UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOLOF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION

HISTORY EDUCATION SECTION

NAME :

COMP NO# :

COURSE CODE : LSE 3070 (HISTORY TEACHING

METHODS)

LECTURER :

COURSE COORDINATOR : SKAYOMYA PATRICK

TASK : ASSIGMENT 01

DUE DATE : 12TH MAY, 2022.

Question: History is a word which is highly elusive or difficult to define. With traceable
definitions, critically discuss the elusiveness of the term history
History is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection,
organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. The term is difficulty to define
because the subject is of great value to society. The fact that history looks at the past, present and
future, then the present is what will be called the past tomorrow and the future would. Thus, the
saying that the past influences the present and the future as well. History is a word which is
highly elusive or difficult to define as many scholars either look at it in one angle than bringing
all aspects that defines history. Thus, this essay aims to discuss the traceable definitions of
history and critically discuss the elusiveness of the term. A summary will be drawn based on the
discussion.

It is imperative to start the discussion by saying that History is often regarded as ‘His-story’,
‘his’ being a representative term for mankind. However, today the connotation of “his” is used in
a broader sense, with it being significant of anything or any phenomenon that has a story
connected to it. From the history of the universe to the history of this very article, everything is
recorded with respect to the fourth dimension, “time”. The word ‘history’ relates to the Greek
term “historia”, which stands for the knowledge acquired through investigation (Bayer, 2001).

As a word that is derived from the Greek word Historia, history is understood by many scholars
as the study of the past. Of course, history is the study of the past but this does not fully define
what history is as the past is too gigantic and complex to be wholly studied. In fact, it is not
everything that is of the past is referred to as history. The definition is vast because the past
covers an enormously long space of time. For example, the research done by Doctor Lewis
Leakey shows that Proconsul Africanus lived about 20, 000, 000 years ago. This does not mean
that everything that happened 20 million years ago is history. The definition is also complex in
that its occurrences are too copious (Tambyah, 2017).

Other scholars argue that History is the knowledge of and study of the past. It is the story of the
past and a form of collective memory. It is the story of who we are, where we come from, and
can potentially reveal where we are headed. These scholars press their arguments that history is
important to study because it is essential for all people to understand themselves and the world
around them (Bayer, 2001). There is a history of every field and topic, from medicine, to music,
to art. To know and understand history is absolutely necessary, even though the results of
historical study are not as visible, and less immediate (Sarada, 2019).

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However, this definition does not really define history. The fact that the definition does not really
separate what is important and what is not makes the definition to be wholly unsuitable as it fails
to discriminate between significant and insignificant or trivial things. This is all because of the
fact that the study of the subject is generally narrowed to important happenings rather than to all
occurrences under the sun or earth (Collingwood, 2016).

Another definition that shows that history is difficult to define is that History is ‘in essence a
history of ideas. These scholars base their arguments on the fat that history promotes promote not
group self-esteem, but understanding of the world and the past, dispassionate analysis, judgment,
and perspective, respect for divergent cultures and traditions, and unflinching protection for
those unifying ideas of tolerance, democracy, and human rights that make free historical inquiry
possible. This include the ideas of men and women of the former generation. For instance, the
ideas of people like Joseph Stalin or the ideas of the enlightenment thinkers. However, this,
definition is inaccurate because not all ideas good. In fact, some ideas have influenced the world
negatively and brought about underdevelopment hence it is not all ideas that need to be called
history (Uvarov, 2000).

Bayer (2001) borrowed ideas from Burckhardt and defined history as a record of what one age
finds worthy of note in another. This means that history is a rather strange subject as it is really
only when some historian comes across a dusty book in their research, that those collections of
writings become history. Prior to that they were just writing’s which were perhaps preserved for
means that have no connection with history such as government records, and frequently it is just
luck that these documents get into the hands of the historian. ‘History is what people at the time
think is interesting related to their own environment and not necessarily what they perceive to
have some of future historical interest.’ This is the ‘power’ of the historian to change just normal
everyday things such as diaries and records and turn them into history. To the people that wrote
many of the documents that are used by historians, the documents that they created were just
want they wanted the record for themselves at the time. Things like diaries or log books to keep
track of their goods. These sorts of documents are invaluable to the modern historian as for the
majority of studied history you cannot conduct an interview, so therefore you have to try and
piece together what you can from the fragmented evidence that is available to us. Really is that

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not what history is people trying to rebuild the past trying to tell a story of the people before us
so we can try an understand ourselves.

To collected historical data, one have to depend on sources. There are mainly two kinds of sources in
history, original sources or primary sources and secondary sources. Some primary sources are scripts,
coins, debris. Books (recently published), journals, newspapers, those are the example for secondary
sources. History can be called as an experience of historians. There is very close relation between history
and historian. If any of one between them lost its way, the other cannot to be exist. This relation is similar
to the relation between the tree and its root. Except one, the other should be dead. Historical truth can be
changed in history. For instance, the discovery of this civilization is almost revolutionized our concept of
Indian history. At a single stroke ancient civilization of Indian civilization back to 3000 BC, if not earlier
still, and India is now almost rank with Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Egypt, and Assyrian as a pioneer of
human civilization (Bill, 2009).

The above definition does not really define history as it is not limited to written records. There are
various methods scholars use to study history which include oral methods, anthropology,
archaeology, written records and other methods. This entails that history constitutes various
sources which play an important role in bringing historical information. However, it is important
also to mention that historians should not use one source when writing history as each source has
its own weakness and strength (Bill, 2009).

History, in its broadest sense, is everything that ever happened. He narrows this, however, when he points
out that it usually means the story of man. History, also in a broad sense, can be defined as "a record of
things said and done. This view is not correct because has numerous occurrence another definition of
History is a connected account of the course of events or progress of ideas. This means that a
study of the present in the light of the past: The present has evolved out of the past. Modern
history enables us to understand how society has come to its present form so that one may
intelligently interpret the sequence of events. The causal relationships between the selected
happenings are unearthed that help in revealing the nature of happenings and framing of general
laws (Lee, 2006).

History is the study of life in society in the past, in all its aspect, in relation to present
developments and future hopes. It is the story of man in time, an inquiry into the past based on
evidence. Indeed, evidence is the raw material of history teaching and learning. It is an Inquiry

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into what happened in the past, when it happened, and how it happened. It is an inquiry into the
inevitable changes in human affairs in the past and the ways these changes affect, influence or
determine the patterns of life in the society. History is, or should be an attempt to re-think the
past. However, this definition is vague and does not specify what history is.

Sumanta ( (2019) quoted the definition of history by Jawaharlal Nehru who defined the term as the story
of Man’s struggle through the ages against Nature and the elements; against wild beasts and the jungle
and some of his own kind who have tried to keep him down and to exploit him for their own benefit. This
means that real history should deal, not with a few individuals here and there, but with the people
who make up a nation, who work and by their labour produce the necessaries and luxuries of life,
and who in a thousand different ways act and react on each other. History of such a man would
really be a fascinating story. It would be the story of man’s struggle through the ages against
nature and the elements, against wild beasts and the jungle and, last and the most difficult of all,
against some of his own kind who have tried to keep him down and to exploit him for their own
benefit. It is the story of man‘s struggle for a living. Lee (2006) noted that in order to live, certain
things, like food and shelter and clothing in cold climates, are necessary, those who have
controlled these necessities have lorded it over man. The rulers and the bosses have had authority
because they owned or controlled some essentials of livelihood, and this control gave them the
power to starve people into submission. So one see the strange sight of large masses being
exploited by the comparatively few, of some who earn without working at all, and of vast
numbers who work but earn very little.

The savage, hunting alone, gradually forms a family, and the whole household work together and
for each other. Many households co-operate together to form the village, and workers and
merchants and artisans of different villages later join together to form guilds of craftsmen
(Majumdar, 2004). Gradually, one see the social unit growing. To begin with, it was the
individual, the savage. There was no society of any kind. The family was the next bigger unit,
and then the village and the group of villages. Why did this social unit grow? It was the struggle
for a living that forced growth and cooperation, for cooperation in defence against the common
enemy and in attack was obviously far more effective than single-handed defence or attack. Even
more so was cooperation in work helpful (Ronald, 2011).

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By working together they could produce far more food and other necessaries than by working
singly. This cooperation work meant that the economic unit was also evolving, from the
individual savage, who hunted for himself, into large groups. Indeed, it was probably this growth
of the economic unit, ever pushed on by man’s struggle for a living that resulted in the growth of
society and of the social unit. Right through the long stretches of history we see this growth in
the midst of almost interminable conflict and misery, and sometimes even a relapse. But do not
imagine that this growth means necessarily that the world has progressed greatly or is a far
happier place than it was. Perhaps it is better than it was, but it is very far from perfection, and
there is misery enough everywhere. The above definitions explain History as a significant records of
events of the past, a meaningful story of mankind depicting the details of what happened to man and why
it happened. However, history cannot be limited to nature (Lee, 2011).

In conclusion, history is the analysis and interpretation of the human past enabling us to study
continuity and changes that are taking place over time. It is an act of both investigation and
imagination that seeks to explain how people have changed over time. Historians use all forms of
evidence to examine, interpret, revisit, and reinterpret the past. These include not just written
documents, but also oral communication and objects such as buildings, artefacts, photographs,
and paintings. From the discussion above, it is clear to state that indeed the inadequacies in these
definitions makes history to be elusive and difficult to define. Many of these definitions lacks
discriminations and are wrongly confines the subject to written records when oral testimonies
undoubtedly embody history as well. Moreover, the notion those events become history when
they are considered worthy by a succeeding generation lacks merit. In simple terms, each
definition has weakness and does not fully define history.

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 REFERENCES

Bayer, G.S. (2001). Definition of History. Moskva: Nauka.

Bill, N. (2009). “The Meaning and Role of History in Human Development – History: The
Meaning and Role of History in Human Development.” http://www.eolss.net/Eolss-
sampleAllChapter.aspx. Accessed on 8th May, 2022.

Collingwood, R.G. (2016). The idea of history. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Lee, P. (2006). Understanding history. In P. Seixas (Ed.). Theorizing historical consciousness.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 129-164.

Lee, P. (2011). History education and historical literacy. In I. Davies (Ed.) Debates in history
teaching. London: Routledge, 63-72.

Majumdar, R.C. (2004). What is History? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, UK.

Ronald, B. S. (2011). What Is History and Why Is History Important? London: London
University Press.

Sarada, S. (2019). Concept of History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sumanta G. (2019). An Introduction of History Former Student. Kalyani: University of Kalyani

Press.

Tambyah, M. (2017). “Teaching for ‘Historical Understanding’: What Knowledge(s) do

Teachers Need to Teach History?” Australian Journal of Teacher Education. Vol. 42, No.
5, 67-89.

Uvarov, S.S. (2000). “It is Moving Forward Whether Historical Accuracy?” Contemporary
Journal of Social Sciences. Vol. 2, No. 2, 23-35.