What is History?

1. I like this one…

History is does NOT Repeat!

But

NOT

TWICE!!!

(in the same exact way)

Weimar Republic

Stop saying that history repeats

Family resemblance

19th century revolutions

I like this one even more

2. History is NEVER self-evident like a problem to be

solved

Historical knowledge is ALWAYS mediated

by

what?

DISCOURSE (Language)

“Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492.”

Texas Public School Textbook

“The southern colonies’ cash crops required a great deal of

difficult work to grow and harvest. This meant a large

workforce was needed. By the 1700s enslaved Africans, rather

than indentured servants, had become the main source of

labor. African slaves brought with them knowledge that helped

turn the wild environment into profitable farms. Many had

previous experience raising cattle and knew the method for

clearing brush using fire.”

University of New South Wales

“settled” or “nomadic”

Capitan Cook “landed,” “invaded” or colonialized?

Myth

From myth to fabrication?

Media

Textbooks

Historical Representation:

Robert Doisneau's “The Kiss”

So

What is history?

time “moves” in sequence

1458

1459

1460

Who assigned these

numbers?

NUMBERS are human constructs

Even the way we understand years

Dates

Or days

Depend on how we CATEGORIZE time in numbers

But does it matter

Yes: perhaps to “learn” and “teach” about history

And NO because numbers are… well..

Discursive, visual and affective ways we INTERPRET the

past based on our distinct shifting socio-historical

conditions

Historical knowledge is not based on

time but experiences performed through

Discourse, visual and affective ways we INTERPRET the

past based on our distinct shifting socio-historical

conditions

And therefore ALWAYS Situational

Not about

“NATURAL TIME”

HISTORICAL TIME

As a categorization systems

Reinhart Koselleck

Koselleck

“It is a truism that history always has to do with time, but

it is another matter entirely to theorize exactly what

historical time means”.

He adds

“only theory transforms our work into historical

scholarship”

“transforms”

There is an inventive feature that goes in

historical knowledge and that’s usually

with new conceptions, ideas, “theories”

History is engineering

We BUILD history

We MAKE history

We IMPROVE its structure

We APPLY “time” to history

So we give it order through TEXT:

writing and other forms of discourse

Historians

An expert class of professionals who are seriously

involved with the project of WRITING history

To give it a resting point

(though through struggle)

Historical resting points:

Gated communities?

But you can never say

History is ?

Because even engineers

have to INVENT!!!!

Good

Problem solved!

April 5 (Tuesday)

● Nomadic Empires and the Eurasian

Integration I:

Group Feeling and the Mongols

April 7 (Thursday)

● Southernization, Nomadic Empires and

the Eurasia

Integration II: Vikings and the Timurids

Eurasia

Contact Zones

1. Eurasia:

a) Mediterranean-Mesopotamia

b) Subcontinent

2) Euro-Africa

a) Africa-Mesopotamia

3) Transatlantic

Africa-Americas

“Middle East” is a Concept

Mediterranean-Mesopotamia Complex:

Rise of Islam as a World Religion and an Imperial Force.

(Abbasid Empire)

Rise of Roman-Germanic Medieval Europe (Western

Europe).

3. Byzantium (Eastern Europe)

Eastern Asia

Rise of Tang (618-907 C.E.) State Bureaucracy

Song Dynasties (960-1279). (Technological Developments).

● Spread of Buddhism & Neo-Confucianism

India: Post-Gupta (451 C.E.)

Islam (in the north)

8th century

The Hindu Kingdoms of Southern India

Africa-Mediterranean

& Sub-Saharan Africa

Northern Africa: Fatimads and various other Muslim territories.

East Africa-Western Asia (Middle East): Swahili civilization

Sub-Sahara and rest of Africa: Kingdoms, empires, and city-states 800-1500 C.E.

Rise of Islam (Ghana in West Africa)

“Americas”: Transatlantic?

Transhemispheric