Abel Chapter 15

1. Why is history being rewritten constantly?
It is being rewritten both because new facts are being discovered all the time and because it is being reinterpreted to make it more meaningful all the time because people assume it is always being written incorrectly.

2. What factors influence the process by which the historian picks and chooses his/her "facts"? Please provide a specific example for each factor.
Human interest in what is important and what is not changes over time, like how we now care more about how peasants lived in France than the love affairs their kings were having at that time. Our explanations for why events happened change over time as well, like how we now have the Marxist hypothesis that the American Civil War was a class conflict. Our view of basic historical segment changes over time, like how Braudel chooses the “Mediterranean” as his unit. The personal interests of historians are ever changing. And the audience for whom a historian writes changes as well.

3. What is the "Baconian fallacy?"What would the Positivists think? Would Carr agree with Namier?
The fallacy is the assumption that all a historian must do is collect facts. Positivists would probably believe in this fallacy because they think it is the historian’s job to regurgitate fatcs. Carr would agree with Namier because he believes it is the historian’s job to interpret the facts as well as produce them.

4. How does History differ from Geology?
History is different because while in geology facts are simply stated, in history the historian must give meaning and purpose to facts.

5. According to Abel: "The patterns to be found in past events are selected by the historian; like the hypothesis of the scientist, they may be suggested, but are neither imposed nor dictated, by "the facts (p. 166-7)." Based on your experience with the Cheques Lab, how far do you agree with this explanation of history?
I completely agree with this explanation because in the checks lad we chose to recognize certain patterns, like the dates of the check, over other patterns, like the names of the animals at the top of the checks.

6. In your opinion, "how will future historians so elect to describe what is going on now(p. 167)?"
I think they will do so in the manner historians from our day have done it and historians before them, because I think the process of studying history remains very much the same throughout time and it really only the facts that change.

7. What is historical pluralism?
It is the belief that not all events are related to one another.

8. The list of events (or non-events) listed on p. 168 makes Abel ask the question: "Is there, then, no hard core or bed-rock of indisputable facts that the historian must recognize." Does it matter if there ever was a man named Trotsky?
It seems that it would not really matter if there ever was a man named Trotsky because historians have chosen to say there was and since no one fact of history appears to better than another because there is no hard core of indisputable facts, it would not matter if he really existed or not, as long as historians choose to say he did.

9. How is a historian like a physicist?
Both choose what facts are most important to consider, neither will ever know everything about their subject of study, and both recognize that there are multiple interpretations and explanations for the things they study.

10. What are the Five Frameworks or Hypotheses of History? Please provide an example from your HL or SL history class of each.
History is cyclical like the similar roles single party states have played in changing the economy of countries like Russia, Germany, and China. In history, events are caused by some factor within the environment of where they occur, like how the Italians had the upper hand in fighting the Allied forces because they could hide in the mountain ranges surrounding Italy and the Allied forces were not used to fighting on mountains. History is constantly progressing, like how new information and new interest about Soviet Russia has caused us to discover different perspectives about what was happening at that time that we may not have considered before. History is a great drama of sin and redemption, like how Hitler was arrested for his part in WWI and then redeemed himself by winning the elections in Germany and becoming chancellor. And societies within history act as a single organism, like how when one part of Russia was affected by the famine, it spread to rest of ZZRussia and caused the whole country to suffer.

11. Do you believe in Historical Inevitability?
I believe that the nature of humans has caused historical inevitability because we are simply too predictable. However I do not believe that historical inevitability is a fact and I believe that if people were motivated enough and worked hard enough at it, any war could be prevented.


12. What does Abel mean when he says: "No crucial experiment can test the validity of a theory of history, any more than it can the truth of a metaphysical theory (p. 174)."?
He means that theories of history are made up of materials and facts which were decided to be more important than other materials or facts but in fact there is no way to know which materials or facts are better than the others and therefore there is no way to know which historical theories are the best.

13. Abel writes: "Macaulay regards history as a branch of literature (p. 174)." How would Jill Lepore of Just the Facts, Ma'am respond? Please provide to specific quote from the article to justify your claim.
Lepore would agree with this statement because she believes that history is simply stating facts in an interesting and interpretive way so that people will care about them. This opinion can clearly be seen when she talks about how Jane Austin wrote a comical history of King Henry which was more interesting than his actual history.

14. How does the footnote at the bottom of page 175 relate to the Shaper from Grendel?
Like these different religious groups who tell different stories about the Crussades and who emphasize different things as being good or bad to produce the desired story of how their group was the better in the event, so does the Shaper emphasize certain points in his songs in Grendel to make it appear as though Hrothgar was the greatest hero of all time. It shows how history is subject to multiple interpretations.