Historical Method

Overview

ABOUT THE COURSE:1.To comprehend multiplicity of ways in which major changes in History can be explained starting write understanding the criteria of Testing facts in history appreciating problem of selection of facts, sciences helpful in such an exercise.2.To survey the major modes of historical interpretation, Matrix, Weber, Block etc.3.To study major trends in Indian historiography, colonial nationalist, communal, Marxist etc.4.To learn how to pursue research in history and draft thesis, dissertation paper, bookINTENDED AUDIENCE: UG/PG/Ph.D. Students

Syllabus

Week 1:

Role of Subjectivity in History and in the exact sciences.
EH. Carr's ""historical facts"".

Week 2:

Causation in history vs. accidents:
Popper's critique of ""Historicism"".
Expansion of scope of history as time and audience extend.
Post-modern critiques of Meta narrative in history, including critiques of 'Orientalism'

Week 3:Ancillary Sciences:-

Archeology: Identification of Cultures from physical finds.
Dating Methods. Theory of Archeology: Gordon Childe.
New Archaeology

Week 4:

Other aids to History: Paleography, Epigraphy, Numismatics, Diplomatic.
Auxiliary Sciences:-

Geography, Anthropology, Linguistics,Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Philosophy, Influence of Mathematics and Statistics on Historical Method.

Week 5:

Origins of historical narrative.
Greek Historiography: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon.
Latin: Tacitus.

Week 6:

Medieval India: Barani, Abul Fazl.
Rise of Historical Criticism during the Renaissance in Europe (upto 1600).
The effects of European “Enlightenment”.

Week 7:

Main features of Modern Western Historiography; Italian Renaissance Historical Narrative; Francesco Petrarch, Leonardo Bruni, Flavio Biondo, Jean Bodin, Lorenza Valla, Nicolao Machiavelli, and Rene Descartes etc.

Week 8:

Gibbon & inter-civilizational history. Hegel, Ranke and the German School.
Historical Materialism; Karl Marx's, concepts of social evolution, class, successive modes of production, superstructure, ideas vs material forces.
Cyclical theory of civilizations: Spengler, Toynbee.

Week 9:

Max Weber: ‘Sociological’ approach to History.
Marc Bloch: Comprehensive and Comparative History.

Week 10:

Contemporary Trends: World-System' analysis (Braudel). 'New History' (Ladurie). 'Post modernism' (Edward Said) and 'Subalternity' (Rajnit Guha).
Indian Historiography: Contributions of European Orientalism. Imperialist and Nationalist Schools: H.E. Elliot, V.A. Smith; R.C. Dutt and Mohammad Habib. Communal trends (R.C. Majumdar and I.H. Qureshi). Marxist trends (D.D. Kosambi, R.P. Dutt ).

Week 11:

Categories of sources: (Primary documents; secondary sources, contemporary texts; later texts; oral testimony)
Criteria of source criticism: linguistic tests; internal consistency; comparison with other sources; motivation behind documents (private motives vs. public declarations). Lewis Namier's structural analysis'.

Week 12: