman historiography not to be partisan
(Syme 1958) p. 203
the contrasted but complementary vices inherent in imperial Roman historiography, flattery and detraction
(Syme 1960) p. 488
the cardinal rule of imperial historiography ‒ history could only be written about dead emperors
(T. D. Barnes 1998) p. 183
[ancient] historians usually used a heading to each part of their works to offer a summary of what followed, facilitating reading and consultation
(Cavallo et al. 1999) p. 11
original documents appeared very rarely in classical historiography
(Rohrbacher 2002) p. 161
war had always been the prime theme and inspiration of ancient historical writing
(Cameron 2011) p. 400
Eusebius's Chronicle consisted of two parts: in the first, or Chronography, he set out the scholarly basis of his work; in the second part of his work, the Canon, or Tables Eusebius decided to draw up a precise, coherent, and schematic chronicle of world history, at least from the time of the patriarch Abraham; Eusebius arranged the tables of monarchies to teach one massive lesson: the Chronicle graphically proved that world history culminated in the contemporary Roman Empire; the central achievement of the Canon lay in its vivid display of synchronisms
(Grafton and Williams 2006) p. 136-143
Arnaldo Momigliano pointed out, drawing on Eduard Schwartz, that Eusebius made the direct quotation of documents, literary and archival, a central feature of his history of the church
(Grafton and Williams 2006) p. 200
ecclesiastical history, as practiced from late antiquity through the Byzantine and Western Middle Ages, was in many ways the richest form of historiography: the one that paid the most attention and gave the most space to documentation, that covered the widest range of topics, and that used the evidence not only to establish the order of events, but also to recreate past social and cultural conditions
(Grafton 2007) p. 111
Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History aims to persuade Christian and pagan audiences that Christianity was more ancient, more rational, more moral, and more valid than pagan religion
(Arnold 2000) p. 21
great thanks, laud, and honor ought to be given unto the clerks, poets, and historiographs that have written many noble books of wisdom of the lives, passions, and miracles of holy saints, of histories of noble and famous acts and fates, and of the chronicles since the beginning of the creation of the world unto this present time, by which we be daily informed and have knowledge of many things of whom we should not have known if they had not left to us their monuments written
William Caxton (1484) (Burrow 2008) frontis
Lancelot Voisin de la Popelinière, 1540-1608, wrote The History of Histories (1599), the first book on the history of history
(Burke 1969) p. 45
whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth
Sir Walter Raleigh (Wilson 1953) p. 109
a short narration of the follies and other faults of men
Thomas Hobbes (Fischer 1970) p. 201
in truth consists the soul, and in the elocution the body of history; the latter without the former is but a picture of history; and the former without the later unapt to instruct
Hobbes on Thucydides' writings (Martinich 1999) p. 43
Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion, one of the major masterpieces of English historical literature, was written in part as an instructive manual of politics for the adolescent Prince of Wales, and in part as an apologia for the career and conduct of its author. Considering that it is the result of cobbling together two manuscripts written with different intentions and at widely separate intervals, the superficial effect of unity in this great work is truly remarkable. Clarendon's style is persuasive, business-like, and clear – a good lawyer's style; but his real genius lies in narrative-exposition. His opening book on the causes of the war should be a set subject for all postulant historians
(Wedgwood 1970) p. 76, 77
history, generally speaking, is the most difficult composition that an author can undertake, or one of the most difficult. It requires a great judgment, a noble, clear and concise style, a good conscience, a perfect probity, many excellent materials, and the art of placing them in good order, and above all things, the power of resisting the instinct of religious zeal, which prompts us to cry down what we think to be true. I observe that truth being the soul of history, it is an essential thing for a historical composition to be free from lies; so that though it should have all other perfections, it will not be history, but a mere fable or romance, if it want truth
Pierre Bayle (White 1973) p. 49
Dryden insisted upon the importance of historiography because 'it informs the understanding by the memory'
(Johns 1998) p. 441
there are [according to Vico] three incorruptible sources of true historical knowledge of man: language, mythology, antiquities; these cannot lie
Giambattista Vico (Berlin 2000) p. 62
history is the most popular species of writing, since it can adapt itself to the highest or the lowest capacity
Edward Gibbon (Gay 1969) p. 369
diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an historical writer may ascribe to himself; if any merit indeed can be assumed from the performance of an indispensable duty
(Gibbon 2005) p. 5
what the Historian's pen so much delights
To blazon—power and energy detached
From moral purpose
(Wordsworth 2002) p. 359
I doubt whether faithful history ever was or ever can be written
John Adams (Adams and Rush 1966) p. 152
Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831), is conventionally regarded as the creator of modern historiography
(H. E. Barnes 1962) p. 244
it was von Ranke's contributions to historical method and to the teaching of history which were most influential upon the later development of historiography: formulation of the principles of the internal criticism of documents, and that fundamental instrument for the advancement of historical scholarship in the academic world – the historical seminar – was founded by von Ranke in 1833
(H. E. Barnes 1962) p. 246
the Ranke formula of history has been discarded and laid away in the museum of antiquities
(Meyerhoff 1959) p. 143
history has been written with quipo-threads, with feather-pictures, with wampum-belts; still oftener with earth-mounds and monumental stone-heaps, whether as pyramid or cairn
Thomas Carlyle (Stern 1973) p. 91
the living do not give up their secrets with the candor of the dead
(Acton 1948) p. 4
to write history three things are necessary: 'a capacity for absorbing facts, a capacity for stating them, and a point of view'
Lytton Strachey (Wedgwood 1989) p. 17
history, Henry Adams thought, had always been 'the most aristocratic of all literary pursuits, because it obliges the historian to be rich as well as educated'. The volumes he produced have been acclaimed – rightly, I think – as the summit of American achievement in historical writing. He said, 'history is simply social development along the lines of weakest resistance'
(Hofstadter 1968) p. 11, 32, 33
what was unique about the ancient Hebrews was their historiography rather than their history
(Butterfield 1950) p. 73
the tradition which came to dominate in Israel attached itself to the God of History [Yahweh] rather than the God of Nature [Baal]
(Butterfield and Watson 1981) p. 86
the history of historical writing involves an inquiry into the manner in which men have changed their sentiment for the past, their feeling about the bonds which link one generation with another, their sense of time and their awareness that they are part of a long unceasing stream of history
(Butterfield 1960) p. viii
the central problems of a historical methodology or epistemology hinge on the fact that an objective knowledge of the past can only be attained through the subjective experience of the scholar
Hajo Holborn (Stern 1973) p. 25
as Pocock puts it, 'The feudal revolution in English historiography was to impose on English history the division into pre-feudal, feudal and post-feudal periods which has ever since characterized it'
(Burrow 2008) p. 300
the study and writing of history is a form of ideology
(Finley 1986) p. 4
to construct history is to narrate it. All historical narrative is at once a synthesis and a hypothesis
(Meyerhoff 1959) p. 94
written history is in the deepest sense the world of our epistemological construction of reality
(Nevins 1962) p. 299
written history is the fragmentary record of the often inexplicable actions of innumerable bewildered human beings, set down and interpreted according to their own limitations by other human beings, equally bewildered
(Wedgwood 1989) p. 488
in the writing of history it seldom pays to cheat
(Trevor-Roper 1957) p. 67
wisdom after the event bedevils all historical exposition
(Syme 1958) p. 168
Macaulay wrote graphically, was easy to read, had a good plot, left no problem unsolved and confirmed each reader's prejudice
(Tulloch 1988) p. 96
the grand style of historiography requires grandiloquent speeches, which as a rule are fictitious. Their function is graphic dramatization (illustratio) of a given occurrence, or at times the presentation of great political or moral ideas; in either case they are intended as the rhetorical bravura pieces of the presentation. The writer is permitted a certain sympathetic entering into the thoughts of the supposed speaker, and even a certain realism. Essentially, however, such speeches are products of a specific stylistic tradition cultivated in the schools for rhetors. The composition of speeches which one person or another might have delivered on one or another great historical occasion was a favorite exercise. Antique historiography: it is rhetorical
(Auerbach 2013) p. 39, 41
generally speaking, direct discourse is restricted in the antique historians to great continuous speeches delivered in the Senate or before a popular assembly or a gathering of soldiers
(Auerbach 2013) p. 46
historiography is the means for communicating in writing what the historian thinks he knows about the past. To array what he knows according to some principle of coherence. The principle of coherence traditionally and still most generally employed by historians is narrative. Historiography has come to mean the history of the ideas of historians about the past
(Hexter 1971) p. 27, 154
proof is a very sensitive region historiographically
(Hexter 1979) p. 250
a work of history is a report
(Gay 1974) p. 217
history, if it is to live beyond its own generation, must be memorably written
John Clive (Bolingbroke 1972) p. vii
there does appear to be an irreducible ideological component in every historical account of reality
(White 1973) p. 21
only the preservation and dissemination of historical knowledge through writing, and especially through print, sets the past firmly apart from the present
(Lowenthal 1985) p. 232
only in the context of the whole of Western historiography's development can we truly fathom the role and nature of history as a human endeavor
(Breisach 1994) p. xi
the art of explaining why historians wrote as they did at certain times
(Winks 1998) p. viii
urbanized, state-organized, and often warring communities have been the main focus of modern historiography
(Christian 2004) p. 245
Aristotle laid it down that between history and art there is a great gulf fixed, and his view has too strong a foundation in common experience to be easily overthrown. In Aristotle’s view history lacks the two main ingredients of serious art – form and universality. It lacks form because the events of history have no dramatic unity. And since it is the historian’s task to record events faithfully, as they happened, when they happened, and in the order in which they happened, artistic form – the famous beginning, middle, and end of Aristotle’s definition – can have no part in the finished result. The overwhelming mass of European historical enquiry between the twelfth century and the nineteenth has been inspired by an instinctive sense that Aristotle’s view is right, and no historian who has wrestled long with the intractable material of his craft can fail to have experienced the force of Aristotle’s argument. Yet it is also true that the modern movement in historical writing began when the Aristotelian tradition, with its belittlement of history, wore thin. It must suffice for the moment to say that history could only take its place among the academic disciplines when the criticism that it lacked form and universality of application had come to be widely disbelieved
(Southern and Bartlett 2004) p. 13, 14
I shall begin then by declaring that the first duty of a historian is to produce works of art. By this I do not primarily mean works that are finely written, but works that are emotionally and intellectually satisfying, that combined a clear unity of conception with a vivacity of detail, and portray people whose actions are intelligible within the framework of their circumstances and character. A historian should aim at satisfying the same emotional and intellectual needs as a novelist or poet. It must be recognized that this conception of the historian’s task as primarily artistic runs directly against the mainstream of European historical writing. The strength of the European historical tradition has lain in its annalists and antiquarians. Historical scholarship has been more important than historical writing
(Southern and Bartlett 2004) p. 12
the marks of a great historical idea: simplicity of conception, broadness of treatment, a strong sense of actuality, and a convincing congruency between fact and theory
(Southern and Bartlett 2004) p. 52
LINK to the Introduction to A Whirld of Words: A Reader's Commonplace Dictionary.
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This may not be the appropriate venue, but my question is when did El Salvador become our personal Penal Colony? It seems we are watching an episode of The Count of Monte Cristo.
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