What is History and Progress?

History and Progress READINGS:
 E.H. Carr, What is History, (Entire)
Appleby, Telling the Truth About History, Introduction

Key questions/points:

"How do we make connections with the past if we are skeptical of the truth in our knowledge of the past?" (Appleby 10)

If it will "always [involve] power and exclusion, how will we define 'our' history?"  Who fits into "our"? (Appleby 11)

History takes into account:

-perspective
-historian's choice of facts, interpretation of those facts
-present context

-commonsense view: there is a set of "basic facts"
V.S.
-Carr: accuracy of facts has nothing to do with the significance/quality/decision of historian to include the facts

So, how might we define history?  Author E.H. Carr says, "My first answer therefore to the question 'what is history' is that it is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an uneding dialogue between the present and the past" (30).  It is important to realize that the historian exists as a part of history.  He or she is not separate, but rather, he or she engages with the past through the filter of the present context (44).

History is not stagnant. It's fluid quality depends not only on the historian who analyzes it but also the immense impact of present-day society.  Progress, then has no specific beginning, nor end (Carr 114).  Our understanding of the present as it continuously shapes and molds us, shifts our topic, focus, and direction of discourse with the past.  Thus, our conception of the world, and the past, fluctuates, and in turn, our idea of "progress" is only valuable at each unique time and place that we define it.  For in the next moment, the next place, we will see with different eyes.  It is paramount that the historian work to transcend the limits of his narrow perspective and interpretation saturated with accepted beliefs of culture and present-day society in order to find the most objective explanation possible (Carr 117-118).  Carr describes progress as unlimited.  Breaks and deviation occur (Carr 116).  These breaks are all a part of history, and that is what we aim to uncover.

"The past is intelligible to us only in the light of the present; and we can fully understand the present only in the light of the past.  To enable man to understand the society of the past, and to increase his mastery over the society of the present, is the dual function of history" (Carr 55).