GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING

1) What is the fundamental task of a historian to his country and his people?

2) As an academic discipline, how does a historian make a truthful historical account of the past?
How does this relate with the scientific method used in natural sciences?

3) Do you believe that history is never truly objective? Does this hold true to news making?


Issues for discourse

1) As a student of history, what lesson does the following statement gives you? “HISTORY IS NOT
‘WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST’, RATHER, IT IS THE ACT OF SELECTING, ANALYZING, AND
WRITING ABOUT THE PAST. IT IS SOMETHING THAT IS DONE, THAT IS CONSTRUCTED, RATHER
THAN INERT BODY OF DATA THAT LIES SCATTERED THROUGH THE ARCHIVES.” -James
Davidson and Mark Lytle

2) “The victors write the history”. How would you reconcile this statement with the dominance as
well as the biases and prejudices of historical narratives made by the Spanish chronicles who
wrote about the history of the Filipino people?

3) Do you think it is right to use national perspective in the writing of Philippine history? Why? How
can a nationalists perspective build a sense of national identity and offer guidance for the
present and for the future?
