CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY

Burias Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Burias, MambusaoCapiz

Rhealyn A. Sanan Dr. RomuloLagon

Reporter Course Facilitator

THE STUDY OF HISTORY

I. HISTORY DEFINED

History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by

investigation") is the study of the past as it is described in written documents.

A. Traditional Definitions
1. History is the record of the human past from the time written records began to appear.

B. Modern Definitions
1. History is the reconstruction of the past based on available written records, oral history,
cultural artifacts, and folk traditions.
2. It is the study of events and developments concerning people in the past.
3. It basically involves collection, analysis and synthesis of limited available materials.
4. The mere presentation of facts does not constitute history but a chronicle.
5. History is the interpretative and imaginative study of surviving records of the past either
written or unwritten, in order to determine the meaning and scope of human existence.

II. USES AND IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY

A. Bringing the Gap Between the Present and the Past
B. Explaining the Causes of Things and events
C. Projecting the future
D. Interpreting Conditions of a Given Space and Time
E. Promoting Nationalism and Patriotism

III. SOURCES OF HISTORY

A. Written or Inscribed Sources
1. Birth and Death Certificates
2. Marriage Certificates
3. Directories
4. Church Records
5. Letters and Diaries
6. Local newspaper
7. Census Reports
8. Title deeds
 9. Surveyor’s notes
10. School records
11. Government Records
12. Business records
13. Police records
14. Books, journals, and magazines
15. Souvenir program
16. Hospital records
17. Inscriptions-e.g. Laguna Copper plate, inscription dated A.D. 900

B. Graphic/Visual Materials and artifacts

1. Photographs
2. Heirlooms and keepsakes
3. Arts and crafts
4. Tools, weapons, and utensils
5. Old structures and landmarks
6. Buried artifacts
7. Skeletal remains with funerary furniture and paraphernalia

C. Folklore/Oral Literature

D. Oral History

1. Letting people tell what they know of certain events or letting them narrate their
experiences through the use of tape recorder.
2. Choice of reliable informants
3. Requires confirmation of data by other informants.

E. Interviews
1. Use of an interview guide with specific question.
2. Choice of reliable informants

IV. MAJOR VIEWS OR PHILOSOPHIES IN THE STUDY OF HISTORY

A. Cyclical View
1. History repeats itself
2. All human events occur in cycle
3. Its famous exponents were Herodotus and Spengler
4. This view was popular from the time of Herodotus (5th century B.C)

B. Providential View
1. History is determined by God, he being the author of everything.
2. It consists of recording the death struggle between the good and evil.
3. Man is relegated to the role of a pawn in a game of high stakes.
4. No interpretation is needed because everything is willed by God.
 5. The providential view became widespread during the middle ages and its foremost
exponent was St. Augustine. It also reflected the official stand of the catholic church
in explaining events and developments.

C. Progressive Views or Linear View

1. This view regards mankind as responsible as the advancement of civilization. It
places complete faith in human intelligence and abilities rather than in divine
intervention.
2. Mankind is getting better and better through the ages.
3. Bousset, Vico, Leibnitz, and Marx were the leading exponents.
4. 4. The view holds that each new generation should build upon the achievement of
the preceding; the present must be better because it has more with which to start
(Leibnitz’s Law of Continuity)

D. The Marxist or Leftist-Socialist View

1. Using analysis, the advocates stress the history is a science, capable of being
controlled, influenced and predicted.
2. The view is a universalistic expression of the class conflict theme and it regards
history as the history of economic classes, their rise, fall, dominance, and
exploitation.

E. Relativist View
1. History classifies and groups together facts about the past in terms of current needs
or contemporary concerns. According to Febvre, “History creates its own subject.”
2. Dumont, on his part, states that “Each new situation implies a reinterpretation of the
past – thus, relationship to the past is in a constant state of change.” This implies the
subjective nature of historical knowledge.
3. History does not deal with causal analysis – “cause and effect relationship”- but on
discourse (Foucault’s Deconstruction). This view states that one does not have a
fixed theory or fixed position against which historical data could be measured.