What does "the purpose of history is ideological" mean?
score:7
Max Weber has a great quote on culture:
'Culture' is a finite segment of the meaningless infinity of the world process, a segment on which human beings confer meaning and significance.
Well, the same goes for the history. There are an infinity of possible facts that a historian could study, a teacher teach, or a politician or activist mention in a speech. Ideology helps us decide which segment of that meaningless infinity of the world process we will confer significance upon and call "history."
Upvote:4
The word history is used to describe both past events themselves, and the study and recording of past events. Those who study history inevitably put it into a contemporary, ideological context.
Say you are writing a history of the second world war. When did it start? When Japan invaded China? When Germany invaded Poland? When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor? You have to make a choice, and that is ideological.
Regarding Columbus, consider these questions:
- What reason is given for the voyage?
- What did he find?
- Why is his voyage prominent in the history books, and not the earlier Viking voyages?
Edit/Postscriptum: Did Columbus discover America? Or did he recontact it? What do the history books say, and what does the choice of words say about the viewpoint of the speaker?
More post
- 📝 Did Hitler have an end goal during the "appeas*m*nt" phase, or was he just picking a fight?
- 📝 Were monasteries a refuge for mentally handicapped adults?
- 📝 How long did it take biologists to adopt the theory of evolution?
- 📝 Was Russo-Polish of 1919-1920 a war of independence?
- 📝 When did the Roman Empire fall according to contemporaries?
- 📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
- 📝 In Europe, why were hereditary dynasties more prevalent in the medieval world than in the ancient world?
- 📝 What was the cause of death of Male Rao Holkar?
- 📝 What were the reasons that the British colonies in North America rebelled but not others?
- 📝 Why does Retsö claim that only members/clients of Arabian tribes were considered "real Muslims" in the Umayyad Caliphate before 750?
- 📝 Who cataloged the ships that visited Alta California?
- 📝 Is there a database of ancient/current names of cities?
- 📝 What clergy went on the second Bering expedition?
- 📝 Where was the ruling seat of East Francia located under Henry the Fowler?
- 📝 Time to travel around Europe in the 18th century
- 📝 Dating of Hammurabi discrepancy
- 📝 Identify the country, service and historical context of this bright red dress uniform, and ideally the nature of the medals. Relationship to Taiwan?
- 📝 Why did China decide to support Poland in 1956, but not Hungary?
- 📝 Did Hitler and Nazi officials give interviews and cooperate with the Weimar republic general press?
- 📝 What was the largest empire in terms of time of communication between its two ends?
- 📝 Why did Eisenhower iconize Robert E. Lee?
- 📝 To what extent is a coincidence that the Dec. of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the USA Dec. of Independence were approved so close in time?
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union support the development of their atomic bomb in 1949?
- 📝 What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
- 📝 Who started trams in Delhi?
- 📝 What was "Taurica"?
- 📝 When did spotlights begin to be used at lectures?
- 📝 What was the extent of influence of James Byrnes on President Truman in the decision to use nuclear weapons?
- 📝 Who made wine from poisonous Heracleum?
- 📝 What was the calendar used by ancient Palmyrenes?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What does "the purpose of history is ideological" mean?
- 📝 A German immigrant ancestor has a "Registration Affidavit of Alien Enemy" on file. What does that mean exactly?
- 📝 What does it mean that the early supreme court "gave themselves" the power of judicial review?
- 📝 What does "setting up a trophy" mean in ancient Greece 5th century B.C.?
- 📝 What does "Brown-Bread Eater" mean when used as an insult?
- 📝 What does "Depot Battalion" mean in Hart's Annual Army List?
- 📝 What does CONOB mean on ancient Roman coins?
- 📝 What does it mean to grant a church to a priory?
- 📝 What does "two ells within the selvages" mean in the Magna Carta?
- 📝 What does it mean that Hamilton "made American credit competitive"?
- 📝 What does this Rx glyph mean in what looks like Latin?
- 📝 What does it mean to have a "proved son?"
- 📝 What does the abbreviation "adhib." mean in historiography or archival science?
- 📝 What does this image symbolize or mean and who is in the image?
- 📝 What does it mean to "take the Cross"
- 📝 What does a "wage" mean in the time of 'The Odyssey'?
- 📝 What does 'des' mean in ancient Egyptian?
- 📝 What does the Latin "prorex" mean in reference to Louis II de Bourbon?
- 📝 What does 'trade in' mean in this article on the Westway project?
- 📝 What does Spivak mean by "epistemic violence" in her paper "can the subaltern speak"?
- 📝 What do we mean when we say history is a science?
- 📝 What does Tuchman mean by transition to a "money economy" in the Middle Ages?
- 📝 What does "APT" mean in box 34 of the WD AGO 53-55?
- 📝 What does Carlyle mean by 'essence' in 'History is the essence of innumerable Biographies'?
- 📝 What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?
- 📝 What does "SS" mean in box 5 of the WD AGO 53-55 form?
- 📝 What does "Central Europe AG 2006" mean in discharge papers?
- 📝 What does Deng Xiaoping mean by "Hide your capacities, bide your time '?
- 📝 What does a black cloth on your upper left arm mean in the context of 1950s USA?
- 📝 What does 'a long train' mean in the Declaration of Independence
