{"id":355,"date":"2024-12-17T05:47:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T05:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.168.10.18\/arslan\/Demo\/GeekyBot\/?p=355"},"modified":"2025-06-19T05:35:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T05:35:19","slug":"history-of-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/history-of-world\/","title":{"rendered":"History Of World"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded\" data-topic-id=\"1566357\">\r\n<div class=\"grid gx-0\">\r\n<div class=\"col\">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 ml-0 \">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 grid gx-0 \">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 col-sm\">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 infinite-pagination-container d-flex flex-column position-relative\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 grey-box-top grey-box-bottom\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-true topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\" data-student-article=\"false\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"desktop-header-image module-spacing\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-20 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"13684\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media \" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/1566357\/279442\"><picture><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Giambattista Vico\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/1566357\/279442\">Giambattista Vico<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"topic-header\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-top justify-content-between\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex flex-column\">\r\n<div>\r\n<div>\r\n<h1>world history<\/h1>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref1\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><strong><span id=\"ref1312149\"><\/span>world history<\/strong>, branch of history concerned with the study of historical phenomena that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/transcend\" data-term=\"transcend\" data-type=\"MW\">transcend<\/a>\u00a0national, regional, or cultural boundaries or distinctions between peoples or with the study of history from a global, comparative, or cross-cultural perspective.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although the academic study of world history is relatively new, having been initiated in the 1970s by historians who wished to move beyond national and regional approaches, it has roots in remote antiquity. The great world religions that originated in the Middle East\u2014<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Judaism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Judaism<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christianity<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Islam\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Islam<\/a>\u2014insisted on the unity of humanity, a theme\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/encapsulated\" data-term=\"encapsulated\" data-type=\"MW\">encapsulated<\/a>\u00a0in the story of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adam and Eve<\/a>.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Buddhism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Buddhism<\/a>\u00a0also presumed an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ecumenical\" data-term=\"ecumenical\" data-type=\"MW\">ecumenical<\/a>\u00a0view of humankind. The universal histories that characterized\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0chronicles proposed a single story line for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Homo-sapiens\" data-show-preview=\"true\">human race<\/a>, governed by divine\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Providence-theology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">providence<\/a>, and these persisted, in far more sophisticated form, in the speculative\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy-of-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophies of history<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giambattista-Vico\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giambattista Vico<\/a>\u00a0(1668\u20131744) and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Georg-Wilhelm-Friedrich-Hegel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">G.W.F. Hegel<\/a>\u00a0(1770\u20131831).\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Marxism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marxism<\/a>\u00a0too, although it saw no divine hand in history, nevertheless held out a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/teleology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">teleological<\/a>\u00a0vision in which all humanity would eventually overcome the miseries arising from\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-class\" data-show-preview=\"true\">class<\/a>\u00a0conflict and leave the kingdom of necessity for the kingdom of plenty.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">These philosophies have left their mark on world history, yet few historians (except for orthodox Marxists) now accept any of these master narratives. This fact, however, leads to a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conceptual\" data-term=\"conceptual\" data-type=\"MW\">conceptual<\/a>\u00a0dilemma: if there is no single story in which all of humanity finds a part, how can there be any\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/coherence\" data-term=\"coherence\" data-type=\"MW\">coherence<\/a>\u00a0in world history? What prevents it from simply being a congeries of national\u2014or at most regional\u2014histories?<\/p>\r\n<a class=\"link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-read-more-module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Womens-history#ref1051109\" data-link-module-iframe-link=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-sm mr-15\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/17\/99017-050-F31471D6\/Title-page-Histoire-de-la-Nouvelle-France.jpg\" alt=\"Histoire de la Nouvelle France\" width=\"70\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"line-clamp clamp-5\">\r\n<div class=\"module-title bg-navy-dark\">More From Britannica<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"font-weight-semi-bold mt-5\">historiography: World history<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref356517\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h1\">Modernization theory<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/modernization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Modernization<\/a>\u00a0theorists have embraced one horn of this dilemma. There is, after all, a single story, they argue; it is worldwide\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Westernization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Westernization<\/a>. Acknowledging the worth of non-Western\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/cultures\" data-term=\"cultures\" data-type=\"MW\">cultures<\/a>\u00a0and the great non-European empires of the past, they nevertheless see the lure of Western\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/consumer-good\" data-show-preview=\"true\">consumer goods<\/a>\u2014and the power of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/multinational-corporation\" data-show-preview=\"true\">multinational corporations<\/a>\u2014as irresistible. This triumphalist view of Western economic and political institutions drew great new strength from the downfall of the managed economies of Russia and eastern Europe at the end of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Cold-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Cold War<\/a>\u00a0and the emergence in China of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/blatant\" data-term=\"blatant\" data-type=\"MW\">blatant<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/state-sovereign-political-entity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">state<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/capitalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">capitalism<\/a>. It is easier to claim worldwide success for capitalism than for\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/democracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">democracy<\/a>, since capitalism has been perfectly compatible with the existence of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/authoritarianism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">autocratic<\/a>\u00a0governments in Singapore, Taiwan,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Hong-Kong\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hong Kong<\/a>, and elsewhere, but history does suggest that eventually capitalist institutions will give rise to some species of democratic institutions, even though multinational corporations are among the most secretive and hierarchical institutions in Western society.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Modernization theory has been propounded much more enthusiastically by sociologists and political scientists than by historians. Its purest expression was\u00a0<em>The Dynamics of Modernization<\/em>\u00a0(1966), by the American historian Cyril Edwin Black (1915\u201389), which made its case by studying social indexes of modernization, such as literacy or family limitation over time, in developing countries. Extending this argument in a somewhat Hegelian fashion, the American historian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francis-Fukuyama\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francis Fukuyama<\/a>\u00a0provocatively suggested, in\u00a0<em>The End of History and the Last Man<\/em>\u00a0(1992), that history itself, as traditionally conceived, had ceased. This, of course, meant not that there would be no more events but that the major issues of state formation and economic organization had now been decisively settled in favour of capitalism and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/democracy\" data-term=\"democracy\" data-type=\"MW\">democracy<\/a>. Fukuyama later acknowledged, however, that the world was experiencing a \u201cdemocratic recession,\u201d which was especially apparent after the election of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Donald-Trump\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0as U.S. president and the United Kingdom\u2019s decision to withdraw from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/European-Union\" data-show-preview=\"true\">European Union<\/a>\u00a0(\u201c<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/European-Union\/The-euro-zone-debt-crisis#ref344366\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Brexit<\/a>\u201d), both of which occurred in 2016.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A much grimmer aspect of modernization was highlighted by the American historian Theodore H. Von Laue (1916\u20132000) in\u00a0<em>The World Revolution of Westernization<\/em>\u00a0(1987). Von Laue focused on the stresses imposed on the rest of the world by Westernization, which he saw as the root cause of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/communism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">communism<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Nazism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nazism<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/dictatorship\" data-show-preview=\"true\">dictatorships<\/a>\u00a0in developing countries, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/terrorism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">terrorism<\/a>. He declined to forecast whether these strains would continue indefinitely.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The stock objection to modernization theory is that it is Eurocentric. So it is, but this is hardly a refutation of it. That European states (including Russia) and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>\u00a0have been the dominant world powers since the 19th century is just as much a fact as that Europe was a somewhat insignificant peninsula of Asia in the 12th century. Some modernization theorists have caused offense by making it clear that they think European dominance is good for everybody, but it is noteworthy how many share the disillusioned view of the German sociologist\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Max-Weber-German-sociologist\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Max Weber<\/a>\u00a0(1864\u20131920), who compared the rational\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bureaucracies\" data-term=\"bureaucracies\" data-type=\"MW\">bureaucracies<\/a>\u00a0that increasingly dominated European society to an \u201ciron cage.\u201d More-valid\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticisms\" data-term=\"criticisms\" data-type=\"MW\">criticisms<\/a>\u00a0point to the simplistic character of modernization theory and to the persistence and even rejuvenation of ostensibly \u201cpremodern\u201d features of society\u2014notably religious\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/fundamentalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">fundamentalism<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\r\n<div class=\"marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content\" data-marketing-id=\"INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-wrapper\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/BlueThistle.webp\" \/><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white\">\r\n<div class=\"h2 mb-10\">Get Unlimited Access<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"h4 font-weight-semi-bold\">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto\"><a class=\"btn btn-m btn-orange\" href=\"https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&amp;utm_medium=inline-cta&amp;utm_campaign=august-2024\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref356518\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h1\"><span id=\"ref1312742\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/world-systems-theory\">World-systems theory<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A considerably more complex scheme of analysis, world-systems theory, was developed by the American sociologist and historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref1312743\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Immanuel-M-Wallerstein\">Immanuel Wallerstein<\/a>\u00a0(1930\u20132019) in\u00a0<em>The Modern World System<\/em>\u00a0(1974). Whereas modernization theory holds that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/economic-development\" data-show-preview=\"true\">economic development<\/a>\u00a0will eventually\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/percolate\" data-term=\"percolate\" data-type=\"MW\">percolate<\/a>\u00a0throughout the world, Wallerstein believed that the most economically active areas largely enriched themselves at the expense of their\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/peripheries\" data-term=\"peripheries\" data-type=\"MW\">peripheries<\/a>. This was an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adaptation\" data-term=\"adaptation\" data-type=\"MW\">adaptation<\/a>\u00a0of an idea of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Vladimir-Lenin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Vladimir Ilyich Lenin<\/a>\u00a0(1870\u20131924), the leader of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Russian-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bolshevik Revolution<\/a>\u00a0(1917), that the struggle between classes in capitalist Europe had been to some degree displaced into the international economy, so that Russia and China filled the role of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/proletariat\" data-show-preview=\"true\">proletarian<\/a>\u00a0countries. Wallerstein\u2019s work was centred on the period when European capitalism first extended itself to Africa and the Americas, but he emphasized that world-systems theory could be applied to earlier systems that Europeans did not dominate.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Consistently with Wallerstein\u2019s view, the German-born American economist Andr\u00e9 Gunder Frank (1929\u20132005) argued for an ancient world system and therefore an early tension between core and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/periphery\" data-term=\"periphery\" data-type=\"MW\">periphery<\/a>. He also pioneered the application of world-systems theory to the 20th century, holding that \u201cunderdevelopment\u201d was not merely a form of lagging behind but resulted from the exploitative economic power of industrialized countries. This \u201cdevelopment of underdevelopment,\u201d or \u201cdependency theory,\u201d supplied a plot for world history, but it was one without a happy ending for the majority of humanity.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Like modernization theory, world-systems theory has been criticized as Eurocentric. More seriously, the evidence for it has been questioned by many economists, and, while it has been fertile in suggesting questions, its answers have been controversial.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A true world history requires that there be connections between different areas of the world, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/international-trade\" data-show-preview=\"true\">trade<\/a>\u00a0relations\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitute\" data-term=\"constitute\" data-type=\"MW\">constitute<\/a>\u00a0one such connection. Historians and sociologists have revealed the early importance of African trade (<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Christopher-Columbus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christopher Columbus<\/a>\u00a0visited the west coast of Africa before his voyages to the Americas, and he already saw the possibilities of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/slavery-sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slave trade<\/a>). They have also\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/illuminated\" data-term=\"illuminated\" data-type=\"MW\">illuminated<\/a>\u00a0the 13th-century trading system centring on the\u00a0Indian Ocean, to which Europe was\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/peripheral\" data-term=\"peripheral\" data-type=\"MW\">peripheral<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Humans encounter people from far away more often in commercial relationships than in any other, but they exchange more than goods.\u00a0The Canadian-American historian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-H-McNeill\" data-show-preview=\"true\">William H. McNeill<\/a>\u00a0(1917\u20132016), an eminent world historian, saw these exchanges as the central motif of world history. Technological information is usually coveted by the less adept, and it can often be stolen when it is not offered. Religious ideas can also be objects of exchange. In later work McNeill investigated the communication of infectious diseases as an important part of the story of the human species. In this he contributed to an increasingly lively field of historical studies that might loosely be called ecological history.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref356519\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h1\">Ecological approaches<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Focusing on the biological substrate of history can sometimes capture a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/vital\" data-term=\"vital\" data-type=\"EB\">vital<\/a>\u00a0element of common humanity. This was an early topic for\u00a0<em>Annales<\/em>\u00a0historians (those associated with the French academic journal founded in 1929 as\u00a0<em>Annales d\u2019histoire \u00e9conomique et sociale<\/em>), who were often trained in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/geography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">geography<\/a>. The French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie grounded his great history of the peasants of Languedoc in the soil and climate of that part of\u00a0France, showing how the human population of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/ancien-regime\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancien r\u00e9gime<\/a>\u00a0was limited by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/carrying-capacity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">carrying capacity<\/a>\u00a0of the land. He went on to write a history of the climate since the year 1000.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Even more influential were the magisterial works of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Fernand-Braudel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Fernand Braudel<\/a>\u00a0(1902\u201385), perhaps the greatest historian of the 20th century. Braudel\u2019s\u00a0<em>La M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e et le monde m\u00e9diterran\u00e9en \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque de Philippe II<\/em>\u00a0(1949;\u00a0<em>The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II<\/em>) had a political component, but it seemed almost an afterthought. Although it was not a world history, its\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprehensive\" data-term=\"comprehensive\" data-type=\"MW\">comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0treatment of an entire region\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprising\" data-term=\"comprising\" data-type=\"MW\">comprising<\/a>\u00a0Muslim and Christian realms along the fringes of three continents succeeded in showing how they shared a similar\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/environment\" data-term=\"environment\" data-type=\"MW\">environment<\/a>. The environment assumed an even greater role in Braudel\u2019s\u00a0<em>Civilisation mat\u00e9rielle et capitalisme, XVe\u2013XVIIIe si\u00e8cle<\/em>\u00a0(vol. 1, 1967; vol. 2\u20133, 1979;\u00a0<em>Civilization and Capitalism, 15th\u201318th Century<\/em>). Although some of its claims seemed designed to shock conventional historical sensibilities\u2014the introduction of forks into Europe, he wrote, was more important than the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Reformation\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Reformation<\/a>\u2014no historical work has done more to explore the entire material base on which civilizations arise.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One of the most important links between ecological history and world history is the so-called Columbian exchange, through which pathogens from the Americas entered Europe and those from Europe devastated the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Indigenous\" data-term=\"Indigenous\" data-type=\"MW\">Indigenous<\/a>\u00a0populations of the Americas. The Indigenous Americans got much the worse of this exchange; the population of Mexico suffered catastrophic losses, and that of some Caribbean islands was totally destroyed. The effect on Europeans was much less severe. It is now thought that\u00a0syphilis\u00a0entered Europe from Asia, not the Americas.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Overt moralizing in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">historiography<\/a>\u00a0tends to attract professional\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>, and historians in\u00a0Europe\u00a0and the United States, where\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/nation-state\" data-show-preview=\"true\">nation-states<\/a>\u00a0have long been established, no longer feel the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0obligation that their 19th-century predecessors did to exalt\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/nationalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">nationalism<\/a>. They can therefore respond to global concerns, such as the clear-cutting of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/rainforest\" data-show-preview=\"true\">rainforests<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/global-warming\" data-show-preview=\"true\">global warming<\/a>. It has been obvious for some time that the world is a single\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/ecosystem\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ecosystem<\/a>, and this may require and eventually evoke a corresponding world history.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref356520\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h1\"><span id=\"ref1312741\"><\/span>Subaltern history<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">There is, however, a powerful countertendency: subaltern history.\u00a0The term\u00a0<em>subaltern<\/em>\u00a0is used in Great Britain to designate a subordinate or junior military officer, and \u201csubaltern studies\u201d was coined by Indian scholars to describe a variety of approaches to the situation of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/South-Asia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">South Asia<\/a>, particularly during the colonial and postcolonial eras (<em>see<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/postcolonialism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">postcolonialism<\/a>). A common feature of these approaches is the claim that, though\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Western-colonialism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">colonialism<\/a>\u00a0ended with the granting of independence to the former colonies of Britain, France, the United States, and other empires,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/imperialism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">imperialism<\/a>\u00a0did not. Instead, the imperial powers continued to exert so much cultural and economic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hegemony\" data-term=\"hegemony\" data-type=\"MW\">hegemony<\/a>\u00a0that the independence of the former colonies was more notional than real. Insisting on\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/free-trade\" data-show-preview=\"true\">free trade<\/a>\u00a0(unlimited access to the domestic markets of the former colonies) and anticommunism (usually enforced by autocratic governments), the old empires, as the subaltern theorists saw it, had reverted to the sort of indirect rule that the British had exerted over Argentina and other countries in the 19th century.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The other belief that united subaltern theorists is that this hegemony should be challenged.\u00a0<em>Orientalism<\/em>\u00a0(1978), by the Palestinian-American literary critic\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Edward-Said\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Edward Said<\/a>\u00a0(1935\u20132003), announced many of the themes of subaltern studies. The \u201cOrient\u201d that Said discussed was basically the\u00a0Middle East, and \u201cOrientalism\u201d was the body of fact, opinion, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/prejudice\" data-term=\"prejudice\" data-type=\"MW\">prejudice<\/a>\u00a0accumulated by western European scholars in their encounter with that region. Said stressed the enormous appetite for this lore, which influenced\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/painting\" data-show-preview=\"true\">painting<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">literature<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/anthropology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">anthropology<\/a>\u00a0no less than history. It was, of course, heavily coloured by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/racism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">racism<\/a>, but perhaps the most\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/insidious\" data-term=\"insidious\" data-type=\"MW\">insidious<\/a>\u00a0aspect of it, in Said\u2019s view, was that Western categories not only informed the production of knowledge but also were accepted by the colonized countries (or those nominally independent but culturally subordinate). The result has been described rather luridly as \u201cepistemological rape,\u201d in that the whole cultural stock of colonized peoples came to be discredited.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although originally and most thoroughly applied to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Middle-East\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Middle East<\/a>\u00a0and South Asia, subaltern history is capable of extension to any subordinated population, and it has been influential in histories of women and of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/African-American\" data-show-preview=\"true\">African Americans<\/a>. Its main challenge to world history is that most subaltern theorists\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/deny\" data-term=\"deny\" data-type=\"EB\">deny<\/a>\u00a0the possibility of any single master narrative that could form a plot for world history. This entails at least a partial break with Marxism, which is exactly such a narrative. Instead, most see a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/postmodernism-philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">postmodern<\/a>\u00a0developing world with a congeries of national or tribal histories, without closures or conventional narratives, whose unity, if it has one at all, was imposed by the imperialist power.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The project of bringing the experience of subordinated people into history has been common in historiography since the mid-20th century, often in the form of emphasizing their contributions to activities usually associated with elites. Such an effort does not challenge\u2014indeed relies on\u2014ordinary categories of historical understanding and the valuation placed on these activities by society. This has seemed to some subaltern theorists to implicate the historian in the very oppressive system that ought to be combated. The most extreme partisans of this combative stance claim that, in order to resist the hegemonic powers, the way that history is done has to be changed. Some feminists, for example, complain that the dominant system of logic was invented by men and violates the categories of thought most\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/congenial\" data-term=\"congenial\" data-type=\"MW\">congenial<\/a>\u00a0to women. This has been one of the reasons for the influence of postmodernist and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/postcolonialism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">postcolonialist<\/a>\u00a0thought. It licenses accounts of the past that call themselves histories but that may deviate wildly from conventional historical practice.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Such histories have been particularly associated with a \u201cnativist\u201d school of subaltern studies that rejects as \u201cWestern\u201d the knowledge accumulated under the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/auspices\" data-term=\"auspices\" data-type=\"MW\">auspices<\/a>\u00a0of imperialism. An instructive example was the effort by Afrocentric historians to emphasize the possible Egyptian and Phoenician origins of classical Greek thought. The British historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref1312738\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Martin-Bernal\">Martin Bernal<\/a>\u00a0(1937\u20132013), for example, tried to show in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1312740\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Black-Athena-The-Afroasiatic-Roots-of-Classical-Civilization\">Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(3 vols., 1987\u20132006) that the racist and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/anti-Semitism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">anti-Semitic<\/a>\u00a0Orientalist discourse of the late 19th century (particularly but not exclusively in\u00a0Germany) obscured the borrowings of the classical Greeks from their Semitic and African neighbours. That there were borrowings, and that Orientalist discourse was racist and anti-Semitic, is beyond doubt, but these are findings made through ordinary historical investigation\u2014whose conventions Bernal did not violate, despite the speculative character of some of his conclusions. How much distortion there was would also seem to be an ordinary, though difficult, historical question (made more difficult by the claim that the Egyptians had an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/esoteric\" data-term=\"esoteric\" data-type=\"MW\">esoteric<\/a>\u00a0and unwritten philosophical tradition that has left no documentary traces but that may have been imparted to Greek thinkers).<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"one-good-fact-module\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The nativist subaltern historians deserve credit at least for raising the issue of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrity\" data-term=\"integrity\" data-type=\"MW\">integrity<\/a>\u00a0of imperialist historiography. However, the price to be paid by their approach is high: if there are no logical categories that are not culture-bound, then people from different cultures cannot have a meaningful argument\u2014or agreement\u2014because these require at least some mutual acceptance of what will count as evidence and how reasoning is to be done. Despite the logical vulnerabilities of their approach, nativist subaltern historians have\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/exerted\" data-term=\"exerted\" data-type=\"EB\">exerted<\/a>\u00a0a powerful influence on the historiography of\u00a0Asia\u00a0and Africa as well as that of Europe and even the United States.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<span class=\"md-signature\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/contributor\/Richard-T-Vann\/3043\">Richard T. Vann<\/a><\/span><span class=\"md-signature\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/editor\/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica\/4419\">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica<\/a><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"ai-dialog-placeholder\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/article>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"1\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<article class=\"article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content \" data-topic-id=\"380873\">\r\n<div class=\"grid gx-0\">\r\n<div class=\"col-auto\">\r\n<div class=\"topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open\">\r\n<div class=\"drawer d-flex flex-column open\">\r\n<div class=\"left-rail-section-content\">\r\n<div class=\"topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center\">\r\n<div class=\"tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left\"><a class=\"font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\">Middle Ages<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 \">\r\n<div class=\"toc mb-20\">\r\n<div class=\"font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20\">Table of Contents<\/div>\r\n<span class=\"toc-extra-link selected link-gray-900 mt-15\">Introduction &amp; Top Questions<\/span><a class=\"toc-extra-link link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\/additional-info\">References &amp; Edit History<\/a><a class=\"toc-extra-link link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/Middle-Ages\">Quick Facts &amp; Related Topics<\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30\"><a class=\"section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\/images-videos\">Images, Videos &amp; Interactives<\/a>\r\n<div class=\"slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex text-nowrap ml-15 rw-slider rw-prev-disabled\">\r\n<div class=\"rw-track\"><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/56\/115256-050-FD65A50D\/Illustration-calendar-section-book-prayers-Les-Tres.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/127425\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/56\/115256-004-BA362BF2\/Illustration-calendar-section-book-prayers-Les-Tres.jpg\" alt=\"calendar section of Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/101333\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-004-D6CAA30F\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" alt=\"Petrarch\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Enlightenment-historiography\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/241415\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/11\/189411-049-A3614224\/area-Eastern-Christianity-much-Mediterranean-right-map.jpg\" alt=\"Christianity in the Middle Ages\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16\/9\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"col-100\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/36\/180036-138-AF0011CE\/power-struggle-Henry-IV-Gregory-VII.jpg?w=400&amp;h=225&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"The origin of the expression walk to Canossa\" \/>\r\n<div class=\"btn btn-sm btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/18\/2218-004-21575605\/Illustration-manuscript-brothers-Les-Tres-Riches-Heures.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/94393\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/18\/2218-004-21575605\/Illustration-manuscript-brothers-Les-Tres-Riches-Heures.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration for the month of September from Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry, manuscript illuminated by the Limburg brothers, c. 1416; in the Mus\u00e9e Cond\u00e9, Chantilly, France.\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/79\/93579-050-F0C18EC9\/Chartres-Cathedral-France.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/94394\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/79\/93579-004-55EAAEBF\/Chartres-Cathedral-France.jpg\" alt=\"Chartres Cathedral\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16\/9\">\u00a0\r\n<div class=\"btn btn-sm btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/69\/46969-004-C36ECC36\/surcoat-Sculpture-man-sleeves-woman-skirt-detail-1300.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/39540\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/69\/46969-004-C36ECC36\/surcoat-Sculpture-man-sleeves-woman-skirt-detail-1300.jpg\" alt=\"medieval sculpture\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/39\/95639-050-91921503\/Peasants-fields-town.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/101890\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/39\/95639-004-12C47433\/Peasants-fields-town.jpg\" alt=\"Middle Ages\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/28\/4828-050-68B74DB6\/Anglo-Saxon-England.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/3808\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/28\/4828-004-3ECD4700\/Anglo-Saxon-England.jpg\" alt=\"Anglo-Saxon England\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-student-links\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10\">For Students<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/summary\/Middle-Ages\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"default \" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/mendel-resources\/3-131\/images\/shared\/default3.png?v=3.131.7\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/summary\/Middle-Ages\">Middle Ages summary<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-related-quizzes\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10\">Quizzes<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/19\/153419-131-91ADC6E8\/Ruins-statues-Karnak-Egypt.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\">History Buff Quiz<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/ancient-civilizations\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/49\/166349-131-66A6E2D7\/people-Stone-Age-weapons-tools-pieces-stone.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Three flint axes from the stone age. (prehistoric, tools, early humans, culture, archaeology, implements)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/ancient-civilizations\">Ancient Civilizations<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/medieval-history-quiz-part-three\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/41\/218641-131-A13D9A5D\/Pope-Boniface-VIII.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Miniature of Pope Boniface VIII from f. 3v of Vaticinia de Pontificibus (index Prophecies of the Popes); attributed to Joachim of Fiore. (illumniated manuscripts)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/medieval-history-quiz-part-three\">Medieval History Quiz: Part Three<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-related-questions\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 pb-0 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-15\">Related Questions<\/div>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li class=\"link-gray-900 mb-15\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/question\/What-was-the-role-of-Christendom\">What was the role of Christendom?<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"link-gray-900 mb-15\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/question\/What-were-the-major-artistic-eras-of-the-Middle-Ages\">What were the major artistic eras of the Middle Ages?<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li class=\"link-gray-900 mb-15\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/question\/What-socio-economic-system-is-perceived-as-characteristic-of-the-Middle-Ages\">What socio-economic system is perceived as characteristic of the Middle Ages?<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-discover\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10\">Discover<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col\">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 ml-0 \">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 grid gx-0 \">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 col-sm\">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 infinite-pagination-container d-flex flex-column position-relative\">\r\n<div class=\"position-absolute top-0 h-100 w-100\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 grey-box-top grey-box-bottom\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\"><nav class=\"breadcrumb mt-20\"><span class=\"breadcrumb-item \"><a class=\"link-gray-600\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Visual-Arts\">Visual Arts<\/a><\/span><span class=\"breadcrumb-item \"><a class=\"link-gray-600\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Architecture\">Architecture<\/a><\/span><\/nav>\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-true topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\" data-student-article=\"true\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"desktop-header-image module-spacing\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-20 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"13684\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media \" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/56\/115256-050-FD65A50D\/Illustration-calendar-section-book-prayers-Les-Tres.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/127425\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/56\/115256-050-FD65A50D\/Illustration-calendar-section-book-prayers-Les-Tres.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/56\/115256-050-FD65A50D\/Illustration-calendar-section-book-prayers-Les-Tres.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"calendar section of Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/56\/115256-050-FD65A50D\/Illustration-calendar-section-book-prayers-Les-Tres.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/127425\">calendar section of\u00a0<em>Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Illustration from the calendar section of\u00a0<em>Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry<\/em>, a \u201cbook of hours\u201d containing prayers to be recited. It was painted by the Limbourg brothers, Barth\u00e9lemy van Eyck and Jean Colombe, about 1416 and is now in the collection of the Mus\u00e9e Cond\u00e9, Chantilly, France.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"topic-header\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-top justify-content-between\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex flex-column\">\r\n<div>\r\n<div>\r\n<h1>Middle Ages<\/h1>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"topic-identifier font-16 font-md-20\">historical era<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"caption alternate-titles\">Also known as: le moyen \u00e2ge, media tempora, medieval period, medium aevium<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"md-byline module-spacing \">\r\n<div class=\"font-serif font-12\"><span class=\"written-by text-gray-700\">Written and fact-checked by\u00a0<\/span> <span class=\"btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline\">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"last-updated font-12 font-serif\"><a class=\"byline-edit-history\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\/additional-info#history\" rel=\"nofollow\">Article History<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded\">\r\n<div class=\"qf-title font-weight-bold font-14 mb-10 text-center\">Quick Facts<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"facts-list mt-10\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Date:<\/dt>\r\n<dd>500 &#8211; 1500<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Location:<\/dt>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Europe\">Europe<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Context:<\/dt>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/humanism\">humanism<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Major Events:<\/dt>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Dark-Ages\">Migration period<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Key People:<\/dt>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Arthur-M-Sackler\">Arthur M. Sackler<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"text-center\"><a class=\"btn btn-sm btn-link p-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/Middle-Ages\">See all related content<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"top-questions qa-accordion d-flex flex-column module-spacing\">\r\n<div class=\"font-weight-bold font-14 mb-5\">Top Questions<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"intent-accordion\" class=\"md-intent-accordion\">\r\n<div class=\"top-question bg-gray-50 rounded\" data-value=\"1\">\r\n<div class=\"pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center\">\r\n<div>When did the Middle Ages begin?<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"top-question bg-gray-50 rounded\" data-value=\"2\">\r\n<div class=\"pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center\">\r\n<div>What was the role of Christendom?<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"top-question bg-gray-50 rounded\" data-value=\"3\">\r\n<div class=\"pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center\">\r\n<div>How long did the Migration Period last?<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref1\" data-level=\"1\">\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><strong><span id=\"ref145873\"><\/span>Middle Ages<\/strong>, the period in\u00a0<span id=\"ref908214\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-Europe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">European history<\/a>\u00a0from the collapse of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Rome\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roman civilization<\/a>\u00a0in the 5th century\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>\u00a0to the period of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Renaissance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a>\u00a0(variously interpreted as beginning in the 13th, 14th, or 15th century, depending on the region of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Europe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Europe<\/a>\u00a0and other factors).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A brief treatment of the Middle Ages follows. For full treatment,\u00a0<em>see<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-Europe\/The-Middle-Ages#ref58260\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Europe, history of: The Middle Ages<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"101333\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/101333\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Petrarch\" data-width=\"1213\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/101333\">Petrarch<\/a>Petrarch, engraving.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/term-logic\" data-show-preview=\"true\">term<\/a>\u00a0and its conventional meaning were introduced by Italian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/humanism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">humanists<\/a>\u00a0with invidious intent. The\u00a0<span id=\"ref145874\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/humanism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">humanists<\/a>\u00a0were engaged in a revival of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/classical-scholarship\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Classical learning<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/culture\" data-term=\"culture\" data-type=\"MW\">culture<\/a>, and the notion of a thousand-year period of darkness and ignorance separating them from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Greece\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancient Greek<\/a>\u00a0and Roman world served to highlight the humanists\u2019 own work and ideals. It would seem unnecessary to observe that the men and women who lived during the thousand years or so preceding the Renaissance were not conscious of living in the Middle Ages. A few\u2014<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Petrarch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Petrarch<\/a>\u00a0was the most\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conspicuous\" data-term=\"conspicuous\" data-type=\"MW\">conspicuous<\/a>\u00a0among them\u2014felt that their lot was cast in a dark time, which had begun with the decline of the Roman Empire. Indeed, Petrarch would provide something of a founding statement for the humanists when he wrote, \u201cFor who can doubt that Rome would rise again instantly if she began to know herself?\u201d<\/p>\r\n<a class=\"link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\" data-link-module-iframe-link=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-sm mr-15\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/19\/153419-131-91ADC6E8\/Ruins-statues-Karnak-Egypt.jpg\" alt=\"Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)\" width=\"70\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"line-clamp clamp-5\">\r\n<div class=\"module-title bg-green\">Britannica Quiz<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"font-weight-semi-bold mt-5\">History Buff Quiz<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In a sense, the humanists invented the Middle Ages in order to distinguish themselves from it. They were making a gesture of their sense of freedom, and yet, at the same time, they were implicitly accepting the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of history as a series of well-defined ages within a limited framework of time. They did not speak of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Augustine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Augustine<\/a>\u2019s Six Ages of the World or believe in the chronology of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Joachim-of-Fiore\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Joachimite prophecy<\/a>, but they nevertheless inherited a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy-of-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy of history<\/a>\u00a0that began with the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Garden-of-Eden\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Garden of Eden<\/a>\u00a0and would end with the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Second-Coming\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Second Coming<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jesus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christ<\/a>. In such a scheme, the thousand years from the 5th to the 15th century might well be regarded as a distinct respectable period of history, which would stand out clearly in the providential pattern. Throughout European history, however, there has never been a complete\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/breach\" data-term=\"breach\" data-type=\"MW\">breach<\/a>\u00a0with medieval institutions or modes of thought.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The sack of Rome by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Alaric\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Alaric<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Visigoth\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Visigoth<\/a>\u00a0in 410\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>\u00a0had enormous impact on the political structure and social climate of the Western world, for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Roman-Empire\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roman Empire<\/a>\u00a0had provided the basis of social cohesion for most of Europe. Although the Germanic tribes that forcibly migrated into southern and western Europe in the 5th century were ultimately converted to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christianity<\/a>, they retained many of their customs and ways of life. The changes in forms of social organization they introduced rendered centralized government and cultural unity impossible. Many of the improvements in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/quality-of-life\" data-show-preview=\"true\">quality of life<\/a>\u00a0introduced during the Roman Empire, such as a relatively efficient agriculture, extensive\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/Roman-road-system\" data-show-preview=\"true\">road networks<\/a>, water-supply systems, and shipping routes, decayed substantially, as did artistic and scholarly endeavours.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"mb-20\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"241415\" data-asm-type=\"interactive\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"interactive\">\r\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/11\/189411-101-0A0EA6B3\/default.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This decline persisted throughout the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Dark-Ages\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Migration period<\/a>, a historical period sometimes called the\u00a0<span id=\"ref908215\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Dark-Ages\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Dark Ages<\/a>, Late Antiquity, or the Early Middle Ages. The Migration period lasted from the fall of Rome to about the year 1000, with a brief\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hiatus\" data-term=\"hiatus\" data-type=\"MW\">hiatus<\/a>\u00a0during the flowering of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Carolingian-dynasty\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Carolingian<\/a>\u00a0court established by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charlemagne\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Charlemagne<\/a>. Apart from that interlude, no large political structure arose in Europe to provide stability. Two great kingdoms,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Germany\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Germany<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Italy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Italy<\/a>, began to lose their political unity almost as soon as they had acquired it; they had to wait until the 19th century before they found it again. The only force capable of providing a basis for social unity was the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Roman-Catholicism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roman Catholic Church<\/a>. The Middle Ages therefore present the confusing and often contradictory picture of a society attempting to structure itself politically on a spiritual basis. This attempt came to a definitive end with the rise of artistic, commercial, and other activities anchored firmly in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/secular\" data-term=\"secular\" data-type=\"MW\">secular<\/a>\u00a0world in the period just preceding the Renaissance.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"193818\" data-asm-type=\"video\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"video\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/video\/power-struggle-Henry-IV-Gregory-VII\/-193818\" data-id=\"180036\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/36\/180036-138-AF0011CE\/power-struggle-Henry-IV-Gregory-VII.jpg?w=800&amp;h=450&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"The origin of the expression walk to Canossa\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><span class=\"md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption\">The origin of the expression\u00a0<em>walk to Canossa<\/em><\/span>Learn about the power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of Germany, including the king&#8217;s walk to Canossa.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<a class=\"font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\/images-videos\">See all videos for this article<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">After the dissolution of the Roman Empire, the idea arose of Europe as one large\u00a0<span id=\"ref145875\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/church-and-state\" data-show-preview=\"true\">church-state<\/a>, called\u00a0<span id=\"ref908220\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Christendom\">Christendom<\/a>. Christendom was thought to consist of two distinct groups of functionaries: the\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref908221\"><\/span>sacerdotium<\/em>, or\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ecclesiastical\" data-term=\"ecclesiastical\" data-type=\"MW\">ecclesiastical<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hierarchy\" data-term=\"hierarchy\" data-type=\"MW\">hierarchy<\/a>, and the\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref908222\"><\/span>imperium<\/em>, or secular leaders. In theory, these two groups complemented each other, attending to people\u2019s spiritual and temporal needs, respectively. Supreme authority was wielded by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/pope\" data-show-preview=\"true\">pope<\/a>\u00a0in the first of these areas and by the emperor in the second. In practice, the two institutions were constantly sparring, disagreeing, or openly warring with each other. The emperors often tried to regulate church activities by claiming the right to appoint church officials and to intervene in doctrinal matters. The church, in turn, not only owned cities and armies but often attempted to regulate affairs of state. This\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/tension\" data-term=\"tension\" data-type=\"EB\">tension<\/a>\u00a0would reach a breaking point in the late 11th and early 12th centuries during the clash between Emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Henry-IV-Holy-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Henry IV<\/a>\u00a0and Pope\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Gregory-VII\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gregory VII<\/a>\u00a0over the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Investiture-Controversy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">question of lay investiture<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\r\n<div class=\"marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content\" data-marketing-id=\"INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-wrapper\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/BlueThistle.webp\" \/><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white\">\r\n<div class=\"h2 mb-10\">Get Unlimited Access<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"h4 font-weight-semi-bold\">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto\"><a class=\"btn btn-m btn-orange\" href=\"https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&amp;utm_medium=inline-cta&amp;utm_campaign=august-2024\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"94393\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/18\/2218-004-21575605\/Illustration-manuscript-brothers-Les-Tres-Riches-Heures.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/94393\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/18\/2218-004-21575605\/Illustration-manuscript-brothers-Les-Tres-Riches-Heures.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/18\/2218-004-21575605\/Illustration-manuscript-brothers-Les-Tres-Riches-Heures.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Illustration for the month of September from Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry, manuscript illuminated by the Limburg brothers, c. 1416; in the Mus\u00e9e Cond\u00e9, Chantilly, France.\" data-width=\"183\" data-height=\"300\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/18\/2218-004-21575605\/Illustration-manuscript-brothers-Les-Tres-Riches-Heures.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/94393\">Illustration for the month of September from\u00a0<em>Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du duc de Berry<\/em>, manuscript illuminated by the Limburg brothers,\u00a0<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01416; in the Mus\u00e9e Cond\u00e9, Chantilly, France.<\/a><button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">During the 12th century a cultural and economic revival took place; many historians trace the origins of the\u00a0<span id=\"ref908226\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Renaissance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a>\u00a0to this time. The balance of economic power slowly began to shift from the region of the eastern Mediterranean to western Europe. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Gothic-art\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gothic<\/a>\u00a0style developed in art and architecture. Towns began to flourish, travel and communication became faster, safer, and easier, and merchant classes began to develop. Agricultural developments were one reason for these developments; during the 12th century the cultivation of beans made a balanced diet available to all social classes for the first time in history. The population therefore rapidly expanded, a factor that eventually led to the breakup of the old\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/feudalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">feudal<\/a>\u00a0structures.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"94394\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/79\/93579-050-F0C18EC9\/Chartres-Cathedral-France.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/94394\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/79\/93579-050-F0C18EC9\/Chartres-Cathedral-France.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/79\/93579-050-F0C18EC9\/Chartres-Cathedral-France.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Chartres Cathedral\" width=\"689\" height=\"459\" data-width=\"1600\" data-height=\"1067\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/79\/93579-050-F0C18EC9\/Chartres-Cathedral-France.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/380873\/94394\">Chartres Cathedral<\/a>Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France, completed mid-13th century.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The 13th century was the apex of medieval civilization. The classic formulations of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Gothic-architecture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gothic architecture<\/a>\u00a0and sculpture were achieved. Many different kinds of social units proliferated, including guilds, associations, civic councils, and monastic chapters, each eager to obtain some measure of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/autonomy\" data-term=\"autonomy\" data-type=\"MW\">autonomy<\/a>. The crucial legal concept of\u00a0<span id=\"ref908225\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/representation-government\" data-show-preview=\"true\">representation<\/a>\u00a0developed, resulting in the political assembly whose members had\u00a0<em>plena potestas<\/em>\u2014full power\u2014to make decisions binding upon the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/communities\" data-term=\"communities\" data-type=\"MW\">communities<\/a>\u00a0that had selected them.\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Intellectual\" data-term=\"Intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">Intellectual<\/a>\u00a0life, dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, culminated in the philosophical method of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Scholasticism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Scholasticism<\/a>, whose preeminent exponent,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Thomas-Aquinas\" data-show-preview=\"true\">St. Thomas Aquinas<\/a>, achieved in his writings on\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Aristotle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Aristotle<\/a>\u00a0and the Church Fathers one of the greatest syntheses in Western\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">intellectual history<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"one-good-fact-module\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"195265\" data-asm-type=\"video\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"video\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/video\/religion\/-195265\" data-id=\"179839\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/39\/179839-138-96243FDA\/religion.jpg?w=800&amp;h=450&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Christianity and superstition in the Middle Ages\" width=\"1029\" height=\"579\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><span class=\"md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption\">Christianity and superstition in the Middle Ages<\/span>Learn about religion in the Middle Ages.<\/div>\r\n<a class=\"font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\/images-videos\">See all videos for this article<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The breakup of feudal structures, the strengthening of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/city-state\" data-show-preview=\"true\">city-states<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Italy\/History#ref27618\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Italy<\/a>, and the emergence of national monarchies in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Spain\/United-Spain-under-the-Catholic-Monarchs#ref70383\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Spain<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/France\/France-1180-to-c-1490#ref40322\" data-show-preview=\"true\">France<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\/History#ref215134\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>, as well as such cultural developments as the rise of secular education, culminated in the birth of a self-consciously new age with a new spirit, one that looked all the way back to Classical learning for its inspiration and that came to be known as the Renaissance.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<span class=\"md-signature\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/editor\/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica\/4419\">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica<\/a><\/span><span class=\"md-signature\">This article was most recently revised and updated by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/editor\/Adam-Augustyn\/6394\">Adam Augustyn<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"ai-dialog-placeholder\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/article>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"2\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<article class=\"article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded\" data-topic-id=\"267436\">\r\n<div class=\"grid gx-0\">\r\n<div class=\"col-auto\">\r\n<div class=\"topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open\">\r\n<div class=\"drawer d-flex flex-column open\">\r\n<div class=\"left-rail-section-content\">\r\n<div class=\"topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center\">\r\n<div class=\"tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left\"><a class=\"font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\">historiography<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 \">\r\n<div class=\"toc mb-20\">\r\n<div class=\"font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20\">Table of Contents<\/div>\r\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled my-0\" data-level=\"h1\">\r\n<li class=\"\" data-target=\"#ref1\">\r\n<div class=\"pl-25\"><a class=\"link-gray-900 w-100\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\">Introduction<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"spy-parent spy-active-parent\" data-target=\"#ref58846\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-center\"><button class=\"h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Toggle Heading\"><\/button><a class=\"w-100 link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography#ref58846\">History of historiography<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"spy-parent\" data-target=\"#ref274949\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-center\"><button class=\"h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Toggle Heading\"><\/button><a class=\"w-100 link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Branches-of-history\">Branches of history<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li class=\"spy-parent\" data-target=\"#ref274961\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-center\"><button class=\"h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Toggle Heading\"><\/button><a class=\"w-100 link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Methodology-of-historiography\">Methodology of historiography<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<a class=\"toc-extra-link link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/additional-info\">References &amp; Edit History<\/a><a class=\"toc-extra-link link-gray-900\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/historiography\">Related Topics<\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30\"><a class=\"section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/images-videos\">Images &amp; Videos<\/a>\r\n<div class=\"slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden 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href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/33\/83533-050-0BBC29DD\/Moses-children-illustration-Israel-Red-Sea-Bible.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110224\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/33\/83533-004-4C8266C9\/Moses-children-illustration-Israel-Red-Sea-Bible.jpg\" alt=\"Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-050-52BF26C4\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110263\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-004-08DCE6BD\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg\" alt=\"Herotodus\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/58\/43558-050-2E938742\/St-Mark-manuscript-page-school-Gospel-Book.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110442\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/58\/43558-004-D1A3D418\/St-Mark-manuscript-page-school-Gospel-Book.jpg\" alt=\"St. Mark depiction in illuminated manuscript\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/101333\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-004-D6CAA30F\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" alt=\"Petrarch\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/27\/94127-050-836E9D81\/Niccolo-Machiavelli-oil-canvas-Santi-di-Tito.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110522\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/27\/94127-004-31D1C17E\/Niccolo-Machiavelli-oil-canvas-Santi-di-Tito.jpg\" alt=\"Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/82\/46782-004-3E7303D3\/Self-portrait-oil-canvas-Giorgio-Vasari-Uffizi-Gallery.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/72296\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/82\/46782-004-3E7303D3\/Self-portrait-oil-canvas-Giorgio-Vasari-Uffizi-Gallery.jpg\" alt=\"Giorgio Vasari\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/97\/115497-050-7D8CC20E\/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110528\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/97\/115497-004-850B5BCD\/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg\" alt=\"Martin Luther\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><a class=\"media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5 rw-slide\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/37\/100237-050-347F028F\/Justinian-I-mosaic-Basilica-of-San-Vitale.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110575\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/37\/100237-004-B5CB2808\/Justinian-I-mosaic-Basilica-of-San-Vitale.jpg\" alt=\"Justinian I\" height=\"50\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-student-links\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10\">For Students<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/summary\/historiography\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-050-52BF26C4\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Herodotus, detail of a Roman herm probably copied from a Greek original of the first half of the 4th century bce; in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/summary\/historiography\">historiography summary<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-related-quizzes\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10\">Quizzes<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/19\/153419-131-91ADC6E8\/Ruins-statues-Karnak-Egypt.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\">History Buff Quiz<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"mb-30 tlr-discover\">\r\n<div class=\"text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10\">Discover<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/28\/188528-131-D58974EF\/Marie-Antoinette-Louis-XVI-unrest-monarchy-overthrow-France-August-1792.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Jean-Francois Janinet, 1777. Color etching and engraving with gold leaf printed on two sheets, 30x13.5 in.\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake\">Did Marie-Antoinette Really Say \u201cLet Them Eat Cake\u201d?<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/list\/12-novels-considered-the-greatest-book-ever-written\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/142355-131-EFF621AF\/books-Stack-literature-pile-reading-entertainment-society-2010.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/list\/12-novels-considered-the-greatest-book-ever-written\">12 Novels Considered the \u201cGreatest Book Ever Written\u201d<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/who-was-the-first-woman-to-run-for-president-of-the-united-states\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/11\/113311-131-8848D08B\/Victoria-Woodhull-woman-suffrage-US-House-of-1871.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives receiving a deputation of female suffragists, January 11, 1871, a lady delegate (identified as Victoria Woodhull) reading her argument (cont'd)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/who-was-the-first-woman-to-run-for-president-of-the-united-states\">Who Was the First Woman to Run for President of the United States?<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/do-birds-pee\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/21\/246221-131-C42F1822\/black-headed-gulls-roof-droppings.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Black-headed gulls perching on a roof with bird droppings, often seen in flocks around London, England, in winter time. The &quot;black head&quot; develops during the breeding season. (black headed, birds, guano, bird poop)\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/do-birds-pee\">Do Birds Pee?<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/st-lucias-day\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/64\/172564-131-81FFC0BD\/statue-display-Saint-Lucy-Syracuse-celebration-Italy.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Saint Lucy. St. Lucia's Day. Saint Lucia Day. Feast of Saint Lucia procession in Syracuse, Italy, December 13. Marks beginning of Christmas season. Christian saint, virgin and martyr died 304 when her neck was pierced by a sword. Luciadagen\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/st-lucias-day\">St. Lucia\u2019s Day<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/63\/194863-131-E49C6B35\/Coriander-leaves-cilantro-herbs-background.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Coriander leaves, fresh green cilantro on wooden background, herbs\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/why-does-cilantro-taste-like-soap-to-some-people\">Why Does Cilantro Taste Like Soap to Some People?<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10\">\r\n<div class=\"position-relative card-media\"><a class=\"ilf-image position-relative\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/was-santa-claus-a-real-person\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/92\/202092-131-ACFF5B40\/Santa-Claus-sleigh.jpg?w=200&amp;h=200&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Santa Claus flying in his sleigh, christmas, reindeer\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"card-body ilf-content\"><a class=\"font-weight-semi-bold d-block mb-5 font-16 ilf-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/story\/was-santa-claus-a-real-person\">Was Santa Claus a Real Person?<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col\">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 ml-0 \">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 grid gx-0 \">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 col-sm\">\r\n<div class=\"h-100 infinite-pagination-container d-flex flex-column position-relative\">\r\n<div class=\"position-absolute top-0 h-100 w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"toc-sticky-header bg-gray-50 px-10 px-sm-30 position-sticky w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"toc-sticky-header-inner-container align-items-center d-flex mx-auto h-100 w-100\"><button class=\"ai-ask-button btn border-2 js-header-ai-ask-button btn-sm btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 mr-0 mr-lg-10 ml-5 ml-sm-10 ml-lg-0 p-10\">Ask the Chatbot a Question<\/button>\r\n<div class=\"header-ai-summarize-button-placeholder\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 grey-box-top\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\"><nav class=\"breadcrumb mt-20\"><span class=\"breadcrumb-item \"><a class=\"link-gray-600\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Philosophy-Religion\">Philosophy &amp; Religion<\/a><\/span><span class=\"breadcrumb-item \"><a class=\"link-gray-600\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/browse\/Humanities\">Humanities<\/a><\/span><\/nav>\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-true topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\" data-student-article=\"false\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"desktop-header-image module-spacing\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-20 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"13684\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media \" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/17\/99017-050-F31471D6\/Title-page-Histoire-de-la-Nouvelle-France.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/162967\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/17\/99017-050-F31471D6\/Title-page-Histoire-de-la-Nouvelle-France.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/17\/99017-050-F31471D6\/Title-page-Histoire-de-la-Nouvelle-France.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"Histoire de la Nouvelle France\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/17\/99017-050-F31471D6\/Title-page-Histoire-de-la-Nouvelle-France.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/162967\"><em>Histoire de la Nouvelle France<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Title page of\u00a0<em>Histoire de la Nouvelle France<\/em>\u00a0(1609;\u00a0<em>History of New France<\/em>) by Marc Lescarbot.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"topic-header\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex align-items-top justify-content-between\">\r\n<div class=\"d-flex flex-column\">\r\n<div>\r\n<div>\r\n<h1>historiography<\/h1>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"md-byline module-spacing \">\r\n<div class=\"font-serif font-12\"><span class=\"btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline\">Richard T. Vann<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"font-serif font-12 text-gray-700\"><span class=\"qa-fact-checked-by\">Fact-checked by<\/span> <span class=\"btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 \">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"last-updated font-12 font-serif\"><span class=\"text-gray-700\">Last Updated:\u00a0<time datetime=\"2024-11-15T00:00:00CST\">Nov 15, 2024<\/time>\u00a0\u2022<\/span>\u00a0<a class=\"byline-edit-history\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/additional-info#history\" rel=\"nofollow\">Article History<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded\">\r\n<div class=\"facts-list mt-10\">\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Key People:<\/dt>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Quentin-Skinner\">Quentin Skinner<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Samuel-Freiherr-von-Pufendorf\">Samuel, baron von Pufendorf<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johann-Joachim-Winckelmann\">Johann Winckelmann<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Joan-Wallach-Scott\">Joan Wallach Scott<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lodovico-Antonio-Muratori\">Lodovico Antonio Muratori<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><em class=\"js-content link-blue\">(Show\u00a0more)<\/em><\/button><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"\">\r\n<div class=\"js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\r\n<dl>\r\n<dt>Related Topics:<\/dt>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/calendar\">calendar<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/eponym-list\">eponym list<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sequence-dating\">sequence dating<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/king-list\">king list<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<dd><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sabbatical-cycle\">sabbatical cycle<\/a><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"text-center\"><a class=\"btn btn-sm btn-link p-0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/facts\/historiography\">See all related content<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref1\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><strong><span id=\"ref523863\"><\/span>historiography<\/strong>, the writing of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>, especially the writing of history based on the critical examination of sources, the selection of particular details from the authentic materials in those sources, and the synthesis of those details into a narrative that stands the test of critical examination. The term historiography also refers to the theory and\u00a0<span id=\"ref523862\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0of historical writing.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Modern historians aim to reconstruct a record of human activities and to achieve a more profound understanding of them. This\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of their task is quite recent, dating from the development in the late 18th and early 19th centuries of \u201cscientific\u201d history and the simultaneous rise of history as an academic profession. It springs from an outlook that is very new in human experience: the assumption that the study of history is a natural, inevitable human activity. Before the late 18th century, historiography did not stand at the centre of any civilization. History was almost never an important part of regular\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/education\" data-show-preview=\"true\">education<\/a>, and it never claimed to provide an interpretation of human life as a whole. This larger ambition was more appropriate to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>, and perhaps\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/poetry\" data-show-preview=\"true\">poetry<\/a>\u00a0and other imaginative\u00a0<span id=\"ref523868\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">literature<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref58846\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h1\">History of historiography<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">All human\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/cultures\" data-term=\"cultures\" data-type=\"MW\">cultures<\/a>\u00a0tell stories about the past. Deeds of ancestors, heroes, gods, or animals sacred to particular peoples were chanted and memorized long before there was any\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/writing\" data-show-preview=\"true\">writing<\/a>\u00a0with which to record them. Their truth was authenticated by the very fact of their continued repetition. History, which may be defined as an account that purports to be true of events and ways of thinking and feeling in some part of the human past, stems from this archetypal human narrative activity.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">While sharing a common ancestry with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/myth\" data-show-preview=\"true\">myth<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/legend\" data-term=\"legend\" data-type=\"MW\">legend<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/heroic-poetry\" data-show-preview=\"true\">epic poetry<\/a>, and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/novel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">novel<\/a>, history has of course diverged from these forms. Its claim to truth is based in part on the fact that all the persons or events it describes really existed or occurred at some time in the past. Historians can say nothing about these persons or events that cannot be supported, or at least suggested, by some kind of documentary evidence. Such evidence customarily takes the form of something written, such as a letter, a law, an administrative record, or the account of some previous historian. In addition, historians sometimes create their own evidence by interviewing people. In the 20th century the scope of historical evidence was greatly expanded to include, among many other things, aerial photographs, the rings of trees, old coins, clothes, motion pictures, and houses. Modern historians have determined the age of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Shroud-of-Turin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Shroud of Turin<\/a>, which purportedly bears the image of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jesus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jesus<\/a>, through\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/carbon-14-dating\" data-show-preview=\"true\">carbon-14 dating<\/a>\u00a0and have discredited the claim of Anna Anderson to be the grand duchess\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Anastasia-Russian-grand-duchess\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Anastasia<\/a>, the daughter of Tsar\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Nicholas-II-tsar-of-Russia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nicholas II<\/a>, through\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/DNA-fingerprinting\" data-show-preview=\"true\">DNA testing<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Just as the methods at the disposal of historians have expanded, so have the subjects in they have become interested. Many of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/indigenous\" data-term=\"indigenous\" data-type=\"MW\">indigenous<\/a>\u00a0peoples of Africa, the Americas, and Polynesia, for example, were long dismissed by Europeans as having no precolonial history, because they did not keep written records before the arrival of European explorers. However, sophisticated study of oral traditions, combined with advances in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/archaeology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">archaeology<\/a>, has made it possible to discover a good deal about the civilizations and empires that flourished in these regions before European contact.<\/p>\r\n<a class=\"link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\" data-link-module-iframe-link=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-sm mr-15\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/19\/153419-131-91ADC6E8\/Ruins-statues-Karnak-Egypt.jpg\" alt=\"Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)\" width=\"70\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"line-clamp clamp-5\">\r\n<div class=\"module-title bg-green\">Britannica Quiz<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"font-weight-semi-bold mt-5\">History Buff Quiz<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Historians have also studied new\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-class\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social classes<\/a>. The earliest histories were mostly stories of disasters\u2014floods, famines, and plagues\u2014or of wars, including the statesmen and generals who figured in them. In the 20th century, however, historians shifted their focus from statesmen and generals to ordinary workers and soldiers. Until relatively recent times, however, most men and virtually all women were excluded from history because they were unable to write. Virtually all that was known about them passed through the filter of the attitudes of literate elites. The challenge of seeing through that filter has been met by historians in various ways. One way is to make use of nontraditional sources\u2014for example, personal documents, such as wills or marriage contracts. Another is to look at the records of localities rather than of central governments.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Through these means even the most oppressed peoples\u2014African-American\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/slavery-sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slaves<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/heresy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">heretics<\/a>, for example\u2014have had at least some of their history restored. Since the 20th century some historians have also become interested in psychological repression\u2014i.e., in attitudes and actions that require psychological insight and even\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/diagnosis\" data-term=\"diagnosis\" data-type=\"MW\">diagnosis<\/a>\u00a0to recover and understand. For the first time, the claim of historians to deal with the feelings as well as the thoughts of people in any part of the human past has been made good.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\r\n<div class=\"marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content\" data-marketing-id=\"INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-wrapper\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20\">\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/marketing\/BlueThistle.webp\" \/><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white\">\r\n<div class=\"h2 mb-10\">Get Unlimited Access<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"h4 font-weight-semi-bold\">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto\"><a class=\"btn btn-m btn-orange\" href=\"https:\/\/premium.britannica.com\/premium-membership\/?utm_source=premium&amp;utm_medium=inline-cta&amp;utm_campaign=august-2024\">Subscribe<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"one-good-fact-module\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">None of this is to say that history writing has assumed a perfect or completed form. It will never do so: examination of its past reveals remarkable changes in historical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consciousness\" data-term=\"consciousness\" data-type=\"MW\">consciousness<\/a> rather than steady progress toward the standards of research and writing that represent the best that historians can do today. Nevertheless, 21st-century historians understand the pasts of more people more completely and more accurately than their predecessors did. This article demonstrates the scope of that accomplishment and how it came to be achieved.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section id=\"ref58847\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\">Ancient historiography<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284306\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">The first histories<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In the beginning was the spoken word. Humans lived for tens of thousands of years with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/language\" data-show-preview=\"true\">language<\/a>, and thus with tales about the past, but without writing. Oral\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0is still important in all parts of the world, and successful transmission of stories over many generations suggests that people without writing can have a sophisticated historical sense. The historical record, however, must start with a system of writing and a suitable writing technology. The earliest forms of writing included\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/cuneiform\" data-show-preview=\"true\">cuneiform<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/pictography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">pictographs<\/a>, which were inscribed on stone and clay tablets in Egypt and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Mesopotamia-historical-region-Asia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Mesopotamia<\/a>, as well as Chinese ideograms, which were incised in bronze and on oracle bones (baked oxen bones whose cracks and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/fissures\" data-term=\"fissures\" data-type=\"MW\">fissures<\/a>\u00a0were thought to foretell the future). People in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/China\/History#ref214398\" data-show-preview=\"true\">China<\/a>\u00a0were the first to make records of their contemporaries, which took the form of lists of kings and ancestors.<\/p>\r\n<section id=\"ref284307\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref523879\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Egypt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Egypt<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<span id=\"ref523880\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Mesopotamian-art\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Mesopotamia<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In Egypt, the first lists date from about the middle of the 3rd millennium\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u00a0and extend back another 1,000 years to a time when kings were thought to mingle with gods. Entries were made year by year, making these lists among the earliest annals. In addition to the names of kings, events occasionally are mentioned, especially for the later years; but it is hard to understand on what principle they are included. Sandwiched between notations of offerings to the gods are such\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/enigmatic\" data-term=\"enigmatic\" data-type=\"MW\">enigmatic<\/a>\u00a0references as \u201cSmiting of the cave dwellers.\u201d Despite their occasional obscurity, these early historians accomplished the considerable task of organizing the past into units of the same size (years) and assigning events to them.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The king-lists of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Sumer\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sumerians<\/a>, the oldest civilization in Mesopotamia, not only presented the order of rulers but described shifts in power as various kings were \u201csmitten with weapons\u201d and overthrown. The Sumerians were also capable of weaving events into a narrative. A Sumerian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/stela\" data-show-preview=\"true\">stela<\/a>, or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/megalith\" data-show-preview=\"true\">standing stone<\/a>\u00a0slab, dating from about 2,400\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u00a0records what is probably the world\u2019s first historical narrative. The Stele of the Vultures was erected by the city of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Lagash\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lagash<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/commemorate\" data-term=\"commemorate\" data-type=\"MW\">commemorate<\/a>\u00a0its victory in a boundary\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>\u00a0with Umma; it contains depictions of warriors in battle gear and an inscription celebrating the triumph.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Sumerian writers seem to have developed their own interpretation of history. This interpretation is reflected in the preoccupation of the king-lists with the transitory nature of royal power and in the Sumerian belief that natural phenomena (notably the behaviour of the Euphrates River) are determined by the gods. Although Sumerian gods could be bungling and cowardly and sometimes even subject to fate, they retained the power to punish humans who offended them. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/vicissitudes\" data-term=\"vicissitudes\" data-type=\"MW\">vicissitudes<\/a>\u00a0of kings and states were thought to demonstrate the gods\u2019 power to influence human affairs.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284308\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref523914\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-China\" data-show-preview=\"true\">China<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110223\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/52\/12952-004-A711EC54\/Oracle-bone-inscriptions-village-Henan-province-Xiaotun.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110223\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/52\/12952-004-A711EC54\/Oracle-bone-inscriptions-village-Henan-province-Xiaotun.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/52\/12952-004-A711EC54\/Oracle-bone-inscriptions-village-Henan-province-Xiaotun.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Oracle bone inscriptions\" width=\"963\" height=\"1300\" data-width=\"333\" data-height=\"450\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/52\/12952-004-A711EC54\/Oracle-bone-inscriptions-village-Henan-province-Xiaotun.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110223\">Oracle bone inscriptions<\/a>Oracle bone inscriptions from the village of Xiaotun, Henan province, China; Shang dynasty, 14th or 12th century\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A rich and persistent annalistic tradition and a growing emphasis on history as a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/repertoire\" data-term=\"repertoire\" data-type=\"MW\">repertoire<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0examples characterized the earliest\u00a0<span id=\"ref523913\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Chinese-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Chinese<\/a>\u00a0historiography. The first Chinese historians were apparently temple archivists; as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bureaucratic\" data-term=\"bureaucratic\" data-type=\"MW\">bureaucratic<\/a>\u00a0structure of the Chinese state developed, historians occupied high offices. History gained\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/prestige\" data-term=\"prestige\" data-type=\"MW\">prestige<\/a>\u00a0through the thought of the philosopher\u00a0<span id=\"ref523915\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Confucius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Confucius<\/a>\u00a0(551\u2013479\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>), who was traditionally\u2014though probably wrongly\u2014credited with writing the\u00a0<em>Chunqiu<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cSpring and Autumn [Annals]\u201d) and the\u00a0<em>Shujing<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cClassic of History\u201d). As\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/articulated\" data-term=\"articulated\" data-type=\"MW\">articulated<\/a>\u00a0in these works, Chinese historical thought was intensely moralistic: virtue was conceived as following the example of one\u2019s ancestors. There was consistent interest in the form of governing institutions and frequent emphasis on the doctrine of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Mandate\" data-term=\"Mandate\" data-type=\"MW\">Mandate<\/a>\u00a0of Heaven\u2014the idea that a monarch ruled by heaven\u2019s decree, which would be withdrawn if he committed evil.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The foundational text of Chinese historiography is the\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref523917\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Shiji\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Shiji<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cHistorical Records\u201d), which was compiled by\u00a0<span id=\"ref523918\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Sima-Qian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sima Qian<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0145\u2013<em>c.<\/em>\u00a086\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>). It is an account of the entire\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-China\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history of China<\/a>\u00a0from mythical times through the establishment of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Han-dynasty\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Han dynasty<\/a>\u00a0in 206\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>. The story becomes more detailed as Sima Qian approaches his own time and is able to question eyewitnesses of events and make use of abundant official documents. Sima Qian introduced order into the welter of surviving records by organizing them into categories.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The classical Chinese historians made an ideal of objectivity. Although they\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/eschewed\" data-term=\"eschewed\" data-type=\"MW\">eschewed<\/a>\u00a0interpretation of the historical record, they were often faced with conflicting sources. In such cases they typically chose only one, though they never referred to their sources or explained the choices they made. Historical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0in China was constrained by propriety because of the high cultural value of ancestors; anything like the contentiousness of the Greeks would have been regarded as most unseemly (<em>see below<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Greek-historiography#ref284310\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Greek historiography<\/a>).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">By about 710\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>, however,\u00a0<span id=\"ref523919\"><\/span>Liu Zhiji (661\u2013721) had produced the\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1049809\"><\/span>Shitong<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cHistorical Perspectives\u201d), the first\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprehensive\" data-term=\"comprehensive\" data-type=\"MW\">comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0work on historical criticism in any language. For him, the writing of history had an exalted\u2014and very Confucian\u2014mission:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>Man lives in his bodily shape between heaven and earth and his life is like the span of the summer fly, like the passing of a white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall. Yet he is shamed to think that within those years his merit will not be known\u2026there is truly none who is not tireless in pursuing merit and fame.\u2026Why is this? Because all have their heart set on immortality. And what, then, is immortality? No more than to have one\u2019s name written in a book.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Liu Zhiji\u2019s view had a lasting influence. Indeed, some of his maxims are still recommended to beginning historians:\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/skepticism\" data-term=\"skepticism\" data-type=\"MW\">skepticism<\/a>\u00a0about the sources, freedom from deference to established scholars, the necessity of extensive knowledge of the sources before selection can be made, and insistence on arguments supported by extensive evidence.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284309\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1049811\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Judaism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hebrew<\/a>\u00a0traditions<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110224\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/33\/83533-050-0BBC29DD\/Moses-children-illustration-Israel-Red-Sea-Bible.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110224\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/33\/83533-050-0BBC29DD\/Moses-children-illustration-Israel-Red-Sea-Bible.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/33\/83533-050-0BBC29DD\/Moses-children-illustration-Israel-Red-Sea-Bible.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea\" width=\"779\" height=\"1005\" data-width=\"1240\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/33\/83533-050-0BBC29DD\/Moses-children-illustration-Israel-Red-Sea-Bible.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110224\">Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea<\/a>Moses leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea; illustration from a German Bible, 15th century.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hebrew-Bible\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hebrew Bible<\/a>\u00a0(<span id=\"ref523896\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hebrew-Bible\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Old Testament<\/a>) was as fundamental to Western historiography as the dynastic histories were to Chinese historiography. Although the\u00a0<span id=\"ref523895\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Bible\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bible<\/a>\u00a0is many things, it is substantially a work of history. Seventeen of its 39 books are historical, and the 5 major and 12 minor prophets also offer moral interpretations of historical events. Furthermore, references in the Hebrew Bible indicate that annals of the Israelite kings once existed, though they have since been lost.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A creation story, an account of a flood that all but destroys humanity, long genealogical lists, a set of laws or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Ten-Commandments\" data-show-preview=\"true\">commandments<\/a>, and reflections on the effects of divine wrath on the prosperity of kings and peoples can be found among other Western Asian peoples. Nevertheless, the so-called Yahwist writer (one of the individuals or groups identified as a source of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Torah\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Torah<\/a>\u00a0or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) possessed a unique\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of history, and the Hebrews identified themselves as a distinct people only because of that conception. They alone had entered into a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/covenant\" data-term=\"covenant\" data-type=\"MW\">covenant<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Yahweh\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Yahweh<\/a>, who promised\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Abraham\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Abraham<\/a>, the first of the Hebrew patriarchs, that his descendants would be as numerous as the sands of the sea. The Hebrews believed that the hand of Yahweh had led them to escape bondage in Egypt and eventually to subdue the peoples of Palestine in order to occupy the Promised Land.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">That land was ill-chosen as a peaceful place to live. The Hebrews faced the constant threat of being squeezed between the great powers of the region. About 722\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u00a0the northern kingdom of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Israel-Old-Testament-kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Israel<\/a>\u00a0fell to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Assyria\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Assyrians<\/a>, and about 598\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u00a0the southern kingdom of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Judah-Hebrew-tribe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Judah<\/a>\u00a0was conquered by the\u00a0<span id=\"ref523875\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Babylonia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Babylonians<\/a>, who carried many Hebrews off to captivity; the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Babylonian-Captivity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Babylonian Exile<\/a>\u00a0lasted until 538\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>, when the Persian conquerors of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Babylonia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Babylonia<\/a>\u00a0allowed the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem. The authors of the Hebrew Bible did not, however, think in geopolitical terms; they tried instead to understand why the promise, which seemed to guarantee earthly success, had apparently been\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/abrogated\" data-term=\"abrogated\" data-type=\"MW\">abrogated<\/a>\u00a0by Yahweh.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Agonizing over this problem led to something hitherto unknown: a widespread reconception of the historical record. The compilers of the Hebrew scriptures had already rejected the sort of vainglorious boasting characteristic of the records of Babylonian kings. The succession story of King\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/David\" data-show-preview=\"true\">David<\/a>, for example, does not spare details of his discreditable actions. More serious than any individual sin, however, were the sins committed by the Hebrew people as a whole, who are depicted on occasion as turning away from the worship of Yahweh. It was not unusual to see in the disasters that overwhelmed them the avenging hand of Yahweh, but what required historical reflection was the task of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/reconciling\" data-term=\"reconciling\" data-type=\"MW\">reconciling<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/apostasy\" data-term=\"apostasy\" data-type=\"MW\">apostasy<\/a>\u00a0and its punishment with the continuing validity of the promise made to Abraham. Eventually the major prophets, especially\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Isaiah\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Isaiah<\/a>, reinterpreted the story of their people. Despite the sins and sufferings of the people of Yahweh, the promise had not been invalidated and could even be renewed, because the people\u2019s destiny had not been world power or even a secure kingdom. Instead they had been chosen to suffer as a servant of all of humanity.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This view was distinctive in being a history not merely of a single king or\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/dynasty\" data-term=\"dynasty\" data-type=\"MW\">dynasty<\/a>\u00a0but of a people. Furthermore, it was not narrowly nationalistic; it extended back to the beginnings of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/human-being\" data-show-preview=\"true\">human race<\/a>\u00a0and showed how Yahweh, the Lord of the whole earth, was working out his divine plan for humanity through his promise to the chosen people. Unlike the historical vision of other Western Asian peoples, which had seldom extended far into the past or beyond their own\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/ethnic-group\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ethnic group<\/a>, the view of the Hebrews was in principle universal. Since the promise was capable of redefinition and renewal, there was even a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rudimentary\" data-term=\"rudimentary\" data-type=\"MW\">rudimentary<\/a>\u00a0notion of history as progressive.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One element of modern historical scholarship that does not appear in the works of Western Asian peoples is criticism of sources. Babylonian records often end with elaborate curses against anyone who would seek to alter them. It was the classical Greek historians who first made a systematic attempt to find out what actually happened, rather than to preserve a traditional record of events.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section id=\"ref284310\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1049812\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Greece\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Greek<\/a>\u00a0historiography<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Greek historiography originated in the activities of a group of writers whom the Greeks called\u00a0<em>logographoi<\/em>\u00a0(\u201clogographers\u201d). Logography was the prose\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/compilation\" data-term=\"compilation\" data-type=\"MW\">compilation<\/a>\u00a0of oral traditions relating to the origins of towns, peoples, and places. It combined geographical with cultural information and might be seen as an early form of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/cultural-anthropology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">cultural anthropology<\/a>.\u00a0<span id=\"ref523874\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Hecataeus-of-Miletus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hecataeus of Miletus<\/a>, the best known of the logographers, defined his task in his\u00a0<em>Genealogia<\/em>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0490\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>) as follows: \u201cI write what I consider the truth, for the things the Greeks tell us are in my opinion full of contradictions and worthy to be laughed out of court.\u201d The logographers also served as advocates and speech writers in the courts, and the need to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ascertain\" data-term=\"ascertain\" data-type=\"MW\">ascertain<\/a>\u00a0facts and make arguments clearly influenced their writings.<\/p>\r\n<section id=\"ref284311\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref523866\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Herodotus-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Herodotus<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110263\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-050-52BF26C4\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110263\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-050-52BF26C4\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-050-52BF26C4\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Herotodus\" data-width=\"971\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/55\/24855-050-52BF26C4\/detail-Herodotus-herm-original-half-Roman-Greek.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110263\">Herotodus<\/a>Herodotus, detail of a Roman herm probably copied from a Greek original of the first half of the 4th century\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although the logographers pioneered in the study of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>, their influence was eclipsed by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Herodotus-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Herodotus<\/a>, who has been called the \u201cfather of history.\u201d His\u00a0<em>History<\/em>\u00a0of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Greco-Persian-Wars\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Greco-Persian Wars<\/a>\u00a0is the longest\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/extant\" data-term=\"extant\" data-type=\"MW\">extant<\/a>\u00a0text in ancient Greek. The fact that it has survived when so many other works written in ancient Greece were lost, including the majority of the plays of the great tragedians (<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Aeschylus-Greek-dramatist\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Aeschylus<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Euripides\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Euripides<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Sophocles\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sophocles<\/a>) and much of the corpus of\u00a0<span id=\"ref523886\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Aristotle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Aristotle<\/a>), is testimony to the great esteem in which it was held.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Like the logographers, Herodotus\u2019s approach was historical and anthropological. He questioned the priests at Memphis (in Egypt) and those at Heliopolis and Thebes \u201cexpressly to try whether the priests of those places [Heliopolis and Thebes] would agree in their accounts with the priests at Memphis.\u201d He discovered that the Egyptian historical records went much further back than the Greek ones and that Egyptian customs were the reverse of those he knew (which he called \u201cthe common practice of mankind\u201d). The Egyptians ate no wheat or barley; kneaded dough with their feet but mixed mud or even dung with their hands; lived with animals; and wrote from right to left. Herodotus also observed that \u201cwomen\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/attend\" data-term=\"attend\" data-type=\"EB\">attend<\/a>\u00a0the markets and trade, while the men sit at home at the loom.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although Herodotus also gave ethnographic details of this kind on the Scythians and the Persians, his\u00a0<em>History<\/em>\u00a0possesses a narrative thread, which he announces in the first paragraph: \u201cThese are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful actions of the Greeks and the barbarians from losing their due meed of glory; and withal to put on record what were their grounds of feud.\u201d The \u201cgrounds of feud\u201d are traced back beyond the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Trojan-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Trojan War<\/a>\u00a0(12th or 13th century\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>) to a series of abductions of women by both Europeans and Asians. The Greeks made themselves enemies of Persia (which claimed all of Asia) when they led an army to besiege the Anatolian city of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Troy-ancient-city-Turkey\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Troy<\/a>\u00a0to recover\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Helen-of-Troy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Helen<\/a>, the Greek woman kidnapped by the Trojan prince\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Paris-Greek-mythology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Paris<\/a>. The rivalry was renewed in the time of the Persian king\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Xerxes-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Xerxes<\/a>, leading to an epic conflict between the enormous forces of Persia and those of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Athens\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Athens<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Sparta\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sparta<\/a>, and most, though not all, of the other Greek\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/city-state\" data-show-preview=\"true\">city-states<\/a>. The pattern of a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/nemesis\" data-term=\"nemesis\" data-type=\"MW\">nemesis<\/a>\u00a0upon the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hubris\" data-term=\"hubris\" data-type=\"MW\">hubris<\/a>\u00a0of the Persians is obvious.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Despite his apparently\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conscientious\" data-term=\"conscientious\" data-type=\"MW\">conscientious<\/a>\u00a0questioning of his witnesses, Herodotus developed a reputation for credulity. However, although he was certainly not one to resist a good story, he did not\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/endorse\" data-term=\"endorse\" data-type=\"MW\">endorse<\/a>\u00a0everything he reported. He described a story that the Greeks told about the mythical hero\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Heracles\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Heracles<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201csilly fable\u201d that reflected badly on their critical sense. In the tradition of the logographers, he believed that his duty was to record the traditions of various peoples, no matter how dubious. He combined a remarkable narrative artistry with an effort to discern the causes of customs and events.<\/p>\r\n<a class=\"link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/quiz\/history-buff-quiz\" data-link-module-iframe-link=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-sm mr-15\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/19\/153419-131-91ADC6E8\/Ruins-statues-Karnak-Egypt.jpg\" alt=\"Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)\" width=\"70\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"line-clamp clamp-5\">\r\n<div class=\"module-title bg-green\">Britannica Quiz<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"font-weight-semi-bold mt-5\">History Buff Quiz<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284312\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref1049595\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thucydides-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thucydides<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The most famous critic\u2014and emulator\u2014of Herodotus was\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thucydides-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thucydides<\/a>\u00a0(flourished 5th century\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>). Whereas Herodotus had hoped to preserve the glory of Greeks and barbarians from the destruction of time, Thucydides had little glory to celebrate. In his great work, the\u00a0<em>History of the Peloponnesian War<\/em>, which describes the destructive conflict (431\u2013404\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>) between Athens and Sparta, Thucydides aimed \u201cnot to write down the first story that came my way, and not even to be guided by my own general impressions.\u201d When reporting on events that he did not personally witness, he carefully checked the reports of eyewitnesses, bearing in mind their partiality and imperfect memories. \u201cIt may be,\u201d he concedes,<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>that my history will be less easy to read because of the absence in it of a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/romantic\" data-term=\"romantic\" data-type=\"MW\">romantic<\/a>\u00a0element. It will be enough for me, however, if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events that happened in the past and that (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future. My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public but was done to last forever.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Behind this veiled\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0of Herodotus is the ambition to establish a diagnostic science of history. Just as Thucydides describes the symptoms of plague in Athens, so he clinically notes the degeneration of the Athenian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/body-politic\" data-show-preview=\"true\">body politic<\/a>. The city\u2019s highest ideals are\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/articulated\" data-term=\"articulated\" data-type=\"MW\">articulated<\/a>\u00a0in the funeral oration that Thucydides attributes to the Athenian leader\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Pericles-Athenian-statesman\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Pericles<\/a>; its realpolitik is brutally illustrated in the city\u2019s treatment of the inhabitants of the island of Melos. In the famous \u201cMelian Dialogue,\u201d the Athenians demand that the hitherto neutral Melians join their confederation. They offer no justification of their demand beyond their power to enforce it, warning the Melians against having any hope in portents or oracles. When the Melians refuse, the Athenians send a force so strong that the Melians surrender unconditionally, whereupon the Athenians massacre all the men of military age and sell the women and children into\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/slavery-sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slavery<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The pathology of the Athenians is most clearly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/manifested\" data-term=\"manifested\" data-type=\"MW\">manifested<\/a>\u00a0in their disastrous expedition to Sicily. Persuaded by\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/demagogues\" data-term=\"demagogues\" data-type=\"MW\">demagogues<\/a>\u00a0and by soothsayers and oracles that they will prevail, the Athenians attack the island and its chief city,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Syracuse-Italy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Syracuse<\/a>, without realizing that they are undertaking a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>\u00a0almost as demanding as that still under way against Sparta. The expedition goes badly: the entire Athenian army is killed or captured and the prisoners confined to quarries, where \u201cthey suffered everything which one could imagine might be suffered by men imprisoned in such a place.\u201d \u201cTo the victors,\u201d wrote Thucydides, the Sicilian expedition was \u201cthe most brilliant of successes, to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/vanquished\" data-term=\"vanquished\" data-type=\"EB\">vanquished<\/a>\u00a0the most calamitous of defeats; for they were utterly and entirely defeated; their sufferings were on an enormous scale; their losses were, as they say, total: army, navy, everything was destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The lessons taught by Thucydides have not lost their timeliness, and his project for a scientific history has been taken up again and again. As a historian, he was true to the central presupposition of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Greek-philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Greek philosophy<\/a>, that the truest knowledge must be of the unchanging. Asserting his belief that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/human-nature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">human nature<\/a>\u00a0is \u201cwhat it is,\u201d he warned that the situations he described would arise repeatedly and expressed his hope that his analysis would prove useful to future statesmen.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One of the puzzles in the history of historiography is why the brilliant beginnings of the Greek tradition exhausted themselves. Herodotus and Thucydides had no\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/successors\" data-term=\"successors\" data-type=\"EB\">successors<\/a>, only continuators who tried to bridge the chronological gap between the two historians or to continue the story beyond the end of Thucydides\u2019 texts. These efforts barely rose above the levels of annals, and the authors showed neither the critical skill nor the literary power of their great predecessors.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Xenophon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Xenophon<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0430\u2013350\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>) was among those who attempted a continuation, but his more valuable contributions were in\u00a0<span id=\"ref523882\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/biography-narrative-genre\" data-show-preview=\"true\">biography<\/a>. Although history writing was still done in the\u00a0<span id=\"ref523892\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Hellenistic-Age\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hellenistic Age<\/a>\u00a0(323\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u2013330\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>), there was little improvement.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section data-level=\"2\">\r\n<section id=\"ref284313\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1049813\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Rome\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roman<\/a>\u00a0historiography<\/h1>\r\n<section id=\"ref284314\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref523870\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Polybius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Polybius<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The Romans inherited Greek historiography as they inherited other elements of Greek\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/culture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">culture<\/a>, aware of its\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/prestige\" data-term=\"prestige\" data-type=\"MW\">prestige<\/a>\u00a0and emulating it in some ways but inevitably giving it the imprint of their quite different temperament. Fittingly, it was a Greek writing in Greek,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Polybius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Polybius<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0200\u2013<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0118\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>), who first offered key insights into the development of the Roman state and discussed aspects of Roman society that the Romans themselves had hardly noticed. He asked: \u201cCan anyone be so indifferent or idle as not to care to know by what means, and under what kind of polity, almost the whole inhabited world was conquered and brought under the domination of the single city of Rome, and that too within a period of not quite 53 years?\u201d In answering this question, Polybius drew comparisons between the Romans and the Greeks, the latter of whom failed to forge a lasting\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/empire-political-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">empire<\/a>, even under\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Alexander-the-Great\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Alexander the Great<\/a>\u00a0(356\u2013323\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>). The primary reason for Rome\u2019s success, according to Polybius, was the Roman character, as reflected in statesmanship, public spirit, and moderation toward defeated peoples.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Polybius also argued that Roman political institutions were superior to Greek ones. He accepted the theory of the cyclical degeneration and regeneration of Greek city-states, which had been elaborated by Aristotle. This theory maintained that city-states develop first as despotisms and evolve through periods of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/monarchy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">monarchy<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/tyranny\" data-term=\"tyranny\" data-type=\"MW\">tyranny<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/aristocracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">aristocracy<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/oligarchy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">oligarchy<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/democracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">democracy<\/a>\u00a0and finally mob rule before the restoration of order in a new despotism. There was, however, nothing inevitable about this cycle, and Polybius at one time believed that the Romans might avert it because the constitution of the Roman Republic was mixed, allowing for some monarchical and some popular elements as well as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/aristocracy\" data-term=\"aristocracy\" data-type=\"MW\">aristocracy<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Senate-Roman-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Senate<\/a>. (This theory of the benefits of mixed government was to have a long career.) Finally, Polybius believed the Romans had been favoured by\u00a0<em>Tyche<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cfate\u201d or \u201cfortune\u201d), which was partly responsible for drawing the world under Roman rule.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Like\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thucydides-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thucydides<\/a>, Polybius relied on personal experience and the cross-examination of eyewitnesses. Thus, he retraced the route of the Carthaginian general\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Hannibal-Carthaginian-general-247-183-BCE\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hannibal<\/a>\u00a0across the Alps and observed the siege of Carthage in 146\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>. Although he scorned historians who merely sat in their studies, he also\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/condemned\" data-term=\"condemned\" data-type=\"EB\">condemned<\/a>\u00a0petty histories of small corners of the world. To the contrary, the triumph of Rome called for a\u00a0<span id=\"ref523902\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/universal-history\">universal history<\/a>: \u201cUp to this time the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/world-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">world\u2019s history<\/a>\u00a0had been, so to speak, a series of disconnected transactions.\u2026But from this time forth History becomes a connected whole: the affairs of Italy and Libya are involved with those of Asia and Greece, and the tendency of all is to unity.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284315\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref1049814\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Diodorus-Siculus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Diodorus<\/a>, Sallust, and Livy<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Unfortunately, a method based on personal experience and eyewitness accounts could capture a moment of decisive conquest but could not yield universal history. It remained for\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Diodorus-Siculus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Diodorus Siculus<\/a>\u00a0in the 1st century\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u00a0to come closest, among ancient writers, to this ideal. Diodorus traced to 60\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u00a0the histories of Arabs, Assyrians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Indians, Romans, and Scythians\u2014not to mention\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Amazon-Greek-mythology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Amazons<\/a>\u00a0and the residents of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Atlantis-legendary-island\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Atlantis<\/a>. He is one of the main ancient supporters of the claim that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Plato\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Plato<\/a>\u00a0and other Greek thinkers learned their wisdom from the Egyptians.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Less than a century after Polybius explained the rise of the Roman state, Roman historians were beginning to speak of its decline.\u00a0<span id=\"ref1049815\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Sallust\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sallust<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a086\u2013<em>c.<\/em>\u00a035\/34\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>) described the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conspiracy\" data-term=\"conspiracy\" data-type=\"MW\">conspiracy<\/a>\u00a0of the Roman patrician\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Catiline-Roman-politician\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Catiline<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0<em>Bellum Catilinae<\/em>\u00a0(43\u201342\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>;\u00a0<em>Catiline\u2019s War<\/em>), and his\u00a0<em>Bellum Jugurthinum<\/em>\u00a0(41\u201340\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>;\u00a0<em>The Jugurthine War<\/em>) focused on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>\u00a0against\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jugurtha\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jugurtha<\/a>, the king of Numida (roughly present-day Algeria). The lesson of both was that the republic was rotting inwardly through corruption and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/arrogance\" data-term=\"arrogance\" data-type=\"MW\">arrogance<\/a>\u00a0of power. Indeed, in Sallust\u2019s systematic analysis Rome was shown to be suffering the general fate of empires.<\/p>\r\n<a class=\"link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-read-more-module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-Europe\/The-Middle-Ages-in-modern-historiography#ref993629\" data-link-module-iframe-link=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-sm mr-15\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/52\/120252-050-36F909C7\/Map-10th-edition-Europe-Encyclopaedia-Britannica.jpg\" alt=\"Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica: first edition, map of Europe\" width=\"70\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"line-clamp clamp-5\">\r\n<div class=\"module-title bg-navy-dark\">More From Britannica<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"font-weight-semi-bold mt-5\">history of Europe: The Middle Ages in modern historiography<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><span id=\"ref523871\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Livy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Livy<\/a>\u00a0(59\/64\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u201317\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>), one of the greatest Roman historians, lived through the fall of the republic and the establishment of the principate by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Augustus-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Augustus<\/a>, the first Roman emperor. Like Sallust, Livy was inclined to idealize the severe virtues of republican Rome. His monumental history, most of which has not survived, starts with the founding of the city and extends into the rule of Augustus. Like the\u00a0<em>Aeneid<\/em>, by the Roman poet\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Virgil\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Virgil<\/a>, Livy\u2019s work served to memorialize Rome\u2019s early history just as the republic was being transformed into an empire.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284316\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref523869\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Tacitus-Roman-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Tacitus<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Nobody was more aware of this development, or decline, than\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Tacitus-Roman-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Tacitus<\/a>\u00a0(56\u2013120). His two great works\u2014the\u00a0<em>Annals<\/em>, which covers the years 14\u201368\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>, and the\u00a0<em>Histories<\/em>, which begins with the famous \u201cyear of the four emperors\u201d (69\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>) and ends with the death of the emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Domitian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Domitian<\/a>\u00a0(96)\u2014provide an important account of the first century of the principate. Tacitus was a self-conscious stylist, and in his\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/treatise\" data-term=\"treatise\" data-type=\"MW\">treatise<\/a>\u00a0on style he claimed that styles were themselves the product of historical changes rather than being entirely the decision of the historian. His own writing is perhaps most remarkable for his concise\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/epigram\" data-show-preview=\"true\">epigrams<\/a>. Of the short-lived reign of the emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Galba\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Galba<\/a>, for example, Tacitus wrote: \u201c<em>Capax imperium, nisi imperasset<\/em>\u201d (\u201cHe would have been capable of ruling, except that he ruled\u201d). And concerning Roman methods of pacification, he observed, \u201c<em>Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appelant<\/em>\u201d (\u201cThey have made a desert and call it peace\u201d).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Politics, as it had been known in the republic, no longer existed; the intrigues of the imperial family and of its bodyguard, the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Praetorian-Guard\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Praetorian Guard<\/a>, determined the fate of Rome. Instead of creating a master narrative about the impersonal forces that might have led to this development, as Polybius or even Sallust might have done, Tacitus focused on the character of the various emperors. As was typical of ancient authors, he had no\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of character as developing through the course of a lifetime. Innate character, however, reveals itself fully only in crises, or when the possession of absolute power allows all its latent features to emerge\u2014as with the vanity and cruelty of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Nero-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nero<\/a>. Tacitus\u2019s emphasis upon character, despite the crudity of his psychological theories, made him a pioneer of psychohistory. It also brought the form of historical works close to that of multiple biographies.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284317\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref1049730\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Suetonius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Suetonius<\/a>\u00a0and Plutarch<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This is even more true of the\u00a0<em>De vita Caesarum<\/em>\u00a0(<em><span id=\"ref1049816\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Lives-of-the-Caesars\">Lives of the Caesars<\/a><\/em>), written by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Suetonius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Suetonius<\/a>\u00a0in the 2nd century. His treatments consist of an account of each emperor\u2019s administrative and military accomplishments followed by a description of his character and personal life. Although Suetonius, a former imperial secretary, drew upon the imperial archives in composing his\u00a0<em>Lives<\/em>, the work is best known for the scandalous details it provides regarding the private lives of the emperors. In this he differed from the best-known of the ancient biographers,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Plutarch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Plutarch<\/a>, whose\u00a0<em>Bioi paralloi<\/em>\u00a0(<em><span id=\"ref1049817\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Parallel-Lives\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Parallel Lives<\/a><\/em>)\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/juxtaposed\" data-term=\"juxtaposed\" data-type=\"MW\">juxtaposed<\/a>\u00a0the life stories of 24 Romans and 24 Greeks who had faced similar experiences. His purpose was to draw\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0lessons from the lives of these figures. If they responded differently to their challenges, it was partly a consequence of character, but weaknesses of character could\u2014and should\u2014be overcome by a strenuous exercise of virtue.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Despite its origins in Greek historical thought, Roman historiography was in many ways more like Chinese than Greek historiography. The Romans lacked the speculative interests of the Greeks, and their historians made little effort to propound grand or even middle-range theories. This is one reason why they were content for so long with the annalistic form. The Romans of the republic had scarcely less regard for their ancestors than the Chinese did, and both believed that histories should propound moral lessons. Indeed, this was one of the Roman\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/legacies\" data-term=\"legacies\" data-type=\"MW\">legacies<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a> Christian historiography.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section id=\"ref284318\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\">Medieval historiography<\/h1>\r\n<section id=\"ref284319\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">The early\u00a0<span id=\"ref523893\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christian<\/a>\u00a0conception of history<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110442\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/58\/43558-050-2E938742\/St-Mark-manuscript-page-school-Gospel-Book.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110442\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/58\/43558-050-2E938742\/St-Mark-manuscript-page-school-Gospel-Book.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/58\/43558-050-2E938742\/St-Mark-manuscript-page-school-Gospel-Book.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"St. Mark depiction in illuminated manuscript\" data-width=\"983\" data-height=\"1395\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/58\/43558-050-2E938742\/St-Mark-manuscript-page-school-Gospel-Book.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110442\">St. Mark depiction in illuminated manuscript<\/a>St. Mark, illuminated manuscript page from the Gospel Book of the Court school of Charlemagne, c. 810; in the Statsbibliothek, Trier, Germany.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The earliest Christians thought that history was about to end, because Jesus had said that some of his\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciples\" data-term=\"disciples\" data-type=\"MW\">disciples<\/a>\u00a0would still be alive at his\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Second-Coming\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Second Coming<\/a>. Fired with such apocalyptic expectations, all they needed to know of history was that God had broken into it through the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Incarnation-Jesus-Christ\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Incarnation<\/a>\u00a0and that Jesus had conquered death through the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/resurrection-religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Resurrection<\/a>. Thus, it was hardly inevitable that Christians would develop an interest in history, much less their own\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy-of-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy of history<\/a>. But the authors of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/canonical\" data-term=\"canonical\" data-type=\"MW\">canonical<\/a>\u00a0<span id=\"ref523897\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Gospel-New-Testament\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gospels<\/a>\u00a0(<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Gospel-According-to-Matthew\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Matthew<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Gospel-According-to-Mark\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Mark<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Gospel-According-to-Luke\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Luke<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Gospel-According-to-John\" data-show-preview=\"true\">John<\/a>) regarded the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hebrew-Bible\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hebrew Bible<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/authoritative\" data-term=\"authoritative\" data-type=\"MW\">authoritative<\/a>\u00a0and reinterpreted it to accord with the new revelation. In their view many prophecies of the Hebrew scriptures referred to Jesus, and many of its stories prefigured his life (thus,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Book-of-Jonah\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jonah<\/a>\u2019s three-day sojourn in the belly of the great fish was a foreshadowing of the Resurrection).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Incorporation of the Hebrew Bible into the Christian canon helped to shape the Christian\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of history. By tracing their history to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adam and Eve<\/a>\u00a0and the other figures who preceded Abraham, Christians\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/encompassed\" data-term=\"encompassed\" data-type=\"MW\">encompassed<\/a>\u00a0all of humanity within their worldview. Reflecting the influence of the Hebrew prophets, the early Christians held that sins were inevitably followed by divine punishment and that the plot of history was the unfolding of God\u2019s will for humanity. Disasters represented punishment for sins; prosperity indicated divine favour to faithful humans. Thus, nothing could happen that could not be explained by the providential interpretation of history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Nevertheless, the idea of providence did not instantly solve all historical problems, some of which were peculiar to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christianity<\/a>. In particular, what was the place of the Roman Empire in the divine plan? For almost three centuries Christians provoked in Roman authorities puzzlement, exasperation, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intermittent\" data-term=\"intermittent\" data-type=\"MW\">intermittent<\/a>\u00a0persecution. For their part, Christians treated the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/empire-political-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">empire<\/a>\u00a0as at best irrelevant and at worst (as in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Revelation-to-John\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Revelation to John<\/a>) as one of the beasts of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/apocalypse\" data-term=\"apocalypse\" data-type=\"MW\">apocalypse<\/a>. But with the conversion of the emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Constantine-I-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Constantine<\/a>\u00a0in 312, Christian historians had to come to terms with the historical significance of a Christian emperor. The challenge was met by\u00a0<span id=\"ref523900\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Eusebius-of-Caesarea\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Eusebius<\/a>, whose\u00a0<em>Historia ecclesiastica<\/em>\u00a0(written 312\u2013324;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref523907\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Ecclesiastical-History-by-Eusebius\">Ecclesiastical History<\/a><\/em>) was the first important work of Christian history since the\u00a0<span id=\"ref523899\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Acts-of-the-Apostles-New-Testament\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Acts of the Apostles<\/a>. For Eusebius, the Roman Empire was the divinely appointed and necessary\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/milieu\" data-term=\"milieu\" data-type=\"MW\">milieu<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/propagation\" data-term=\"propagation\" data-type=\"MW\">propagation<\/a>\u00a0of the Christian faith. Roman peace and Roman roads allowed the Apostle\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Paul<\/a>\u00a0to travel tens of thousands of miles on his evangelical journeys, and now Constantine had been appointed to end the persecution of Christians.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284320\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523909\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Augustine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Augustine<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The sack of Rome by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Visigoth\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Visigoths<\/a>\u00a0in 410 posed a severe challenge to Eusebius\u2019s interpretation of history. The most famous response was the monumental\u00a0<em>De civitate Dei contra paganos<\/em>\u00a0(413\u2013426\/427;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref523910\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-City-of-God\" data-show-preview=\"true\">City of God<\/a><\/em>) of St.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Augustine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Augustine<\/a>\u00a0of Hippo (354\u2013430). Augustine was forced to confront the argument that the establishment of Christianity as the state\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>\u00a0of Rome had led to the downfall of the empire. His rebuttal dissolved the identity of empire and Christianity. Humanity was composed of two cities, inextricably mixed: the earthly, built on self-love, and the heavenly, animated by the love of God. Only at the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Last-Judgment-religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Last Judgment<\/a>\u00a0would the two be separated. Whatever human glory (or disaster) might attend the earthly city paled in significance compared to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/denouement\" data-term=\"denouement\" data-type=\"MW\">denouement<\/a>\u00a0awaiting the heavenly city. Although this vast work (<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Isidore-of-Sevilla\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Isidore of Sevilla<\/a>\u00a0[<em>c.<\/em>\u00a0560\u2013636] said that anyone who claimed to have read all of it was lying) had great influence, especially in periodizing history, it offered little help to historians who wished to write about the affairs of the earthly city.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The issue of periodization was vital. Augustine divided history into six ages, comparable to the six ages of the individual human life span: from Adam and Eve to the biblical Flood, from the Flood to Abraham, from Abraham to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/David\" data-show-preview=\"true\">King David<\/a>, from David to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Babylonian-Captivity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Babylonian Exile<\/a>, from the Exile to Jesus, and from Jesus to the Second Coming. Augustine\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciple\" data-term=\"disciple\" data-type=\"MW\">disciple<\/a>\u00a0<span id=\"ref523911\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Paulus-Orosius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Paulus Orosius<\/a>\u00a0complicated this scheme by introducing apocalyptic material from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Book-of-Daniel-Old-Testament\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Book of Daniel<\/a>, which was construed as prophesying four kingdoms, the last of which was the Roman Empire. The end of this kingdom would be the end of the world.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284321\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">Early\u00a0<span id=\"ref1049818\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Germanic-peoples\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Germanic<\/a>\u00a0and English histories<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The fall of the Roman Empire actually resulted from the successful attempt of Germanic peoples to occupy its lands and enjoy its benefits.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Goth\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Goths<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Lombard-people\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lombards<\/a>,\u00a0<span id=\"ref523926\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Frank-people\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Franks<\/a>, and other Germanic peoples carved out new kingdoms from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moribund\" data-term=\"moribund\" data-type=\"MW\">moribund<\/a>\u00a0Western empire and adopted its traditions and even its identity. Yet there were difficulties in fitting the Germanic invaders into this pattern. They were nonliterate and preserved their memories of the past orally in heroic poems such as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Beowulf\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Beowulf<\/a>. Historical writing was almost all done by clerics, in Latin.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Gregory-of-Tours\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gregory of Tours<\/a>\u00a0(538\/539\u2013594), for example, wrote\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1049819\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-History-of-the-Franks\">Ten Books of Histories<\/a><\/em>, a history of the Franks from the perspective of the old Gallo-Roman\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/aristocracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">aristocracy<\/a>, and St.\u00a0<span id=\"ref523923\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Bede-the-Venerable\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bede the Venerable<\/a>\u00a0(672\/673\u2013735) composed the\u00a0<em>Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum<\/em>\u00a0(<em><span id=\"ref523925\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Ecclesiastical-History-of-the-English-People\">Ecclesiastical History of the English People<\/a><\/em>). For both authors, the invaders, once converted to orthodox (Roman) Christianity, were instrumental in repressing heresy: the Franks opposed\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Arianism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Arianism<\/a> (which held that Christ was not divine but created), and the Anglo-Saxons suppressed the irregular practices of the Celtic church.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284322\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523931\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/chronicle-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Chronicles<\/a>\u00a0and hagiographies<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although Gregory and Bede wrote histories, early\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0historiography typically took one of two other forms: chronicles and\u00a0<span id=\"ref523908\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/hagiography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">hagiographies<\/a>, or lives of saints. The spare nature of the earliest chronicles is illustrated by the following excerpt from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/chronicle-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">chronicle<\/a>\u00a0of St. Gall monastery in Switzerland:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>720 Charles fought against the Saxons.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>721 Theudo drove the Saxons out of Aquitaine.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>722 Great crops.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>723 724 No entries.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>725 Saracens came for the first time.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>726 727 728 729 730 No entries.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>731 Blessed Bede, the presbyter, died.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<li>\r\n<div>732 Charles fought against the Saracens at Poitiers on Saturday.<\/div>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Even this\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rudimentary\" data-term=\"rudimentary\" data-type=\"MW\">rudimentary<\/a>\u00a0example, however, exhibits typical characteristics of early medieval chronicles. Only events\u2014human deeds and natural prodigies\u2014are listed. There is no effort to show any causal relationship between them\u2014its style is what rhetoricians call \u201cparatactic\u201d (typically, clauses are simply connected by \u201cand\u201d) rather than \u201chypotactic\u201d (when subordinate conjunctions such as \u201csince\u201d or \u201ctherefore\u201d show some sort of relationship between clauses). Although history is presented only in terms of human actions, the absence of causal language makes agency appear limited. Bizarre occurrences in nature are included merely as oddities. For the early medieval chroniclers, the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/cosmos\" data-term=\"cosmos\" data-type=\"EB\">cosmos<\/a>\u00a0was bound up in a network of resemblances: bestiaries praised animals for their quasi-human virtues (e.g., elephants for chastity and bees for industry) and plants owed healing powers to their likeness to parts of the body (walnuts were eaten for disorders of the brain). It was therefore significant when fountains oozed blood or clouds assumed symbolic shapes, since they were indications of the divine will.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Chronicles became richer in the later\u00a0<span id=\"ref523921\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Middle Ages<\/a>. They proved to be invaluable resources to later historians, especially in cases in which the chronicler had personal knowledge of the events recorded. The\u00a0<em>Greater Chronicle<\/em>\u00a0of\u00a0<span id=\"ref523943\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Matthew-Paris\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Matthew Paris<\/a>\u00a0(died 1259) marks the culmination of the chronicle tradition. Indeed, it seemed so\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprehensive\" data-term=\"comprehensive\" data-type=\"MW\">comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0that virtually all subsequent English chroniclers confined themselves to copying it. Paris made only one trip outside\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>\u00a0and spent most of his time in the monastery of St. Albans. Yet he was well-informed about Western European as well as English history. He seems to have acquired this knowledge partly through his access to a vast number of previous chronicles and state papers and partly through his interaction with the many visitors who stayed at the monastery, including friars who had traveled on the continent. Paris combined his comprehensive knowledge with a lively writing style, which was modeled in some ways on classical historians (for example, he used invented speeches).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Reporting what actually happened was not necessarily the primary goal of even the best chroniclers. Emulation or imitation was valued, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0of sources was usually subordinated to copying. Nevertheless, changes in\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consciousness\" data-term=\"consciousness\" data-type=\"MW\">consciousness<\/a>\u00a0gradually developed as the Middle Ages wore on.\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Hagiographies\" data-term=\"Hagiographies\" data-type=\"MW\">Hagiographies<\/a>\u00a0increasingly began to resemble modern biographies, as their writers took more interest in the individuality and development of their characters. The chronicle form disappeared in the 15th century.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">As chroniclers recognized human actions, rather than impersonal forces, as the stuff of history, it is not surprising that biography flourished, especially\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/hagiography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">hagiography<\/a>, or saints\u2019 lives. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a>\u00a0conventionally included details of the saint\u2019s childhood, the miracles he performed, and his eventual martyrdom. Understanding of individual character was much less important than the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0lessons and encouragement conveyed by the story.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284323\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">New forms<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Two writers who in very different ways pointed to new forms of historiography were\u00a0<span id=\"ref523938\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Otto-of-Freising\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Otto of Freising<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01111\u201358) and<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Geoffrey-of-Villehardouin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">\u00a0Geoffrey of Villehardouin<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01150\u2013<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01213). Otto, the uncle of the emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Frederick-I-Holy-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Frederick Barbarossa<\/a>, had received the best education available in his time, which meant studying\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/dialectic-logic\" data-show-preview=\"true\">dialectic<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/theology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">theology<\/a>\u00a0in Paris (perhaps under the theologian and philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Peter-Abelard\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Peter Abelard<\/a>). Because history was not regularly taught in medieval schools or universities, it is not surprising that Otto adopted a more philosophical approach in his\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref523939\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Two-Cities\">Chronica sive historia de duabus civitatibus<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cChronicle or History of the Two Cities\u201d). As its title indicates, the work was inspired by Augustine. Beginning, as many chronicles did, with the Creation and ending in 1146, it reflects abundantly on the miseries of \u201cwars and tottering kingdoms.\u201d Otto, like Orosius, identified the City of God with the church. Yet the\u00a0<em>Chronicle<\/em>\u00a0deals with\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ecclesiastical\" data-term=\"ecclesiastical\" data-type=\"MW\">ecclesiastical<\/a>\u00a0affairs with remarkable objectivity, considering Otto\u2019s kinship with the German emperors. He describes the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Investiture-Controversy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Investiture Controversy<\/a>\u00a0between the German ruler\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Henry-IV-Holy-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Henry IV<\/a>\u00a0and Pope\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Gregory-VII\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gregory VII<\/a>\u00a0and states arguments both for and against the so-called\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Donation-of-Constantine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Donation of Constantine<\/a>\u00a0(an 8th-century forgery that came to be the basis for papal claims to temporal power). Although he prudently avoids giving unnecessary offense, he defends writing that might anger his predecessors, because \u201cit is better to fall into the hands of men than to abandon the function of a historian by covering up a loathsome sight by colours that conceal the truth.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Otto participated in the Second Crusade (1146\u201348) but did not write about it. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Crusades\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Crusades<\/a>\u00a0raised interpretative problems that historians had not faced before. Because nothing like the Crusades had ever happened, they posed new issues of historical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/causality\" data-term=\"causality\" data-type=\"EB\">causality<\/a>. They brought Europeans into massive\u2014though not invariably hostile\u2014contact with Islamic civilization, and they inspired new kinds of historical writing.\u00a0<span id=\"ref523952\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Geoffrey-of-Villehardouin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Villehardouin<\/a>, a French nobleman and military commander, was an eyewitness of the Fourth Crusade (1201\u201304). His\u00a0<em>Conqu\u00eate de Constantinople<\/em>\u00a0(<em>The Conquest of Constantinople<\/em>) was the first sustained work of French prose and one of the first great memoirs in French.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Precisely because Villehardouin did not know how histories \u201cought\u201d to be written, however, his work lacked the conventional preface modestly declaring the author\u2019s lack of ability. His history is basically the memoir of a successful commander. It is free of the moral reflections beloved of monks and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rhetorical\" data-term=\"rhetorical\" data-type=\"MW\">rhetorical<\/a>\u00a0effusions indulged in by emulators of the Latin historians. With Villehardouin a new voice\u2014vivacious, conventionally pious but impatient of theological niceties, and keenly interested in military and political strategies\u2014entered historical discourse.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section id=\"ref58859\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref523975\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Islamic-literature\">Islamic<\/a>\u00a0historiography<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Quran\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Qur\u02be\u0101n<\/a>, the sacred text of\u00a0<span id=\"ref523974\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Islam\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Islam<\/a>, contains\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/allusions\" data-term=\"allusions\" data-type=\"MW\">allusions<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitute\" data-term=\"constitute\" data-type=\"MW\">constitute<\/a>\u00a0the basis of a providential\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0of humankind from Adam through\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Muhammad\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Muhammad<\/a>, the founder of Islam. Another valuable resource for Islamic historians is the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hadith\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hadith<\/a>\u00a0(the traditions or sayings of Muhammad), which is arranged in such a way that lines of transmission can be traced back to those who knew the Prophet. Chains of authorities were thus\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integral\" data-term=\"integral\" data-type=\"MW\">integral<\/a>\u00a0to early Islamic\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/theology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">theology<\/a>\u00a0and historiography, which naturally lent themselves to annalistic treatment.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284324\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523981\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/al-Tabari\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Al-\u1e6cabar\u012b<\/a>\u00a0and Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The greatest early Islamic historian,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/al-Tabari\" data-show-preview=\"true\">al-\u1e6cabar\u012b<\/a>\u00a0(839\u2013923), was reputed to have memorized the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Quran\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Qur\u02be\u0101n<\/a>\u00a0at the age of seven.\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Legend\" data-term=\"Legend\" data-type=\"MW\">Legend<\/a>\u00a0credited him with producing a 30,000-page commentary on the Qur\u02be\u0101n and an equally long universal history (both survive but are only one-tenth as long). His chief virtues as a historian were his accurate\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/chronology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">chronology<\/a>\u00a0and his scrupulous faithfulness in reproducing authorities. Like Christian annalists, he depended on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hebrew-Bible\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hebrew Bible<\/a>\u00a0(as interpreted by Islam), though the world he inhabited was basically Egypt and Muslim Asia rather than Western Christendom. The Persian scholar\u00a0<span id=\"ref1049820\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Rashid-al-Din\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Rash\u012bd al-D\u012bn<\/a>\u00a0(1247\u20131318) composed a more truly universal history,\u00a0<em>J\u0101mi\u02bf al-taw\u0101r\u012bkh<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cCollector of Chronicles\u201d), which covered not only the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Islamic-world\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Islamic world<\/a> (which by then extended from Spain to northern India) but also included data on the popes and emperors of Europe and on Mongolia and China.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284325\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523983\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ibn-Khaldun\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ibn Khald\u016bn<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The sophistication of Islamic historical thought was dramatically illustrated by the\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref523984\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Muqaddimah\">Muqaddimah<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cIntroduction\u201d) of the Arab historian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ibn-Khaldun\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ibn Khald\u016bn<\/a>\u00a0(1332\u20131406). This introductory volume of a universal history reveals Khald\u016bn\u2019s ideas about history\u2014something chroniclers hardly ever did. The subjects Khald\u016bn considered in his work include historical method,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/geography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">geography<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/culture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">culture<\/a>, economics, public finance, population, society and state,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>\u00a0and politics, and the social\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/context\" data-term=\"context\" data-type=\"MW\">context<\/a>\u00a0of knowledge. Khald\u016bn held high office and was often exiled or imprisoned. Late in his life he had the opportunity to discuss history with the Mongol emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Timur\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Timur<\/a>\u00a0the Lame, who was besieging Damascus. Timur wrote his own memoirs, and he was evidently interested not only in what Khald\u016bn knew about\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-Africa\" data-show-preview=\"true\">North Africa<\/a>\u00a0but also in his\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy-of-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy of history<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Khald\u016bn lived with the Bedouins of North Africa and in the sophisticated Muslim cities of Granada and Cairo. These experiences were the source of one of his main ideas: that humans first lived in Bedouin tribes and then achieved civilization, but civilization became\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/decadent\" data-term=\"decadent\" data-type=\"MW\">decadent<\/a>\u00a0with increasing wealth and luxury. No\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/dynasty\" data-term=\"dynasty\" data-type=\"MW\">dynasty<\/a>\u00a0or civilization, he believed, could maintain vitality for more than four generations (though the only example he gives is the decline of the Israelites after\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Abraham\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Abraham<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Isaac\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Isaac<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jacob-Hebrew-patriarch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jacob<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Joseph-biblical-figure\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Joseph<\/a>). Khald\u016bn contrasted his writing with \u201csurface history,\u201d which was \u201cno more than information about political events\u201d and was used to \u201centertain large, crowded gatherings.\u201d Historians of his day, he thought, were too credulous in accepting tradition. As for their frequent moralizing about the misconduct of certain\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/caliph\" data-show-preview=\"true\">caliphs<\/a>, Khald\u016bn asserted that people like to justify their own misconduct by looking in histories for examples of the great who have done the same things. To reach the \u201cinner meaning\u201d of history, the historian had to be \u201cspeculative\u201d and give \u201csubtle explanations\u201d of causes. To accomplish this, history had to be rooted in philosophy\u2014or, as Khald\u016bn said of his own work, it had to be a new and original science.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274767\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\">History in the\u00a0<span id=\"ref523985\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Renaissance-art\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In the 12th century, Europeans took an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/avid\" data-term=\"avid\" data-type=\"MW\">avid<\/a>\u00a0interest in the Arabic translations and commentaries on Greek medical, mathematical, and, especially, philosophical works. By the time of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ibn-Khaldun\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ibn Khald\u016bn<\/a>\u00a0(1332\u20131406), this interest had waned, and his work would influence only later European historians. The idea of history as a new science, however, would have a long career, beginning with some historians of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Renaissance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The nature, origins, and even existence of the Renaissance has been subject to intensive investigation since the early 20th century. The term has been applied to cultural movements in the 9th and 12th centuries, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0precedents have been identified for developments that were previously thought to be unique to the Renaissance. This is as true for historiography as for any other aspect of Renaissance culture; but while the differences between the Renaissance and the earlier\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Middle-Ages\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Middle Ages<\/a>\u00a0may have been exaggerated, they do exist. Nobody could mistake a historian such as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Niccolo-Machiavelli\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli<\/a>\u00a0(1469\u20131527) for\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Matthew-Paris\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Matthew Paris<\/a>\u00a0(died 1259).<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284233\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523989\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Petrarch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Petrarch<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"101333\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/101333\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Petrarch\" data-width=\"1213\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/19062-050-68244DBF\/Petrarch-engraving.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/101333\">Petrarch<\/a>Petrarch, engraving.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although he was not exactly a historian, the Italian scholar and poet\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Petrarch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Petrarch<\/a>\u00a0(1304\u201374) illustrates much that was distinctive about the Renaissance attitude toward history. If not the first to coin the term\u00a0<em>Middle Ages<\/em>, he consistently held that his own age (subsequently to be called the Renaissance) had made a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/decisive\" data-term=\"decisive\" data-type=\"EB\">decisive<\/a>\u00a0break with the 10 centuries that followed the decline of the Roman Empire. His true contemporaries, he thought, were the historians and poets of Rome\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Golden-Age-Spanish-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Golden Age<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a070\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>\u201318\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">CE<\/span>), to whom he addressed a series of letters,\u00a0<em>Epistolae metricae<\/em>\u00a0(begun 1350). The letter to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Livy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Livy<\/a>\u00a0expresses\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Plutarch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Plutarch\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0wish that he had been born in Livy\u2019s time or Livy in his; thanks him for transporting Petrarch into the company of the worthies of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Rome\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancient Rome<\/a>\u00a0instead of \u201cthe thievish company of today among whom I was born under an evil star\u201d; and concludes: \u201cFarewell forever, matchless historian!\u2026Written\u2026in the thirteen hundred and fiftieth year from the birth of Him whom you would have seen, or of whose birth you could have heard, had you lived a little longer.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Medieval historians knew that Livy and the poet\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ovid-Roman-poet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ovid<\/a>\u00a0were not\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christians<\/a>\u00a0(though they sometimes described people hearing mass before the birth of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jesus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jesus<\/a>). Yet, in general they had little understanding of the radical differences between their society and that of the Romans. They conceived of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hector-Greek-mythology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hector<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Achilles-Greek-mythology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Achilles<\/a>\u00a0as knights like\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/La-Chanson-de-Roland\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roland<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Lancelot\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lancelot<\/a>, depicting them in full medieval armour. Petrarch, at least, had an appreciation of the discontinuity between past and present, as well as a painful sense of his own\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/anachronism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">anachronism<\/a>. For him, all aspects of a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/culture\" data-term=\"culture\" data-type=\"MW\">culture<\/a> were in constant change. Petrarch also exhibited an antiquarian interest that would eventually enrich the study of history. He attempted, for example, to reconstruct imaginatively what early Rome looked like.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284234\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523986\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lorenzo-Valla\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lorenzo Valla<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Renaissance humanists were above all\u00a0<span id=\"ref523995\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/philology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philologists<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/rhetoric\" data-show-preview=\"true\">rhetoricians<\/a>, and editors and emulators of the texts of Latin (and later Greek) antiquity. One of their triumphs was the demonstration by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lorenzo-Valla\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lorenzo Valla<\/a>\u00a0(1407\u201357) that the so-called\u00a0<span id=\"ref523991\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Donation-of-Constantine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Donation of Constantine<\/a>\u00a0could not have been authentic. This document had been suspect, on various grounds, for centuries; Valla\u2019s argument was distinguished by his proof that its Latin style and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/diction\" data-term=\"diction\" data-type=\"MW\">diction<\/a>\u00a0belonged to the 8th century and not the 4th. With similar philological arguments Petrarch discredited a charter exempting Austria from imperial jurisdiction. Two other famous documents, the Isidorian Decretals (also known as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/False-Decretals\" data-show-preview=\"true\">False Decretals<\/a>) and the writings of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Pseudo-Dionysius-the-Areopagite\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Dionysius the Areopagite<\/a>, eventually earned the prefix\u00a0<em>pseudo<\/em> through Renaissance scholarship.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284235\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref523988\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Flavio-Biondo\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Flavio Biondo<\/a>\u00a0and Leonardo Bruni<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Antiquarians such as Petrarch were interested in all sorts of relics of the past, material objects as well as texts\u2014an interest that eventually led to social and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/economic-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">economic history<\/a>\u00a0and even to \u201ceveryday history\u201d and \u201chistory from below.\u201d In his works on Roman antiquities\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Flavio-Biondo\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Flavio Biondo<\/a>\u00a0(1392\u20131463) virtually founded the field of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/archaeology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">archaeology<\/a>. His\u00a0<em>Historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii decades<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cDecades of History From the Deterioration of the Roman Empire\u201d), for example, introduced the concept of the decline of the Roman Empire and the idea of the Middle Ages as the period from 410 to 1410. In addition, he used the new\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/textual-criticism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">textual criticism<\/a>\u00a0to eliminate many\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/legends\" data-term=\"legends\" data-type=\"MW\">legends<\/a>\u00a0that had been accepted as facts in previous histories.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Biondo, however, was not what his contemporaries called a \u201cpure historian.\u201d The model of pure history was the\u00a0<em>Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cTwelve Books of Histories of the Florentine People\u201d), by\u00a0<span id=\"ref523987\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Leonardo-Bruni\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Leonardo Bruni<\/a>\u00a0(<em>c.<\/em>\u00a01370\u20131444). Although Bruni owed much to the chronicles kept by the Italian cities, he drew extensively from ancient historians and, having learned Greek, was one of the first Europeans since ancient times to read\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thucydides-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thucydides<\/a>. Bruni was greatly influenced by Livy, who provided the paradigmatic account of how a city is founded and becomes great. Bruni scrupulously (though not slavishly) followed Livy\u2019s example in his emphasis on politics\u2014he found nothing worth relating for the year 1348, when the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Black-Death\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Black Death<\/a>\u00a0first struck Florence\u2014and on individual character as the cause of historical actions. He also restricted himself to the vocabulary that Livy used or could have used.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Bruni\u2019s central theme was the people of Florence. His history followed a strong narrative line that described the rise to power of the Florentines and their victory in their\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>\u00a0against Milan, which Bruni believed was made possible by republican virtue, or civic\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/humanism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">humanism<\/a>. That same pride continued to animate other Florentine historians, even the apparently\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/cynical\" data-term=\"cynical\" data-type=\"MW\">cynical<\/a> Machiavelli.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section data-level=\"2\">\r\n<section id=\"ref284236\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050436\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Niccolo-Machiavelli\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli<\/a><\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110522\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/27\/94127-050-836E9D81\/Niccolo-Machiavelli-oil-canvas-Santi-di-Tito.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110522\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/27\/94127-050-836E9D81\/Niccolo-Machiavelli-oil-canvas-Santi-di-Tito.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/27\/94127-050-836E9D81\/Niccolo-Machiavelli-oil-canvas-Santi-di-Tito.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli\" data-width=\"1256\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/27\/94127-050-836E9D81\/Niccolo-Machiavelli-oil-canvas-Santi-di-Tito.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110522\">Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli<\/a>Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli, oil on canvas by Santi di Tito; in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Whereas Bruni had written at the apex of Florentine power, Machiavelli\u2019s public career was marked by the desperate situation created by what he called \u201cthe calamity\u201d: the invasion of Italy first by the French in 1494 and later by the imperial forces of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-V-Holy-Roman-emperor\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Charles V<\/a>\u00a0in 1527. As a diplomat and later secretary to Florence\u2019s ruling Council of Ten, Machiavelli observed and tried to influence the shifting alliances between the Italian city-states. When the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Medici-family\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Medici family<\/a>\u00a0returned to power and ousted him from office, he turned to reflections on politics and history. In addition to\u00a0<em>Il principe<\/em>\u00a0(1532;\u00a0<em>The Prince<\/em>), his most famous work, he wrote the\u00a0<em>Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio<\/em>\u00a0(1531;\u00a0<em>Discourses on Livy<\/em>), the\u00a0<em>Istorie Fiorentine<\/em>\u00a0(1532;\u00a0<em>Florentine Histories<\/em>), and\u00a0<em>Dell\u2019arte della guerra<\/em>\u00a0(1521;\u00a0<em>The Art of War<\/em>). Machiavelli presented his thoughts on history as \u201ca new route\u201d that would provide instruction to the statesmen of his day by marshaling examples from ancient history. As he writes in the\u00a0<em>Discourses on Livy<\/em>,<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>Whoever considers the past and the present will readily observe that all cities and all peoples are and ever have been animated by the same desires and the same passions; so that it is easy, by diligent study of the past, to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/foresee\" data-term=\"foresee\" data-type=\"EB\">foresee<\/a>\u00a0what is likely to happen in the future in any republic, and to apply those remedies that were used by the ancients, or, not finding any that were employed by them, to devise new ones from the similarity of the events.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">History thus would become\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/political-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">political science<\/a>. Machiavelli, however, did not always respect his data in cases in which the historical situation did not lend itself to the maxim of statecraft he was trying to inculcate.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284237\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref524004\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francesco-Guicciardini\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francesco Guicciardini<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Machiavelli\u2019s younger contemporary\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francesco-Guicciardini\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francesco Guicciardini<\/a>\u00a0(1483\u20131540) shared some of Machiavelli\u2019s attitudes but not his rationale for studying history. \u201cIt is most fallacious,\u201d he wrote, \u201cto judge by examples; because unless these be in all respects parallel they are of no use, the least divergence in the circumstances giving rise to the widest possible divergence in the conclusions.\u201d Instead, in his\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref524003\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/History-of-Italy-work-by-Guicciardini\">Storia d\u2019Italia<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1537\u201340; \u201cHistory of Italy\u201d), Guicciardini attempted to explain why Italy had been unable to resist foreign incursions. Writing the history of such a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/diverse\" data-term=\"diverse\" data-type=\"MW\">diverse<\/a>\u00a0area was itself an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/innovation\" data-term=\"innovation\" data-type=\"MW\">innovation<\/a>, for which Guicciardini\u2019s diplomatic experience served him well; but he also drew from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/repertoire\" data-term=\"repertoire\" data-type=\"MW\">repertoire<\/a>\u00a0of classical historians the technique of the character, or psychological, sketch of the leading actors. Since Guicciardini, like almost all\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Renaissance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a>\u00a0historians, believed that historical change resulted from the\u00a0<em>virt\u00f9<\/em>\u00a0(or lack of it) of individuals, the ability to draw a brilliant character\u2014at which he excelled\u2014enhanced the explanatory power of his work.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284238\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050437\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giorgio-Vasari\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giorgio Vasari<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"72296\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/82\/46782-004-3E7303D3\/Self-portrait-oil-canvas-Giorgio-Vasari-Uffizi-Gallery.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/72296\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/82\/46782-004-3E7303D3\/Self-portrait-oil-canvas-Giorgio-Vasari-Uffizi-Gallery.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/82\/46782-004-3E7303D3\/Self-portrait-oil-canvas-Giorgio-Vasari-Uffizi-Gallery.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Giorgio Vasari\" data-width=\"352\" data-height=\"450\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/82\/46782-004-3E7303D3\/Self-portrait-oil-canvas-Giorgio-Vasari-Uffizi-Gallery.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/72296\">Giorgio Vasari<\/a>Self-portrait, oil on canvas by Giorgio Vasari; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">It is thus not surprising that biographies flourished in the Renaissance. Some were of individuals, but a more typical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a>\u00a0was multiple biographies. Petrarch, again, was a pioneer with his\u00a0<em>De viris illustribus<\/em>\u00a0(begun 1338;\u00a0<em>Illustrious Men<\/em>). A still more famous example was\u00a0<em>Le vite de\u2019 pi\u00f9 eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori<\/em>\u00a0(1550;\u00a0<em>Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects<\/em>), by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giorgio-Vasari\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giorgio Vasari<\/a>. Vasari did not simply compile a series of biographical sketches; he grouped them into three periods, which were marked by a progressive improvement in artistic technique. He concluded that \u201cit is\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/inherent\" data-term=\"inherent\" data-type=\"MW\">inherent<\/a>\u00a0in the very nature of these arts to progress step by step from modest beginnings, and finally to reach the summit of perfection.\u201d He noted that in his own day \u201cart has achieved everything possible in the imitation of nature, and has progressed so far that it has more reason to fear slipping back than to expect ever to make further advances.\u201d This last clause hints at the belief in historical cycles which was common in Renaissance thought. Vasari acknowledged that the arts of the ancients had also risen and then declined.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">It is easy to make the Renaissance too modern. It was an era in which beliefs in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/magic-supernatural-phenomenon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">magic<\/a>\u00a0and in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/numerology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">numerology<\/a>\u00a0had wide\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/currency\" data-term=\"currency\" data-type=\"EB\">currency<\/a>. It is also possible to exaggerate the level of interest in history during this period. Thus, the archetypal \u201cRenaissance man,\u201d\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Leonardo-da-Vinci\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Leonardo da Vinci<\/a>, seems to have had little interest in acquiring historical knowledge. Renaissance humanists, however, made positive contributions to the study of history, and the humanist approach to the past helped to create the great upheaval of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Reformation\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Reformation<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274768\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\">Early modern historiography<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274769\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">Church history<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284239\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><em><span id=\"ref1050438\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Centuriae-Magdeburgenses\">Centuriae Magdeburgenses<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Annales Ecclesiastici<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110528\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/97\/115497-050-7D8CC20E\/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110528\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/97\/115497-050-7D8CC20E\/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/97\/115497-050-7D8CC20E\/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Martin Luther\" data-width=\"998\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/97\/115497-050-7D8CC20E\/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110528\">Martin Luther<\/a>Portrait of Martin Luther, oil on panel by Lucas Cranach, 1529; in the Uffizi, Florence.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><span id=\"ref524012\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Martin-Luther\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Martin Luther<\/a>\u00a0(1483\u20131546), the German theologian who set the Reformation in motion, at first glance bears little resemblance to Petrarch, much less to Machiavelli. But while his piety was intense, he embraced much of the new learning. Nobody was more insistent on returning to the sources, which for him meant the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/New-Testament\" data-show-preview=\"true\">New Testament<\/a>. Any belief or practice not found there, he thought, must be a human invention, introduced during the long period of papal perversion of the Christian faith.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><span id=\"ref524010\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Protestantism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Protestantism<\/a>\u00a0thus entailed a reinterpretation of church history as well as of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/biblical-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bible<\/a>. As a consequence, history, which was not part of the curriculum in\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0universities, came to be taught in Protestant ones. (The early association of history and German universities became important later.) Luther\u2019s followers also set about publishing their version of church history.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ulrich-von-Hutten\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ulrich von Hutten<\/a>\u00a0(1488\u20131523) published a manuscript of Valla\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/treatise\" data-term=\"treatise\" data-type=\"MW\">treatise<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Donation-of-Constantine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Donation of Constantine<\/a>, impudently dedicating it to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/pope\" data-show-preview=\"true\">pope<\/a>. A team of scholars (a novelty) toured Germany, Denmark, Scotland, and Austria looking for documents on which to base their\u00a0<em>Centuriae Magdeburgenses<\/em>\u00a0(1559\u201375; \u201cMagdeburg Centuries\u201d), a 13-volume work that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constituted\" data-term=\"constituted\" data-type=\"MW\">constituted<\/a>\u00a0a denunciation of the course of church history up to 1300. The\u00a0<em>Centuriae Magdeburgenses<\/em>\u00a0was in some ways regressive; the compilers could not think of any more satisfactory arrangement for their material than by centuries, and their credulity toward documents damaging to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/papacy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">papacy<\/a>\u00a0was as invariable as the critical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/acumen\" data-term=\"acumen\" data-type=\"MW\">acumen<\/a>\u00a0they\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/deployed\" data-term=\"deployed\" data-type=\"MW\">deployed<\/a>\u00a0to discredit every basis of papal authority. Nevertheless, they unearthed large quantities of data. The\u00a0<em>Centuriae Magdeburgenses<\/em>\u00a0called forth an equally voluminous and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/tendentious\" data-term=\"tendentious\" data-type=\"MW\">tendentious<\/a>\u00a0Roman Catholic response, the\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050439\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Annales-Ecclesiastici\">Annales Ecclesiastici<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cEcclesiastical Annals\u201d), by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Caesar-Baronius\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Caesar Baronius<\/a>\u00a0(1538\u20131607), also in 13 volumes and also organized by centuries. This in turn was refuted by\u00a0<span id=\"ref524031\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Isaac-Casaubon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Isaac Casaubon<\/a>\u00a0(1559\u20131614), who was outraged that Baronius had attempted to write\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ecclesiastical\" data-term=\"ecclesiastical\" data-type=\"MW\">ecclesiastical<\/a>\u00a0history without knowing either ancient\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Greek-language\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Greek<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Hebrew-language\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hebrew<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284240\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref524023\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Paolo-Sarpi\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Paolo Sarpi<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One great work that emerged from this era of often tedious controversy was\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Paolo-Sarpi\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Paolo Sarpi<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>Istoria del Concilio Tridentino<\/em>\u00a0(1619;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref524022\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/History-of-the-Council-of-Trent\">History of the Council of Trent<\/a><\/em>). Sarpi, whose range of interests and accomplishments rivaled those of da Vinci, knew Greek and Hebrew and was able to do extensive historical research and to mold the results into a compelling literary form. Sarpi was a friar and, by his lights, a loyal Catholic, but he was also a loyal Venetian and hence an opponent of the temporal powers of the pope. He understood that the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Council-of-Trent\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Council of Trent<\/a>\u00a0(1545\u201363) had quashed the last hope of reuniting Christendom. In its attack on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Jesuits\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jesuits<\/a>, the guardians of Roman Catholic theological orthodoxy, the\u00a0<em>History<\/em>\u00a0demonstrated a mastery of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/irony\" data-term=\"irony\" data-type=\"MW\">irony<\/a>, sarcasm, and ridicule that was not approached again until\u00a0<em>Les Provinciales<\/em>, by the French mathematician and philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Blaise-Pascal\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Blaise Pascal<\/a>\u00a0(1623\u201362). Despite its errors and biases, it remains a masterpiece of Italian prose. And, like the controversy between Baronius and the authors of the\u00a0<em>Centuriae Magdeburgenses<\/em>, it stimulated the publication of many additional sources for the study of medieval history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Sarpi\u2019s work closed an epoch in Italian historiography. In the late 16th and 17th centuries France became the centre of historiographical innovation, which was applied now to the history of law. This field became almost as\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/contentious\" data-term=\"contentious\" data-type=\"MW\">contentious<\/a>\u00a0as the history of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>\u00a0but was ultimately more fruitful, since it opened lines of inquiry that eventually led to modern\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conceptions\" data-term=\"conceptions\" data-type=\"MW\">conceptions<\/a>\u00a0of history.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274770\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">Legal history<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">France was the earliest beneficiary of the rise of Italian humanistic scholarship, but it differed from Italy in ways that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/facilitated\" data-term=\"facilitated\" data-type=\"MW\">facilitated<\/a>\u00a0fruitful extension of the new learning. The Protestant stimulus to historiography was much stronger in France, and there was also no\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/inquisition\" data-show-preview=\"true\">inquisition<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Index Librorum Prohibitorum<\/a>\u00a0(Latin: \u201cIndex of Prohibited Books\u201d) to suppress free inquiry. Whereas Italian humanists tended to regard the Middle Ages as an embarrassing interlude between the glories of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Rome\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancient Rome<\/a>\u00a0and their own time, France had been the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0centre of Europe during that period. Furthermore, any serious treatment of medieval history required sorting out Germanic elements from Roman ones, a problem that the French were better able to undertake.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"9\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section data-level=\"2\">\r\n<section data-level=\"3\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284241\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref1050440\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Guillaume-Bude\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Guillaume Bud\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0and Fran\u00e7ois Hotman<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110575\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/37\/100237-050-347F028F\/Justinian-I-mosaic-Basilica-of-San-Vitale.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110575\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/37\/100237-050-347F028F\/Justinian-I-mosaic-Basilica-of-San-Vitale.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/37\/100237-050-347F028F\/Justinian-I-mosaic-Basilica-of-San-Vitale.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Justinian I\" data-width=\"1282\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/37\/100237-050-347F028F\/Justinian-I-mosaic-Basilica-of-San-Vitale.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110575\">Justinian I<\/a>Justinian I, depicted in a 6th-century mosaic; at the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Throughout the Middle Ages the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Code-of-Justinian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Code of Justinian<\/a>, or\u00a0<em>Corpus Juris Civilis<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cBody of Civil Law\u201d), the four-volume codification of\u00a0<span id=\"ref524054\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Roman-law\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roman law<\/a>\u00a0compiled under the patronage of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Byzantine\" data-term=\"Byzantine\" data-type=\"MW\">Byzantine<\/a>\u00a0emperor\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Justinian-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Justinian<\/a>\u00a0(483\u2013565), was regarded as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/quintessence\" data-term=\"quintessence\" data-type=\"MW\">quintessence<\/a>\u00a0of human law, applicable in virtually every situation. Parts of it were contradictory or barely intelligible, but commentators regarded these difficulties as the result of their own hermeneutic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ineptitude\" data-term=\"ineptitude\" data-type=\"MW\">ineptitude<\/a>. In the 15th century, however, humanists (among them Lorenzo Valla) assumed instead that the text had been corrupted by its compilers and that its pure form could be recovered through the application of philological methods. In France,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Guillaume-Bude\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Guillaume Bud\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0(1467\u20131540) followed Valla\u2019s example, and his commentary on the\u00a0<span id=\"ref524000\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Pandects\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Pandects<\/a>, the second volume of Justinian\u2019s code, established the power of this approach. Bud\u00e9\u2019s commentary and his book on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/economic-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">economic history<\/a>\u00a0of the Roman Empire earned him a scholarly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/prestige\" data-term=\"prestige\" data-type=\"MW\">prestige<\/a>\u00a0comparable to that of the great Dutch humanist\u00a0<span id=\"ref523996\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Erasmus<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The effort to recover the pure text of Justinian\u2019s code required both sensitivity to linguistic change and the ability to establish the historical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/context\" data-term=\"context\" data-type=\"MW\">context<\/a>\u00a0in which the Pandects were compiled. These became the hallmarks of the so-called \u201cFrench mode\u201d of legal studies, which ousted the unhistorical \u201cItalian mode\u201d from most French universities within a single generation. The more radical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/implications\" data-term=\"implications\" data-type=\"MW\">implications<\/a>\u00a0of the French approach, however, remained to be revealed. If the Code of Justinian was a jumble of republican and imperial law, as the French school held, then, as\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050441\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francois-Hotman\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Fran\u00e7ois Hotman<\/a>\u00a0(1524\u201390) concluded, the laws of Rome were irrelevant to those of France. This conclusion was of more than antiquarian import, since Hotman attributed tendencies toward\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/absolutism-political-system\" data-show-preview=\"true\">absolutism<\/a>\u00a0in the French\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/monarchy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">monarchy<\/a>\u00a0to the influence of Roman law; the monarchy of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Frank-people\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Franks<\/a>, in his view, was more limited.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284242\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref524029\"><\/span>Fran\u00e7ois Baudouin and Jean Bodin<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although the new study of law was closely related to historiography, the early commentaries on\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/civil-law-Romano-Germanic\" data-show-preview=\"true\">civil law<\/a>\u00a0did not\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitute\" data-term=\"constitute\" data-type=\"MW\">constitute<\/a>\u00a0histories. The two\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciplines\" data-term=\"disciplines\" data-type=\"MW\">disciplines<\/a>\u00a0were married in theory in\u00a0<em>Institution of Universal History and its Connection with Jurisprudence<\/em>\u00a0by Fran\u00e7ois Baudouin (1520\u201373) and the\u00a0<em>Method for the Easy Understanding of History<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050442\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jean-Bodin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jean Bodin<\/a>\u00a0(1530\u201396). These two works belonged to an extremely popular\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a>, the\u00a0<em>ars historica<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cart of history\u201d). Baudouin\u2019s work, though repeating all the old commonplaces about the virtues of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>, was also a handbook\u2014perhaps the first\u2014of historical method. Acknowledging that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rhetoric\" data-term=\"rhetoric\" data-type=\"MW\">rhetoric<\/a>\u00a0is history\u2019s mother and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/political-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">political science<\/a>\u00a0its sister, Baudouin declared that history ought to narrate and explain historical events themselves, as well as their causes and consequences. To establish historical truth, the historian should rely on eyewitness accounts, or, lacking these, primary sources. Although history was partly geographic in scope, it required also, in principle, attention to all human\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/culture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">culture<\/a>\u00a0(for Baudouin this meant\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ecclesiastical\" data-term=\"ecclesiastical\" data-type=\"MW\">ecclesiastical<\/a>\u00a0as well as political and military history).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Bodin\u2019s book shared many of Baudouin\u2019s ideas. Although Bodin placed history \u201cabove all sciences,\u201d he actually wished to extract from it the materials for a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/transcendent\" data-term=\"transcendent\" data-type=\"MW\">transcendent<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/political-philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">political philosophy<\/a>\u00a0and a universal jurisprudence. He attempted this in\u00a0<em>Les Six Livres de la R\u00e9publique<\/em>\u00a0(1576; \u201cThe Six Books of the Commonwealth\u201d).<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284243\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\"><span id=\"ref524036\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Etienne-Pasquier\" data-show-preview=\"true\">\u00c9tienne Pasquier<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"232354\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/08\/195308-050-312BBB2A\/Etienne-Pasquier.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/232354\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/08\/195308-050-312BBB2A\/Etienne-Pasquier.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/08\/195308-050-312BBB2A\/Etienne-Pasquier.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Pasquier, \u00c9tienne\" data-width=\"883\" data-height=\"1098\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/08\/195308-050-312BBB2A\/Etienne-Pasquier.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/232354\">Pasquier, \u00c9tienne<\/a>\u00c9tienne Pasquier.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The union of historiographical theory and practice was best achieved by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Etienne-Pasquier\" data-show-preview=\"true\">\u00c9tienne Pasquier<\/a>\u00a0(1529\u20131615) in his\u00a0<em>Recherches de la France<\/em>\u00a0(1560\u20131621), which may be regarded as the first work of modern history. Pasquier denied that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0chronicles were \u201cauthorities,\u201d instead regarding them as raw materials or primary sources, no more credible than law codes or even folk traditions. Medieval French chronicles usually began the story of the French people by tracing their descent from some hero of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Trojan-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Trojan War<\/a>. Although these stories had lost credibility, no convincing\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/alternative\" data-term=\"alternative\" data-type=\"MW\">alternative<\/a>\u00a0had been developed. Pasquier began his story with the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Gaul-ancient-region-Europe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gauls<\/a>, and, since the chronicles said almost nothing about them, he reconstructed their history from comments in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Julius Caesar<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>De bello Gallico<\/em>\u00a0(<em>Gallic Wars<\/em>). He read Caesar just as critically as any\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/chronicle-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">chronicle<\/a>, however, reversing the Roman leader\u2019s negative value judgments where appropriate and wringing from the texts a picture that Caesar supplies almost in spite of himself.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Pasquier\u2019s ability to recognize and utilize the best historical sources available is also demonstrated in his treatment of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Joan-of-Arc\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Joan of Arc<\/a>, the peasant who led French armies against the English during the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Hundred-Years-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hundred Years\u2019 War<\/a>. Not\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/yet\" data-term=\"yet\" data-type=\"EB\">yet<\/a>\u00a0an enormous cult figure, Joan was treated in many chronicles as an intriguer and impostor or, even worse, a witch or heretic. Yet the records of her trial, which allow her to speak in her own voice, were accessible, as were those of the second trial, which rehabilitated her character and quashed the accusations that led to her execution. Not only did Pasquier base his account squarely on these primary sources, he also incorporated crucial sections of these documents into his text. This practice of quoting documents to support historians\u2019 claims, universal today, was controversial at the time. The classical model discouraged quoting other writers (hence the use of invented speech).<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284244\" data-level=\"4\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h4\">The\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050443\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Bollandists\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bollandist<\/a>\u00a0Fathers and Jean Mabillon<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Progress in historiography is hard to establish, and there are clear cases of regress. In 17th-century France the discredited story of Trojan origins returned. Scholars in the 16th century, while not denying that God\u2019s will might be the ultimate cause of everything, had focused entirely on secondary causes; in the following century, however, the most influential historical work was\u00a0<em>Discours sur l\u2019histoire universelle<\/em>\u00a0(1681;\u00a0<em>Discourse on Universal History<\/em>), by the French bishop\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jacques-Benigne-Bossuet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jacques-B\u00e9nigne Bossuet<\/a>, which restored a providential interpretation of history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Despite these developments, scholarly advances occurred in the study of history, most notably those made by clergymen studying medieval charters and the lives of the saints. A group of Jesuits who came to be known as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Bollandists\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bollandist Fathers<\/a>\u00a0compiled biographies of all the saints in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/calendar\" data-show-preview=\"true\">calendar<\/a>\u00a0of the Roman church\u2014a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/collective\" data-term=\"collective\" data-type=\"MW\">collective<\/a>\u00a0task that has continued into the 21st century. The Bollandists\u2019s scrupulously high standards of evidence and analysis has resulted in the removal from the calendar of a number of saints who had the misfortune not to have existed.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Using the results of their researches, the Bollandists challenged the authenticity of many of the charters of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Benedictines\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Benedictine<\/a>\u00a0houses in France. Some of these documents were certainly forgeries, and the danger of forfeiture of the houses naturally created a demand for a method of authenticating charters. This need was met by a Benedictine of St. Maur,\u00a0<span id=\"ref663680\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jean-Mabillon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jean Mabillon<\/a>\u00a0(1632\u20131707), in his\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref524049\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/De-Re-Diplomatica\">De re diplomatica<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1681), which can be regarded as the founding work of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/diplomatics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">diplomatics<\/a>, or the study of charters. Mabillon\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/methodology\" data-term=\"methodology\" data-type=\"MW\">methodology<\/a>\u00a0was comprehensive\u2014he examined ink, parchment, and handwriting style and compared one charter with others. Indeed, he did his work so well that little has since been added to it.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In light of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/tendentious\" data-term=\"tendentious\" data-type=\"MW\">tendentious<\/a>\u00a0histories of this turbulent period, the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0honesty and modesty of the Bollandists is refreshing. One of them wrote to Mabillon, after reading his treatise:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>I have no other satisfaction in having written upon the subject than that of having given occasion for the writing of a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/treatise\" data-term=\"treatise\" data-type=\"MW\">treatise<\/a>\u00a0so masterly. It is true that I felt at first some pain in reading your book, where I saw myself refuted in so unanswerable a manner; but finally\u2026seeing the truth in its clearest light, I invited my companion to come and share the admiration with which I felt myself filled.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274771\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref524057\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Enlightenment-European-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Enlightenment<\/a>\u00a0historiography<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284245\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">Science and skepticism<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Two new challenges confronted the study of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0in the 17th century. One was generated by the successes of natural\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">science<\/a>, claimed by its proponents to be the best\u2014or even the only\u2014producer of truth. Science created a new picture of the world, discrediting all past\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conceptions\" data-term=\"conceptions\" data-type=\"MW\">conceptions<\/a>. As the English poet\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Alexander-Pope-English-author\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Alexander Pope<\/a>\u00a0wrote: \u201cNature and nature\u2019s laws lay hid in night\/ Then God said: \u2018Let Newton be!\u2019 and all was light.\u201d These successes inspired the hope that similar laws would be found for social and historical phenomena and that the same scientific methods could be applied to every subject, including politics,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/economics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">economics<\/a>, and even\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">literature<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The other challenge lay in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/ethical-relativism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">relativism<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/skepticism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">skepticism<\/a>\u00a0generated within historical discourse itself. In his\u00a0<em>Histoire des histoires et l\u2019id\u00e9e de l\u2019histoire accompli<\/em>\u00a0(1599; \u201cHistory of Histories and the Idea of History Accomplished\u201d), Lancelot Voisin La Popelini\u00e8re (1540\u20131608) asked: if history shows the ceaseless mutations of human\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/culture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">culture<\/a>, what keeps history itself from being more than a mode of perception of any particular\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/culture\" data-term=\"culture\" data-type=\"MW\">culture<\/a>, of no more permanent value than any other changeable cultural\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/artifact\" data-term=\"artifact\" data-type=\"MW\">artifact<\/a>? Thus, the unmasking of forgeries could lead to suspicions about every relic of the past. In a similar vein, the French Jesuit\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jean-Hardouin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jean Hardouin<\/a>\u00a0claimed that almost all the Latin and Greek classics and most of the works of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Church-Father\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Church Fathers<\/a>, including St.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Augustine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Augustine<\/a>\u00a0and St.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Jerome\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jerome<\/a>, were written by a group of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0Italian scholars, who then forged all the manuscripts purporting to be earlier. Hardouin, it must be said, pushed historical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0past the boundaries of sanity.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"188951\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/176962-050-4BC9F588\/Rene-Descartes.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/188951\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/176962-050-4BC9F588\/Rene-Descartes.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/176962-050-4BC9F588\/Rene-Descartes.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Ren\u00e9 Descartes\" data-width=\"1260\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/62\/176962-050-4BC9F588\/Rene-Descartes.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/188951\">Ren\u00e9 Descartes<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The most influential philosopher of the 17th century,\u00a0<span id=\"ref524047\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Rene-Descartes\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ren\u00e9 Descartes<\/a>, included history in his catalogue of dubious sciences. In his\u00a0<em>Discourse on Method<\/em>\u00a0(1637), Descartes asserted that, although histories exalt the mind,<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>even the most accurate of histories, if they do not exactly misrepresent or exaggerate the value of things in order to render them more worthy of being read, at least omit in them all the circumstances which are basest and least notable; and from this it follows that what is retained is not portrayed as it really is, and that those who regulate their conduct by examples which they derive from such a source are liable to fall into the extravagances of the knights-errant of romances.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">According to Descartes, history is doubtful because it is selective. Unlike the sciences, which are based on mathematics, history cannot yield knowledge.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One attempt to rescue the truth-claims of history, which ironically lent support to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/skepticism\" data-term=\"skepticism\" data-type=\"MW\">skepticism<\/a>, was the\u00a0<em>Dictionnaire historique et critique<\/em>\u00a0(1697; \u201cHistorical and Critical Dictionary\u201d), by the French philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Pierre-Bayle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Pierre Bayle<\/a>\u00a0(1647\u20131706), one of the most widely read works of the 18th century. The articles in Bayle\u2019s dictionary, enlivened by learned and often witty marginalia, established what was known about the subject but often undermined religious and political orthodoxies. These sallies were far more memorable than the often trivial facts provided in the work.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284246\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">Montesquieu and\u00a0<span id=\"ref524065\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Voltaire\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Voltaire<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The leading historians of the French\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Enlightenment-European-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Enlightenment<\/a>,\u00a0<span id=\"ref524067\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Montesquieu\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Montesquieu<\/a>\u00a0(1689\u20131755) and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Voltaire\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Voltaire<\/a>\u00a0(1694\u20131778), responded in different ways to the scientific impulse. In\u00a0<em>De l\u2019esprit des loix<\/em>\u00a0(1748;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref524068\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Spirit-of-Laws\" data-show-preview=\"true\">The Spirit of Laws<\/a><\/em>), Montesquieu explored the natural order that he believed underlay polities as well as economies. Despite lacking information about many\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/cultures\" data-term=\"cultures\" data-type=\"MW\">cultures<\/a>, he systematically applied a comparative method of analysis. Climate and soil, he believed, are the deepest level of causality. The size of the territory to be governed also determines what kind of government it can have (republics have to be small; large countries like Russia require despotism). Montesquieu\u2019s preferred form of government was\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitutional\" data-term=\"constitutional\" data-type=\"MW\">constitutional<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/monarchy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">monarchy<\/a>, which existed in France before\u00a0<span id=\"ref524063\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Louis-XIV-king-of-France\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Louis XIV<\/a>\u00a0(reigned 1643\u20131715) and in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>\u00a0during Montesquieu\u2019s day. Among his many readers were the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Founding-Fathers\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Founding Fathers<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>, who embraced Montesquieu\u2019s idea of balanced government and indeed created one exquisitely contrived to allow each branch to check the others.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Voltaire\u2019s temperament was more skeptical. \u201cHistory,\u201d he declared, \u201cis a pack of tricks we play on the dead.\u201d He nevertheless spent much of his life playing those tricks, producing\u00a0<em>L\u2019Histoire de Charles XII<\/em>\u00a0(1731; \u201cHistory of Charles XII\u201d), on the Swedish monarch,\u00a0<em>Le Si\u00e8cle de Louis XIV<\/em>\u00a0(1751; \u201cThe Century of Louis XIV\u201d), and\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref524064\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/An-Essay-on-Universal-History-the-Manners-and-Spirit-of-Nations-from-the-Reign-of-Charlemaign-to-the-Age-of-Lewis-XIV\">Essai sur les moeurs<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1756; \u201cEssay on Morals\u201d). In an article on history for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Encyclopedie\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Encyclop\u00e9die<\/a>, edited by the philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Denis-Diderot\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Denis Diderot<\/a>, Voltaire noted that the modern historian requires not only precise facts and dates but also attention to customs, commerce, finance, agriculture, and population. This was the program that the\u00a0<em>Essai<\/em>\u00a0tried to fulfill. It starts not with Adam or the Greek poet\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Homer-Greek-poet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Homer<\/a>\u00a0but with the ancient Chinese, and it also treats Indian, Persian, and Arab civilizations. Voltaire\u2019s\u00a0<em>Essai<\/em>\u00a0was the first attempt to make the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cuniversal history\u201d truly universal, not just in covering the globe\u2014or at least the high cultures\u2014but also in studying every aspect of human life. In this respect Voltaire is the father of the \u201ctotal histories\u201d and the \u201chistories of everyday life\u201d that blossomed in the second half of the 20th century.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Voltaire was curious about everything\u2014but not tolerant of everything. Like most\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophes<\/a>\u00a0(the leading thinkers of the French Enlightenment), he considered the Middle Ages an epoch of unbroken superstition and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/barbarism\" data-term=\"barbarism\" data-type=\"MW\">barbarism<\/a>. Even the age of Louis XIV exhibited \u201ca history of human stupidity.\u201d Like Machiavelli, he believed that one could learn from history\u2014but only what not to do. Thus, a statesman reading a history of the reign of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-XII\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Charles XII<\/a>\u00a0should be \u201ccured of the folly of war.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although Voltaire was interested in other cultures, he believed that reason had made headway only in the Europe of his own day. It was left to thinkers of the next generation, including the\u00a0<span id=\"ref524071\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Anne-Robert-Jacques-Turgot-baron-de-lAulne\" data-show-preview=\"true\">baron l\u2019Aulne Turgot<\/a>\u00a0(1727\u201381) and the\u00a0<span id=\"ref524061\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas-de-Caritat-marquis-de-Condorcet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">marquis de Condorcet<\/a>\u00a0(1743\u201394), to construe history as gradually but inevitably moving toward the elimination of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bigotry\" data-term=\"bigotry\" data-type=\"MW\">bigotry<\/a>, superstition, and ignorance. Condorcet rhapsodized: \u201cHow welcome to the philosopher is this picture of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/human-being\" data-show-preview=\"true\">human race<\/a>, freed from all its chains, released from the domination of chance and from that of the enemies of progress, advancing with a firm and sure step on the path of truth, virtue, and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284247\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref524069\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Edward-Gibbon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Edward Gibbon<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"11042\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/26\/926-050-066A88F0\/Edward-Gibbon-oil-painting-Henry-Walton-National-1774.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/11042\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/26\/926-050-066A88F0\/Edward-Gibbon-oil-painting-Henry-Walton-National-1774.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/26\/926-050-066A88F0\/Edward-Gibbon-oil-painting-Henry-Walton-National-1774.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Edward Gibbon\" data-width=\"1244\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/26\/926-050-066A88F0\/Edward-Gibbon-oil-painting-Henry-Walton-National-1774.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/11042\">Edward Gibbon<\/a>Edward Gibbon, oil painting by Henry Walton, 1774; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Science contributed not only its ambitions but also its concepts to historiography. The philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/David-Hume\" data-show-preview=\"true\">David Hume<\/a>\u00a0(1711\u201376) took from it the sober\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/empiricism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">empiricism<\/a>\u00a0and distrust of grand schemes that informed his\u00a0<em>History of England<\/em>\u00a0(1754\u201362). The greatest of the Enlightenment historians\u2014and probably the only one still read today\u2014<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Edward-Gibbon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Edward Gibbon<\/a>\u00a0(1737\u201394), managed to bring together in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref524070\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Decline-and-Fall-of-the-Roman-Empire\" data-show-preview=\"true\">The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1776\u201388) the erudition of the 17th century and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>\u00a0of the 18th. Gibbon borrowed rather than contributed to historical erudition, for he was not a great archival researcher. \u201cIt would be unreasonable,\u201d he said, \u201cto expect that the historian should\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/peruse\" data-term=\"peruse\" data-type=\"MW\">peruse<\/a>\u00a0enormous volumes, with the uncertain hope of extracting a few interesting lines.\u201d The influence of Enlightenment thought is indicated particularly in Gibbon\u2019s wit and in his skeptical view of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>. \u201cTo the believer,\u201d he wrote, \u201call religions are equally true, to the philosopher, all religions are equally false, and to the magistrate, all religions are equally useful.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Gibbon\u2019s great work gives no elaborate account of the causes of the decline and fall\u2014because the causes, he thought, were obvious. Borrowing an image from physics, he wrote:<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>the decline of Rome was the natural and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/inevitable\" data-term=\"inevitable\" data-type=\"EB\">inevitable<\/a>\u00a0effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/accident\" data-show-preview=\"true\">accident<\/a>\u00a0had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of enquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The Enlightenment has been condemned as \u201cunhistorical.\u201d It did lack sympathy, and thus full understanding, of some cultures and periods. Hume\u2019s view that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/human-nature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">human nature<\/a>\u00a0was essentially the same in the Roman Empire and in 18th-century\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Britain<\/a>\u00a0now seems wrong. No technical advances in historiography were made by the philosophes. On the other hand, history was widely read, and the brilliant writing of Voltaire and Gibbon helped to create something like a mass public for historical works. Finally, the Enlightenment expanded the historical world, in principle at least, almost to the limits recognized today\u2014and it never shrank again.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274772\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050444\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Romanticism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0historiography<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Nevertheless, it is hard to see how historiography could have developed further within the limits established by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Enlightenment-European-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Enlightenment<\/a>\u00a0worldview. A second generation of philosophes, especially the philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jean-Jacques Rousseau<\/a>, were already testing those limits in the later 18th century; but the most potent challenge to them came from Germany, now finally assuming its full place in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0life of Europe. The period 1770\u20131830 witnessed the activity of an astonishing constellation of German thinkers, poets, and eventually historians, of whom\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johann Wolfgang von Goethe<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Immanuel-Kant\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Immanuel Kant<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Friedrich-Schiller\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Friedrich von Schiller<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Georg-Wilhelm-Friedrich-Hegel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel<\/a>\u00a0are only the best known.<\/p>\r\n<section id=\"ref284248\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref524090\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johann Gottfried von Herder<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"11555\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/84\/11084-004-72946BF1\/Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-detail-oil-painting-1808.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/11555\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/84\/11084-004-72946BF1\/Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-detail-oil-painting-1808.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/84\/11084-004-72946BF1\/Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-detail-oil-painting-1808.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Johann Gottfried von Herder\" data-width=\"241\" data-height=\"300\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/84\/11084-004-72946BF1\/Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder-detail-oil-painting-1808.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/11555\">Johann Gottfried von Herder<\/a>Johann Gottfried von Herder, detail of an oil painting by Gerhard von K\u00fcgelgen, 1808; in the Library of Tartu State University, Estonia.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Perhaps even more influential than these figures, however, was\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johann-Gottfried-von-Herder\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johann Gottfried von Herder<\/a>\u00a0(1744\u20131803). Herder was a polymath\u2014as much a theologian, philosopher, anthropologist, or literary critic as a theorist of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>. His\u00a0<em>Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menscheit<\/em>\u00a0(1784\u201391;\u00a0<em>Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man<\/em>) anticipated Darwin in its claim that all organic life is connected and evolving progressively toward human beings, the highest form of life.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Herder held a tripartite view of historical development and was interested in what he conceived as the spirit of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/cultures\" data-term=\"cultures\" data-type=\"MW\">cultures<\/a>. He posited an age of primitive human poets whose\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consciousness\" data-term=\"consciousness\" data-type=\"MW\">consciousness<\/a>\u00a0was distilled in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/epic\" data-show-preview=\"true\">epics<\/a>. An age of prose followed as humans became mature, but it was only in the \u201cripe\u201d age\u2014inevitably metaphorically associated with senescence\u2014that language became precise enough to be suitable for philosophical reflection.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The same preoccupation with language underlies Herder\u2019s thoughts about culture\u2014or\u00a0<em>Volk<\/em>, as he called it. Within a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/culture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">culture\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0language, he wrote, \u201cdwell its entire world of tradition, history,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>, principles of existence: its whole heart and soul.\u201d The language of a\u00a0<em>Volk<\/em>\u00a0is created in its youth or poetic age; afterward it is relatively resistant to changes imposed from the outside. Herder resisted the notion that any age or\u00a0<em>Volk<\/em>\u00a0is inferior to any other.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">It is not hard to detect a German declaration of independence in these views. \u201cGermany,\u201d after all, was a cultural but not a political unity. The exaltation of all cultures as equal and the admiration for \u201cprimitive\u201d humans stood in contrast to French cultural\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/chauvinism\" data-term=\"chauvinism\" data-type=\"MW\">chauvinism<\/a>\u00a0and the grading of people according to how closely they reached the Enlightenment standard of rationality. Furthermore, Herder turned the interests of historians away from political and diplomatic history and toward social, cultural, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">intellectual history<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Even more profoundly, Herder elevated the historical imagination to supreme importance. This did not mean that he favoured fantasy, the invention of speeches, or other deliberate falsifications. But he thought that the spiritual development of a people cannot be discerned by purely rational processes. The ways in which the art of a people, for example, is related to its economic or social institutions has to be grasped in an act of insight. An impressionistic thinker, Herder sensed the aspects of the Enlightenment that his generation found unsatisfying. He is generally regarded as the father of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Romanticism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Romanticism<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284249\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref524066\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giambattista-Vico\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giambattista Vico<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"250204\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/250204\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Giambattista Vico\" data-width=\"1205\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/89\/181789-050-4CAF4C57\/Giambattista-Vico-1668-1744.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/250204\">Giambattista Vico<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">During the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Romantic\" data-term=\"Romantic\" data-type=\"MW\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0movements, thinkers reevaluated past thought and looked for what might be usable in it. This process led to the discovery by the French historian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jules-Michelet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jules Michelet<\/a>\u00a0(1798\u20131874) of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/eccentric\" data-term=\"eccentric\" data-type=\"MW\">eccentric<\/a>\u00a0<em>Scienza nuova<\/em>\u00a0(1725; \u201cNew Science\u201d) of the Neapolitan professor of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rhetoric\" data-term=\"rhetoric\" data-type=\"MW\">rhetoric<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giambattista-Vico\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giambattista Vico<\/a>\u00a0(1688\u20131744). Much of the\u00a0<em>Scienza nuova<\/em>\u00a0deals with problems in the history of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Roman-law\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roman law<\/a>\u00a0(which had preoccupied 16th- and 17th-century scholars), but it also proposes a new\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/methodology\" data-term=\"methodology\" data-type=\"MW\">methodology<\/a>\u00a0for history, a scheme of how it develops, and a reformulation of the providential theory.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In opposition to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>\u00a0of Descartes, Vico argued that only history can produce certainty. According to Vico, humans can have knowledge of \u201cthe world of nations\u201d because they created it, but only God can know the natural world. The English philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Hobbes\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Hobbes<\/a>\u00a0had equated\u00a0<em>verum<\/em>\u00a0(\u201ctruth\u201d) and\u00a0<em>factum<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cthe made\u201d), but Vico made this a fundamental principle of historiography, one that he hoped would make it the queen of the sciences.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One problem for Vico, which he says took him many years of effort to solve, was that of the nature of primitive mentality. In opposition to \u201cthe conceit of scholars\u201d\u2014the assumption that primitive humans must have had worldviews and mental processes like those of the Enlightenment\u2014Vico held that the authors of the\u00a0<em><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Iliad-epic-poem-by-Homer\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Iliad<\/a><\/em>, the ancient Greek poem attributed to Homer, were individuals of powerful imaginations who could express themselves only through poetic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/metaphors\" data-term=\"metaphors\" data-type=\"MW\">metaphors<\/a>. Among these metaphors was Zeus, the god who throws down thunderbolts, and his equivalent in every other gentile\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/culture\" data-term=\"culture\" data-type=\"MW\">culture<\/a>. This age of gods was succeeded by an age of heroes and finally by an age of men, whose characteristic expression was prose and whose inevitable trope was\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/irony\" data-term=\"irony\" data-type=\"MW\">irony<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284250\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050445\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Georg-Wilhelm-Friedrich-Hegel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Vico and Herder worked toward a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cspirit of the times\u201d and \u201cspirit of the people,\u201d both of which were incorporated into Hegel\u2019s enormously ambitious\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy-of-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy of history<\/a>. Hegel\u2019s thought eludes easy summation, and its\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/premises\" data-term=\"premises\" data-type=\"MW\">premises<\/a>\u00a0are not intuitively obvious. As an absolute\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/idealism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">idealist<\/a>, he held that only ideas are real (in Hegel\u2019s famous phrase, \u201cthe real is rational\u201d). Ideas develop by contradiction, or by implying their opposites, since establishing what a concept is involves determining what it is not. Thus, pure being implies not-being; but since it is pure being, it is not anything in particular, and hence it is also a kind of nothingness. From the ideas of pure being and nothingness the idea of becoming is inevitably generated. This is one example of what is usually called (though seldom by Hegel)\u00a0<em>dialectic<\/em>. The Idea, or Spirit, for Hegel must realize itself by being incarnated in the world\u2014in inorganic, animal, and vegetable life because they obey natural laws, and in human history because \u201cWorld history in general is the development of Spirit in Time, just as Nature is the development of the Idea in Space.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The goal toward which Spirit was working, in Hegel\u2019s conception, was the state\u2014not any state existing in his time but a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitutional\" data-term=\"constitutional\" data-type=\"MW\">constitutional<\/a>\u00a0organization guaranteeing freedom to all citizens. The journey of Spirit began in China, which had grasped the idea that one person (the emperor) was free; but freedom for only one person is in fact license for him and despotism for everyone else. Thus, the unfolding idea of freedom leads to the idea that, unless everyone is free, \u201cfreedom\u201d will have no meaning.\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/Yet\" data-term=\"Yet\" data-type=\"EB\">Yet<\/a>\u00a0freedom without limits is also self-contradictory (one person\u2019s freedom to swing his arms must be limited by the freedom of others not to be hit in the face). Thus, a structure of laws guarantees freedom rather than abridges it.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Hegel\u2019s philosophy of history was full of original and profound insights into the histories of China, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the \u201cGermanic world\u201d (though it also included some dubious claims, especially about Africa). Although his most famous follower was\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Karl-Marx\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Karl Marx<\/a>\u00a0(<em>see below<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Marxist-historiography#ref284259\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marxist historiography<\/a>), his influence was felt by many others as well. Many 19th-century historians who were not direct\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciples\" data-term=\"disciples\" data-type=\"MW\">disciples<\/a>\u00a0of Hegel were nevertheless idealists of some sort; they focused on the cultures created by peoples and believed that the study of history used distinctive methods and was radically different from, but not inferior to, natural science.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284251\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref524096\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jules-Michelet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jules Michelet<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110595\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/90\/9990-004-29A11583\/Jules-Michelet-detail-oil-painting-Thomas-Couture.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110595\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/90\/9990-004-29A11583\/Jules-Michelet-detail-oil-painting-Thomas-Couture.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/90\/9990-004-29A11583\/Jules-Michelet-detail-oil-painting-Thomas-Couture.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Jules Michelet\" data-width=\"240\" data-height=\"300\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/90\/9990-004-29A11583\/Jules-Michelet-detail-oil-painting-Thomas-Couture.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110595\">Jules Michelet<\/a>Jules Michelet, detail of an oil painting by Thomas Couture; in the Carnavalet Museum, Paris.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Jules Michelet is the archetypal Romantic historian. He had a conventionally successful academic career at the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/College-de-France\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Coll\u00e8ge de France<\/a>\u00a0until he was dismissed in 1851 for refusing to take an oath to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Napoleon-III-emperor-of-France\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Louis Napoleon<\/a>, president of France and soon emperor of the French. \u201cAcademic,\u201d however, would be the least appropriate description of Michelet\u2019s histories. Michelet took an almost sensual pleasure in entering \u201ccatacombs of manuscripts, this wonderful necropolis of national monuments\u201d whose contents were \u201cnot papers, but lives of men, of provinces, of people.\u201d What he did with the documents, however, was quite different. Distinguishing himself from two contemporaries,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francois-Guizot\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Fran\u00e7ois Guizot<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Augustin-Thierry\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Augustin Thierry<\/a>\u00a0(he could have added the great German historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref524002\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Leopold-von-Ranke\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Leopold von Ranke<\/a>), Michelet commented: \u201cGuizot analyzes, Thierry narrates, I resurrect!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In his effort to bring the past, in all its variety, back to life, Michelet did not hesitate to consult the people of his time: \u201cI shut the books, and placed myself among the people to the best of my power; the lonely writer plunged again into the crowd, listened to their noise, noted their words.\u201d The people were France, the object of Michelet\u2019s passion. Through all the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/vicissitudes\" data-term=\"vicissitudes\" data-type=\"MW\">vicissitudes<\/a>\u00a0of its history, they remained its quasi-mystical essence; and Michelet exhorted them to retain their sense of national unity.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284252\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">Historiography in\u00a0<span id=\"ref524016\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Romanticism crossed the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/English-Channel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">English Channel<\/a>, though naturally with variations, and it also crossed the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Atlantic-Ocean\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Atlantic Ocean<\/a>.\u00a0<span id=\"ref524097\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Babington-Macaulay-Baron-Macaulay\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Babington Macaulay<\/a>\u00a0(1800\u201359) proclaimed that the central theme of English history from the time of the granting of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Magna-Carta\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Magna Carta<\/a>\u00a0in 1215 to his own day involved the gradual increase of liberty. His\u00a0<em>History of England from the Accession of James II\u00a0<\/em>(1849\u201361) situated the genius of the English in achieving liberty by largely peaceful means, thus sparing himself the task of accounting for England\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0regicides or the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/English-Civil-Wars\" data-show-preview=\"true\">English Civil Wars<\/a>. The English had enough respect for the past to avoid violent change but enough flexibility to avoid rigid\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/conservatism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">conservatism<\/a>. In the first volume, Macaulay wrote a classic description of English life in 1685. His picture of England was highly pleasing to 19th-century Victorians, who bought hundreds of thousands of copies.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">More directly influenced by Romanticism, as by German thought, was\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Carlyle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Carlyle<\/a>. To him, Macaulay\u2019s views, besides being\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/complacent\" data-term=\"complacent\" data-type=\"MW\">complacent<\/a>, were\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/insipid\" data-term=\"insipid\" data-type=\"MW\">insipid<\/a>. Conflicts between peoples and the actions of great men were the stuff of history. \u201cUniversal History,\u201d he declared in\u00a0<em>On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History<\/em>\u00a0(1841), \u201c\u2026 is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. They were the leaders of men, these great ones,\u201d and history was \u201cthe essence of innumerable biographies.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The works of many Romantic historians were notable for their literary style. More people, however, derived their sense of the past from the historical novels of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Walter-Scott\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sir Walter Scott<\/a>\u00a0(1771\u20131832). Ranke\u2019s career as a modern historian began when he discovered factual errors in Scott\u2019s novels; Scott was also Marx\u2019s favourite novelist. The emphasis the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Romantics\" data-term=\"Romantics\" data-type=\"MW\">Romantics<\/a>\u00a0put on imagination in recreating the past opened the way for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a> of historical novels, of which Scott was the first great practitioner.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section data-level=\"2\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284253\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h3\">Historiography in the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050446\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-United-States\">United States<\/a><\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The most influential American historian of the 19th century was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050737\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/George-Bancroft-American-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">George Bancroft<\/a>\u00a0(1800\u201391), who studied at the universities of G\u00f6ttingen and Berlin (<em>see below<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Historiography-in-the-United-States#ref284254\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johann Christoph Gatterer and the G\u00f6ttingen scholars<\/a>). During intervals in a busy career as a public official he wrote a 10-volume\u00a0<em>History of the United States<\/em>\u00a0(1834\u201374), which placed the country within God\u2019s plan for all humanity. The European colonists who settled the country brought with them the \u201cvital principles of Teutonic liberty.\u201d With the signing of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Declaration-of-Independence\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Declaration of Independence<\/a>, \u201ca new plebeian\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/democracy\" data-term=\"democracy\" data-type=\"MW\">democracy<\/a>\u00a0took its place by the side of the proudest empire,\u201d a democracy that was destined to spread the blessings of liberty to the rest of the world. As to spreading the blessings of liberty to American slaves, Bancroft argued that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/slavery-sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slavery<\/a>\u00a0was imposed on the United States and that it played a role in the providential plan. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/resonance\" data-term=\"resonance\" data-type=\"MW\">resonance<\/a>\u00a0within his work not only of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Romantic\" data-term=\"Romantic\" data-type=\"MW\">Romantic<\/a>\u00a0principles (it can be seen as an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adaptation\" data-term=\"adaptation\" data-type=\"MW\">adaptation<\/a>\u00a0of Hegel) but also American political\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rhetoric\" data-term=\"rhetoric\" data-type=\"MW\">rhetoric<\/a>\u00a0of the 19th century explains its wide appeal.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Other American historians, such as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francis-Parkman\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francis Parkman<\/a>\u00a0(1823\u201393),\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-H-Prescott\" data-show-preview=\"true\">William Prescott<\/a>\u00a0(1796\u20131859), and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/John-Lothrop-Motley\" data-show-preview=\"true\">John Lothrop Motley<\/a>\u00a0(1814\u201377), also addressed epic themes in\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/captivating\" data-term=\"captivating\" data-type=\"MW\">captivating<\/a>\u00a0language. Parkman\u2019s theme was the contest between France,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Britain<\/a>, and the Native Americans for possession of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-America\" data-show-preview=\"true\">North America<\/a>. Prescott and Motley recounted the wars of imperial Spain in the Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries. Prescott\u2019s theme was the conquest of Mexico and Peru; Motley (also a product of G\u00f6ttingen and Berlin) recounted the successful rebellion of the Netherlands, which he did not fail to compare frequently to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/American-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">American Revolution<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274773\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\">History becomes academic<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284254\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050662\"><\/span>Johann Christoph Gatterer and the G\u00f6ttingen scholars<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Until the beginning of the 19th century, the history of historiography could be represented in a list of great and near-great individuals. Group efforts like those of the Bollandists or the Benedictines of St. Maur were the exception; almost all historians worked alone. History had no established place in most university curricula, being subsumed under rhetoric (or occasionally grammar) and studied mainly in faculties of law or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/theology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">theology<\/a>. The universities, too, lacked\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0vitality; Gibbon called the 14 months he spent at Oxford the most idle and unprofitable of his life. In Germany, where universities had always been more influential (almost all the great figures in German intellectual life had doctoral degrees), the characteristic institutional structure of contemporary historiography was being established.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The centre of this activity was the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050664\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/University-of-Gottingen\" data-show-preview=\"true\">university at G\u00f6ttingen<\/a>, in the electorate of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Hannover-Germany\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hannover<\/a>. The electorate was ruled by the Hannoverian kings of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>\u00a0(<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/George-I-king-of-Great-Britain\" data-show-preview=\"true\">George I<\/a>\u00a0through\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-IV-king-of-Great-Britain\" data-show-preview=\"true\">William IV<\/a>), who, whether from tolerance or inattentiveness, allowed greater freedom of thought than did rulers in other parts of Germany. As a new university (founded 1737), G\u00f6ttingen was less bound by traditional academic divisions, and it soon devoted itself especially to law and history rather than to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>\u00a0or theology. Its rise to prominence began with the appointment in 1759 of Johann Christoph Gatterer (1727\u201399) to the chair of history. One of the first scholars to be interested in the history of historiography, Gatterer understood the institutional support that the new academic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/discipline\" data-term=\"discipline\" data-type=\"MW\">discipline<\/a>\u00a0would require. By 1763 the library of the university had grown to 200,000 volumes, making it one of the largest in Germany.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One of Gatterer\u2019s most important projects was a critical edition of sources for the study of German history, which ultimately came to fruition in the collection known as the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050665\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Monumenta-Germaniae-Historica\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Monumenta Germaniae Historica<\/a>\u00a0(\u201cHistorical Monuments of the Germans\u201d). He also founded two historical journals (by 1791 there were 131 mainly historical journals in Germany) and a Historical Institute, an early type of seminar.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The scholars of G\u00f6ttingen shared some of the philosophical interests of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Enlightenment-European-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Enlightenment<\/a>\u00a0thinkers, including Montesquieu\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/empirical\" data-term=\"empirical\" data-type=\"MW\">empirical<\/a>\u00a0approach to law and politics. One of the G\u00f6ttingen professors, for example, lectured on what he called\u00a0<em>Statistik<\/em>, which at first was the study of mostly qualitative data about states but soon came to resemble modern statistics as numerical data became more widely available. What was most important about the G\u00f6ttingen scholars was that they described states as they were rather than fantasizing about how they might have been.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284255\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref524087\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Leopold-von-Ranke\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Leopold von Ranke<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110610\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/05\/38705-050-314AE3F3\/Leopold-von-Ranke-detail-oil-painting-J-1868.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110610\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/05\/38705-050-314AE3F3\/Leopold-von-Ranke-detail-oil-painting-J-1868.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/05\/38705-050-314AE3F3\/Leopold-von-Ranke-detail-oil-painting-J-1868.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Leopold von Ranke\" data-width=\"1169\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/05\/38705-050-314AE3F3\/Leopold-von-Ranke-detail-oil-painting-J-1868.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110610\">Leopold von Ranke<\/a>Leopold von Ranke, detail of an oil painting by J. Schrader, 1868; in the National-Galerie, Berlin.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Soon other German universities became centres of advanced historical research. This was particularly true of Berlin, which was the site of the Prussian Academy of Sciences (founded 1700) and the University of Berlin (founded as Friedrich Wilhelm University in 1809\u201310; renamed\u00a0<span id=\"ref1259859\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Humboldt-University-of-Berlin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Humboldt University of Berlin<\/a>\u00a0in 1949), both of which attracted great scholars from all over the country.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The name that will always be associated with the latter institution, however, is that of Leopold von Ranke (1795\u20131886), who taught there for 37 years. His written works were only one avenue of his influence on 19th-century historiography. Ranke was an obscure\u00a0<em><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Gymnasium-German-school\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gymnasium<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(a state-run secondary school) teacher when, at the age of 29, he published\u00a0<em>Geschichte der romanischen und germanischen V\u00f6lker von 1494 bis 1514<\/em>\u00a0(1824;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050667\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/History-of-the-Latin-and-Teutonic-Nations-from-1494-to-1514\">History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations from 1494 to 1514<\/a><\/em>). In the preface to the work he famously stated that, although history has been assigned the task of judging the past and giving lessons for the future, his work \u201cwill merely show how it actually was (<em>wie es eigentlich gewesen<\/em>).\u201d The second volume,\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050668\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Zur-Kritik-neuerer-Geschichts-schreiber\">Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtsschreiber<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(\u201cCritique of Modern Historians\u201d), established critical methods of historical scholarship that have since become\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/normative\" data-term=\"normative\" data-type=\"EB\">normative<\/a>. Ranke emphasized the acquisition of first-hand information and the tireless search for all relevant data, which he defined as \u201cmemoirs, diaries, letters, reports from embassies, and original narratives of eyewitnesses.\u201d He cited Guicciardini as an example of faulty historiographical practice, demonstrating that he invented the content of many reported speeches, that he could not have had any personal knowledge of many events about which he wrote, and that, even when he did have personal knowledge, he often copied from contemporary accounts.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Interestingly, Ranke\u2019s list of sources of relevant data omits what present-day historians would consider the most obvious and valuable source: state papers (the documents produced by public officials in performing official actions). Such documents were not generally available to historians when Ranke started to write, but, as a result of pressure from the growing historical profession, more and more archives were opened to them.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Shortly after Ranke\u2019s book was published, he was called to Berlin. He would have won no awards for lecturing, however. One of the many Americans drawn to the new temple of historical research described him as \u201ca little round-faced man, with a baldish forehead, a high voice and thin hair.\u201d He \u201cjerked out\u201d his observations \u201clike a garden fountain which keeps spurting up little\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/futile\" data-term=\"futile\" data-type=\"MW\">futile<\/a>\u00a0jets and then stopping.\u201d But it was his seminars that established his influence. Modeled on seminars in philology and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Greek-literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Greek literature<\/a>\u00a0that Ranke had attended as a student, they offered a \u201claboratory\u201d in historical method in which problems were posed, documents sought out and produced, and mutual\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0offered.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">More than 100 historians passed through Ranke\u2019s seminar, including\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Heinrich-von-Sybel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Heinrich von Sybel<\/a>\u00a0(1817\u201395) and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jacob-Burckhardt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jacob Burckhardt<\/a>\u00a0(1818\u201397). Ranke\u2019s students established seminars of their own, and their hundreds of pupils were also\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciples\" data-term=\"disciples\" data-type=\"MW\">disciples<\/a>\u00a0of Ranke. When\u00a0<span id=\"ref524098\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Gabriel-Jean-Jacques-Monod\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Gabriel Monod<\/a>\u00a0(1844\u20131912), who would become one of the leading French historians of his generation, asked the great\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Hippolyte-Taine\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hippolyte Taine<\/a>\u00a0(1828\u201392) whether he should go to Germany to study history, Taine answered yes. The Germans\u2019 superiority, he said, rested on two bases. They were philologists who went straight to original documents, but they were also philosophers, which gave them \u201cthe habit of generalizing and of seeing objects in masses.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although Ranke has been regarded as a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/positivism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">positivist<\/a>\u00a0who was concerned only with facts, the very intensity of his preoccupation with\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ascertaining\" data-term=\"ascertaining\" data-type=\"MW\">ascertaining<\/a>\u00a0those facts came from his\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conviction\" data-term=\"conviction\" data-type=\"MW\">conviction<\/a>\u00a0that history was, as he wrote, a \u201choly hieroglyph.\u201d He was as convinced as any\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0monk that history was the unfolding of a divine plan; for him, however, the plan required the existence of modern European nation-states. States, he wrote, were \u201cthoughts of God\u201d; by intuiting the idea or cultural principle incarnated in each nation, the historian could discern at least intimations of the divine plan. Accordingly, much of Ranke\u2019s own scholarship focused on the inner workings of the nation-states and their relationships with each other; for this his exploitation of the\u00a0<em>relazioni<\/em>, or reports, of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/astute\" data-term=\"astute\" data-type=\"MW\">astute<\/a>\u00a0Venetian diplomats was especially important.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The conclusion of his life\u2019s work, however, was an unfinished universal history, published in nine volumes between 1881 and 1888. In an age of rampant\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/nationalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">nationalism<\/a>, to which Ranke\u2019s histories had certainly contributed, his final\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/legacy\" data-term=\"legacy\" data-type=\"MW\">legacy<\/a>\u00a0was a sort of cosmopolitanism.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"13\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274774\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\">New histories<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284256\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050670\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-Germany\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Germany<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although Ranke\u2019s influence was\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/enhanced\" data-term=\"enhanced\" data-type=\"MW\">enhanced<\/a>\u00a0by his longevity (he lived to the age of 91), it was mainly due to the seductive synthesis he offered. He maintained that scholarship could produce historical truth; he held a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of the divine will that linked it to the existing nation-states of 19th-century Europe; and he possessed a considerable literary gift. Even in Germany, however, his sway was never absolute, and by the end of the century his style of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0was under assault from a number of directions.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Ranke\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy-of-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy of history<\/a>, which he usually\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/articulated\" data-term=\"articulated\" data-type=\"MW\">articulated<\/a>\u00a0in prefaces or asides, was examined by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050669\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johann-Gustav-Droysen\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johann Gustav Droysen<\/a>\u00a0(1808\u201384) in a series of lectures eventually published as the\u00a0<em>Historik<\/em>. Droysen maintained that Ranke\u2019s critical method and literary virtuosity had created an aura of scientific accuracy that shielded his faulty theistic interpretations. Rather than focusing on a core of ascertainable facts, however, Droysen emphasized how the same set of facts could be accounted for in different ways. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/French-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">French Revolution<\/a>, for example, could be the subject of at least four forms of discourse: investigative, narrative,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/didactic\" data-term=\"didactic\" data-type=\"MW\">didactic<\/a>, and discussive (mixtures of these being found in most historical works). Of these, Droysen favoured the discussive, because it was explicitly addressed to the relevance that historical knowledge might have to society. The past is inaccessible except through its \u201cremains,\u201d which can be interpreted pragmatically, focusing on the aims of the actors in historical events; conditionally, stressing the material conditions under which actions take place; psychologically,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprising\" data-term=\"comprising\" data-type=\"MW\">comprising<\/a>\u00a0both character types and the element of individual personality and will; or ethically, contemplating the events under\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0categories. By drawing attention to representative practices, by conceiving history as a discourse, and by arguing that no historian could give an unmediated account of \u201chow it actually was,\u201d Droysen undercut the foundations on which Ranke\u2019s work rested, though this was all but unrecognized at the time.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Another attack came from those who believed that history should model itself after the natural sciences, especially physics. In their view, the reliance on\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intuition\" data-term=\"intuition\" data-type=\"MW\">intuition<\/a>\u00a0ensured that historiography would always be imprecise. Such critics also believed that the invocation of notions such as Spirit,\u00a0<em>Volk<\/em>, or God was a mere mystification and that the focus on the individual or the particular rather than the general was misguided. Although very few historians fully embraced this position, some had ambitions in that direction. Among them was\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Karl-Gotthard-Lamprecht\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Karl Lamprecht<\/a>\u00a0(1856\u20131915), whose 12-volume\u00a0<em>Deutsche Geschichte<\/em>\u00a0(1891\u20131901: \u201cGerman History\u201d) elicited a furious response from historians in Germany. Lamprecht\u2019s transgressions were two-fold: he criticized the prevailing idealist approach to history, and he made social and cultural life, rather than the formation of the state, the central theme. His opponents accused him of having socialist sympathies (which was doubtful) and of attempting to undo the tradition of historiography that had made Germany admired throughout the world. Lamprecht sought to find laws of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/collective\" data-term=\"collective\" data-type=\"MW\">collective<\/a>\u00a0psychology governing the behaviour of Germans. His approach found few followers in Germany but had somewhat more influence in the United States. It was in any case a symptom of a widespread desire to find a different and more scientific basis for history.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284257\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050702\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-France\" data-show-preview=\"true\">France<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The most important voices calling for a new scientific history were heard in France and the United States. France had its own tradition of documentary\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>, stemming from the humanist scholars of the 16th century and stimulated by the founding of the\u00a0<span id=\"ref524085\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Ecole-des-Chartes\">\u00c9cole des Chartes<\/a>\u00a0(School of Paleography) in 1821. More resistant to German influence than any other European country, it also produced\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050701\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Auguste-Comte\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Auguste Comte<\/a>\u00a0(1798\u20131857), the prophet of scientific laws in history.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"9580\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/78\/23678-050-1DCF79A2\/Auguste-Comte-Tony-Toullion-Bibliotheque-Nationale-Paris.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/9580\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/78\/23678-050-1DCF79A2\/Auguste-Comte-Tony-Toullion-Bibliotheque-Nationale-Paris.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/78\/23678-050-1DCF79A2\/Auguste-Comte-Tony-Toullion-Bibliotheque-Nationale-Paris.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Auguste Comte\" data-width=\"1251\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/78\/23678-050-1DCF79A2\/Auguste-Comte-Tony-Toullion-Bibliotheque-Nationale-Paris.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/9580\">Auguste Comte<\/a>Auguste Comte, drawing by Tony Toullion, 19th century; in the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale, Paris.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Comte, inventor of the word\u00a0<em>sociology<\/em>\u00a0and often regarded as the founder of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/discipline\" data-term=\"discipline\" data-type=\"MW\">discipline<\/a>, propounded an elaborate tripartite view of historical development. Humanity, he declared, had already passed through two stages, the theological and the philosophical. In the former, divinities or spiritual forces were believed to be the causes of natural and human events. In the philosophical period, natural laws were discovered, but the world of human events was still held to be indeterminate, and thought was confused by the belief in essences, teleologies, and other unobservable forces. The advent of the positive period was the French Revolution, which liberated humans from their theological fancies and philosophical mistakes. Henceforth, Comte prophesied, humans would rely only on what their senses told them and would seek out the laws that governed the human world. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/aggregate\" data-term=\"aggregate\" data-type=\"MW\">aggregate<\/a>\u00a0of these laws would be\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">sociology<\/a>. Observations would be provided by historians; but historians, incapable of fully understanding their own discoveries, would rely on sociologists to place their observations under appropriate laws. This program, not surprisingly, did not appeal to historians, but it did offer an ideal for uniting all aspects of society in a single\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/analytical\" data-term=\"analytical\" data-type=\"MW\">analytical<\/a>\u00a0framework.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In 1900 the French philosopher\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050713\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Henri-Berr\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Henri Berr<\/a>\u00a0founded the social-science journal\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050716\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Revue-de-synthese-historique\">Revue de Synth\u00e8se Historique<\/a><\/em>, which attracted contributions from some French historians. Berr\u2019s program for \u201c<span id=\"ref1050715\"><\/span>historical synthesis\u201d was more ambitious than any single historian could achieve; he called for teams of scholars from various\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciplines\" data-term=\"disciplines\" data-type=\"MW\">disciplines<\/a>\u00a0to engage in\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/empirical\" data-term=\"empirical\" data-type=\"MW\">empirical<\/a>\u00a0historical research with the aim of synthesizing their discoveries. Berr argued that no discipline could proceed without some sort of logical method that would involve\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hypothesis\" data-term=\"hypothesis\" data-type=\"MW\">hypothesis<\/a>\u00a0and synthesis as well as analysis. In this respect he agreed with the leading figure in French\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social science<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Emile-Durkheim\" data-show-preview=\"true\">\u00c9mile Durkheim<\/a>\u00a0(1858\u20131917), who established the journal\u00a0<em>L\u2019Ann\u00e9e Sociologique<\/em>\u00a0at about the same time. Although many French historians remained more traditional in their practice, Berr in 1907 recruited both\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050718\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lucien-Paul-Victor-Febvre\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lucien Febvre<\/a>\u00a0(1878\u20131956) and\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050717\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Marc-Bloch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marc Bloch<\/a>\u00a0(1866\u20131944) as collaborators on the\u00a0<em>Revue<\/em>. Together these men would challenge and revolutionize the study of history in France and in the rest of the world.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">While at the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/University-of-Strasbourg\" data-show-preview=\"true\">University of Strasbourg<\/a>, which then was on the margins of the French historical profession, Bloch and Febvre produced important works of their own, often focused on what became known as the history of\u00a0<em>mentalit\u00e9s<\/em>, or popular attitudes and unconscious preconceptions. Although both eventually\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/attained\" data-term=\"attained\" data-type=\"EB\">attained<\/a>\u00a0chairs at universities in Paris, it was not until after\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-II\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War II<\/a>\u00a0that they achieved a significant following\u2014by then Bloch had been shot by the Nazis for his participation in the French\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/resistance-European-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">resistance<\/a>. After the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>, the\u00a0<em>Annales: Economies, Soci\u00e9t\u00e9s, Civilisations<\/em>, which they had founded in 1929 as\u00a0<em>Annales d\u2019histoire \u00e9conomique et sociale<\/em>, became the most influential historical journal in the world (the title was changed again in 1994, to\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050728\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Annales-Histoire-Sciences-Sociales\">Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales<\/a><\/em>). Its impact was vastly enhanced by the capture by the Annalistes of the newly reconstituted Sixth Section of the \u00c9cole des Hautes \u00c9tudes (School of Higher Studies). Eventually, as a result of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bureaucratic\" data-term=\"bureaucratic\" data-type=\"MW\">bureaucratic<\/a>\u00a0centralization in France and the willingness of the government to commit funds to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/higher-education\" data-show-preview=\"true\">higher education<\/a>\u00a0in order to gain cultural\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/prestige\" data-term=\"prestige\" data-type=\"MW\">prestige<\/a>, the directorate of the Sixth Section was virtually able to supervise historical research in the country.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<section id=\"ref284258\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h3\">The\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050730\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history-of-United-States\">United States<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Whereas in 1875 there was hardly anything that could be called a historical profession in the United States, by 1900 the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050735\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/American-Historical-Association\">American Historical Association<\/a>\u00a0(AHA) and its journal, the\u00a0<em>American Historical Review<\/em>, as well as a number of university Ph.D. programs in history, had been established. No clique of senior professors in the great universities could have achieved the sort of dominance in the United States that was possible in France or Germany, but there was nevertheless a struggle to create a group of historians, highly trained in the approved German manner, to claim the national history from the hands of the great\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/amateurs\" data-term=\"amateurs\" data-type=\"EB\">amateurs<\/a>\u00a0such as\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050738\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/George-Bancroft-American-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bancroft<\/a>, Prescott, and Parkman. For a while amateurs coexisted amicably with the professionals (Bancroft was the second president of the AHA), but they soon withdrew to found more-congenial forums such as the\u00a0<em>Mississippi Valley Historical Review<\/em>\u00a0(now the\u00a0<em>Journal of American History<\/em>). This prompted former U.S. president\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050739\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Theodore-Roosevelt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Theodore Roosevelt<\/a>, who served as president of the AHA in 1912, to complain, not without reason, that the professionals were squeezing all the life out of history; their expertise was bought at the cost of pedantry in the profession and boredom among the public.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"60898\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/75\/70975-050-301601F4\/Frederick-Jackson-Turner.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/60898\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/75\/70975-050-301601F4\/Frederick-Jackson-Turner.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/75\/70975-050-301601F4\/Frederick-Jackson-Turner.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Frederick Jackson Turner\" data-width=\"1078\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/75\/70975-050-301601F4\/Frederick-Jackson-Turner.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/60898\">Frederick Jackson Turner<\/a><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">As they professionalized the teaching and writing of history, the new academic historians sought to dislodge the picture of the American past that had been painted by their predecessors. The first shock occurred in 1893, when\u00a0<span id=\"ref524102\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Frederick-Jackson-Turner\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Frederick Jackson Turner<\/a>\u00a0(1861\u20131932) delivered a paper on his \u201cfrontier thesis.\u201d Whereas Bancroft and most other leading historians of his generation had claimed that the early settlers of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/New-England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">New England<\/a>\u00a0brought with them the germs of \u201cTeutonic liberty,\u201d Turner\u2014inspired by the announcement of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/U-S-Census-Bureau\" data-show-preview=\"true\">U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>\u00a0in 1890 that the western frontier was now \u201cclosed\u201d (or entirely occupied)\u2014declared that the decisive experience in American history had been that of pioneers as they pressed westward, settling the \u201cempty\u201d frontier. On the frontier, he declared, Americans developed their most distinctive characteristics:\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/egalitarianism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">egalitarianism<\/a>, self-help, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/pragmatism\" data-term=\"pragmatism\" data-type=\"MW\">pragmatism<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Few important historical writings have ever rested on such a slender empirical basis. The \u201cemptiness\u201d of the frontier was an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/illusion\" data-term=\"illusion\" data-type=\"MW\">illusion<\/a>\u00a0created by the Census Bureau, which made no count of the Native Americans who inhabited these lands. Although the frontier thesis had been anticipated by Hegel, Turner\u2019s genius lay in bringing it forward at just the right time. The closing of the frontier did mark the end of a readily understandable period in American history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Turner not only introduced a new conception of American history but also wrested the historical spotlight from Harvard and New England and shone it on his native Wisconsin and points west. His book\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050746\"><\/span>The United States, 1830\u20131850: The Nation and Its Sections<\/em>\u00a0(1935),\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/emphasized\" data-term=\"emphasized\" data-type=\"EB\">emphasized<\/a>\u00a0the importance of sectional conflict and demonstrated how cultural traits interacted with the natural environment; he thus achieved his goal of making history not just \u201cthe brilliant annals of the few\u201d but also the story of \u201cthe degraded tillers of the soil, toiling that others might dream.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A generation of Turner\u2019s younger contemporaries, most notably\u00a0<span id=\"ref524103\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-A-Beard\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Charles Beard<\/a>\u00a0(1874\u20131948),\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050748\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Carl-Becker\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Carl Becker<\/a>\u00a0(1873\u20131945), and\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050750\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/James-Harvey-Robinson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">James Harvey Robinson<\/a>\u00a0(1863\u20131936), issued the first of many calls in the 20th century for a \u201cnew history.\u201d Although there was actually little novelty in the methods they advocated, they all aspired, like Turner, to reinterpret American history in the interest of a more democratic and rational society.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This desire to challenge conventional wisdom led to new works, including Beard\u2019s\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050756\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/An-Economic-Interpretation-of-the-Constitution-of-the-United-States\">An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1913). Although he did not claim that his was the only possible interpretation of the founding document, he asserted as a fundamental principle that<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>different degrees and kinds of property inevitably exist in modern society; party doctrines and \u2018principles\u2019 originate in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/sentiments\" data-term=\"sentiments\" data-type=\"MW\">sentiments<\/a>\u00a0and views which the possession of various kinds of property creates in the minds of the possessors;\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-class\" data-show-preview=\"true\">class<\/a>\u00a0and group divisions based on property lie at the basis of modern government; and politics and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/constitutional-law\" data-show-preview=\"true\">constitutional law<\/a>\u00a0are inevitably a reflex of these contending interests.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Beard neatly expressed his reinterpretation of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/American-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">American Revolution<\/a> by saying that it concerned the issue not just of home rule but of who should rule at home.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section data-level=\"1\">\r\n<section data-level=\"2\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref284259\" data-level=\"3\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h3\"><span id=\"ref1050758\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Marxism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marxist<\/a>\u00a0historiography<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110630\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/22\/59822-050-98F24569\/Karl-Marx-1870.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110630\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/22\/59822-050-98F24569\/Karl-Marx-1870.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/22\/59822-050-98F24569\/Karl-Marx-1870.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Karl Marx\" data-width=\"994\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/22\/59822-050-98F24569\/Karl-Marx-1870.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110630\">Karl Marx<\/a>Karl Marx, c. 1870.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">These historians, who were generally\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Progressive-Party-United-States-1924\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Progressives<\/a>\u00a0in politics, emphasized the importance of class conflict and the power of economic interests in their studies, revealing the influence of\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050759\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Karl-Marx\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Karl Marx<\/a>\u00a0(1818\u201383). Marx and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Friedrich-Engels\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Friedrich Engels<\/a>\u00a0(1820\u201395) worked together in almost total isolation, and when Marx died it would have been difficult for a casual observer not to conclude that his ideas would disappear with him. By 1900, however,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Marxism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marxism<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constituted\" data-term=\"constituted\" data-type=\"MW\">constituted<\/a>\u00a0the greatest challenge to the idealist tradition.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Despite the influence of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">sociology<\/a>, and economics, Marx\u2019s thought was profoundly historical. Hegel had taught him that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0was constant change, produced by oppositions, reconciliations, and more oppositions. Acknowledging (in a way) this debt, Marx remarked that he found Hegel standing on his head and turned him right side up again. By this he meant that Hegel had mistaken the real motor of history: it was not the conflict of ideas but the conflict of social classes. Marx admitted, however, that this was not his own discovery; the \u201cbourgeois\u201d historians, such as Vico, had anticipated him. What Marx brought to the idea of class struggle was a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of how it had developed and how it must eventually turn out.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Marx\u2019s understanding of\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050766\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/class-struggle\">class struggle<\/a>\u00a0was influenced by the work of the English economist\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050764\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/David-Ricardo\" data-show-preview=\"true\">David Ricardo<\/a>\u00a0(1772\u20131823), who had developed a model of how \u201cperfect\u201d markets work in a\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050771\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/capitalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">capitalist<\/a>\u00a0mode of production. Ricardo had made the conflicting interests of landlords, employers, and workers the centre of his picture of the economy. He argued that, because of Malthusian population\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/dynamics\" data-term=\"dynamics\" data-type=\"MW\">dynamics<\/a>, the wages of workers would always be held at or near subsistence levels. Marx extended the analysis by taking into account increases in population and in the productive powers of the economy. He correctly predicted\u2014at a time when there were very few companies that employed more than 50 workers\u2014that the size of capitalist enterprises would inexorably increase until giant corporations dominated the economy. Equally correctly, he predicted that the proportion of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/labor-in-economics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">labour force<\/a>\u00a0engaged in agriculture (over half in parts of Europe) and the number of small business owners would sharply decline, so that proletarians\u2014those who had nothing to sell but their labour\u2014would become the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/overwhelming\" data-term=\"overwhelming\" data-type=\"EB\">overwhelming<\/a>\u00a0majority of the population. Marx was less certain about the political consequences of these changes; by the end of his life he thought that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/capitalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">capitalism<\/a>\u00a0might be brought to an end without violent\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/revolution-politics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">revolution<\/a>\u00a0in some countries (the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>\u00a0among them), and he saw that not all societies would pass through exactly the same sequence of changes. But he never lost his confidence that the system of private ownership of the means of production, in which enormous quantities of wealth accumulated in fewer and fewer hands, would inevitably be replaced by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/socialism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">socialism<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">None of this is history, properly speaking. The appeal of Marxism, for some historians, has been the rigour of this economic argument, which promises an eventual system based on\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0precepts more appealing than \u201cgreed is good\u201d; they also have been attracted to its suggestive\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/implications\" data-term=\"implications\" data-type=\"MW\">implications<\/a>\u00a0for a unified approach to history. These are implications only, however. Marxist historiography, as a contemporary Marxist once said, is still \u201cunder construction.\u201d Marx\u2019s own historical writings are far from a mechanical application of his system. In his brilliant\u00a0<em>Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon<\/em>\u00a0(1852;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050772\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Eighteenth-Brumaire-of-Louis-Bonaparte\">The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte<\/a><\/em>), several classes, not just two, played important roles, and the political skill of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Napoleon-III-emperor-of-France\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Napoleon III<\/a>\u00a0is acknowledged\u2014albeit grudgingly\u2014as significant. Although some Marxist historians may still maintain a residual\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/allegiance\" data-term=\"allegiance\" data-type=\"MW\">allegiance<\/a>\u00a0to the notion that ideas are a mere \u201csuperstructural\u201d reflection of the material \u201cbase,\u201d the way this relationship is supposed to work has never been satisfactorily demonstrated, and this aspect of Marxism has largely been laid aside.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In recent times the idea has gained currency that Marxism has been \u201crefuted by history.\u201d No successful revolution has broken out in any advanced capitalist country, and the collapse of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Soviet-Union\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Soviet Union<\/a>\u00a0and the failure of the regimes in eastern Europe that called themselves Marxist has been taken as the conclusive demonstration that Marx was wrong. But \u201chistory\u201d refutes nobody; only historians can do that, and other historians, looking at different evidence or reinterpreting the same, can in turn refute them. A more well-grounded objection might be that there is no way to refute Marx, because his predictions are insufficiently precise; for example, he wrote that no mode of production gives way to its successor before it has exhausted all of its possibilities. The history of historiography suggests, however, that no grand scheme, whether of Augustine, Hegel, or Marx, can be \u201cdisconfirmed\u201d by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/empirical-evidence\" data-show-preview=\"true\">empirical evidence<\/a>. They are different interpretations of history, more or less persuasive as one judges them on what are essentially\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/aesthetic\" data-term=\"aesthetic\" data-type=\"MW\">aesthetic<\/a>\u00a0or moral grounds. The option to refuse to interpret in such a mode is of course always open.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274775\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\">Contemporary historiography<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The extraordinary expansion of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/higher-education\" data-show-preview=\"true\">higher education<\/a>\u00a0throughout the world in the first decades after\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-II\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War II<\/a>, and the prominent place that instruction in history occupied in colleges and universities, contributed to the dramatic growth in the historical profession in the second half of the 20th century. This in turn reflected a widespread public interest in\u2014indeed, a fascination with\u2014the past.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In the countries that fought in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>, especially the United States, returning veterans were given access to higher education. This created a mass\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/market\" data-show-preview=\"true\">market<\/a>\u00a0for teachers of history, again, especially in the United States, where it became common to inculcate in first-year students, under the rubric of \u201cgeneral education,\u201d courses in \u201cWestern civilization.\u201d (This was quickly and appropriately nicknamed \u201cPlato to NATO\u201d; its\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/premise\" data-term=\"premise\" data-type=\"MW\">premise<\/a>\u00a0was that there was a continuous and relatively\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/coherent\" data-term=\"coherent\" data-type=\"MW\">coherent<\/a>\u00a0Western tradition beginning in classical Greece and mutually enjoyed by the countries that happened to be members of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/North-Atlantic-Treaty-Organization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">North Atlantic Treaty Organization<\/a>.) With so many more people studying history, publishers in the English speaking world began to produce cheap paperback editions even of historical monographs, making it possible for the first time to introduce undergraduates to real historical writing.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Borne on this tide were the graduate schools, which expanded their faculties and admitted Ph.D. candidates in numbers not seen before. Good doctoral dissertations (and even some bad ones) could attract the interest of publishers, and their authors usually had some choice of permanent employment. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/buoyant\" data-term=\"buoyant\" data-type=\"EB\">buoyant<\/a>\u00a0publishing climate also encouraged historical journals to proliferate. None matched the impact of the\u00a0<em>Annales<\/em>, but they often moved to the cutting edge of historical work.\u00a0<em>Past and Present<\/em>\u00a0was founded in 1952 at the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/University-of-Oxford\" data-show-preview=\"true\">University of Oxford<\/a>\u00a0with the provocative (but short-lived) subtitle \u201cA Journal of Scientific History.\u201d Although committed to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social history<\/a>\u00a0and drawing mainly on left-wing contributors, the journal never followed any rigid ideological line, and it quickly became the outstanding historical journal in English, rivaling the staid and traditional\u00a0<em>English Historical Review<\/em>\u00a0(founded 1885). Similar interests were addressed by\u00a0<em>Comparative Studies in Society and History<\/em>\u00a0(founded 1958) and the\u00a0<em>Journal of Interdisciplinary History<\/em>\u00a0(founded 1970), while\u00a0<em>History and Theory<\/em>\u00a0(founded 1960) became the first journal devoted to the theory of history.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section id=\"ref274949\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h1\">Branches of history<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274950\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\">History of the arts<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Histories have been written about\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/architecture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">architecture<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/sculpture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">sculpture<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/painting\" data-show-preview=\"true\">painting<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/music\" data-show-preview=\"true\">music<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/dance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">dance<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/theatre-art\" data-show-preview=\"true\">theatre<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/motion-picture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">motion pictures<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/television-technology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">television<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/literature\" data-show-preview=\"true\">literature<\/a>. Despite essential differences, these forms of historiography have some common features. One is that they are almost invariably produced outside\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0departments and faculties. For this reason they have tended to be regarded as somewhat exotic specialties. Because the activities of artists are inevitably the central subject of most histories of the arts, such histories generally include formalistic analyses of artistic works. The distinction between history and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>\u00a0in the case of art is thus less distinct than it is in other subject areas. Finally, performance traditions figure prominently in histories of music, dance, and theatre.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Historians are seldom satisfied with purely formal analyses of art and are seldom competent to make them. Historians have tried to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrate\" data-term=\"integrate\" data-type=\"MW\">integrate<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/art-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">art history<\/a>\u00a0into their studies in three fundamental ways. The first is to consider the material conditions of production. Some of the issues are technical: what pigments were available to an artist? What\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/special-effects\" data-show-preview=\"true\">special effects<\/a>\u00a0were possible in an Elizabethan theatre? Others relate to patronage, since most artists have always worked for commissions or pensions given to them by the rich (who in return got to appear in paintings, be mentioned in the prefaces of books, or attach their names to pieces of music). Finally, the working conditions and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-status\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social status<\/a>\u00a0of artists have been investigated. Artists in past centuries had little social prestige; they were regarded as artisans and were organized in guild workshops with apprentices (or sons\u2014<em>Bach<\/em>\u00a0in Germany was almost a generic name for a musician).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A second approach, which became popular in the late 20th century, is to shift the emphasis from the artist to the audience. German literary critics carried this\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0farthest in what they called\u00a0<em>Rezeptionstheorie<\/em>. Applied to a work of literature,\u00a0<em>Rezeptionstheorie<\/em>\u00a0implies that the meaning of a work is determined not by the writer but by the reader, who is \u201cimplied\u201d in the text. Sometimes scholars simply treat themselves as \u201cthe reader,\u201d thus producing\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/literary-criticism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">literary criticism<\/a>\u00a0rather than history. Occasionally, however, there is evidence of how ordinary readers reacted to novels (e.g., when readers wrote to magazines in which novels were serialized). The face-to-face nature of the performing arts makes it easier to determine how audiences responded to such works; there are famous stories of the disastrous premieres of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Georges-Bizet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Georges Bizet<\/a>\u2019s opera\u00a0<em>Carmen<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giuseppe-Verdi\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giuseppe Verdi<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>La traviata<\/em>\u00a0and of the riot that erupted at the first performance of the ballet\u00a0<em>Le Sacre du printemps<\/em>\u00a0(<em>The Rite of Spring<\/em>), by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Igor-Stravinsky\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Igor Stravinsky<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Serge-Pavlovich-Diaghilev\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Serge Diaghilev<\/a>. Reception theory has been particularly fruitful in the field of history of the moving image, since sophisticated means of measuring and evaluating audience responses are available (and, in television at least, slavishly followed).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The most ambitious\u2014and most controversial\u2014way of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrating\" data-term=\"integrating\" data-type=\"MW\">integrating<\/a>\u00a0art history into historiography relies on such notions as a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/zeitgeist\" data-term=\"zeitgeist\" data-type=\"MW\">zeitgeist<\/a>, or spirit of an age. The originator of this approach was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050777\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jacob-Burckhardt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jacob Burckhardt<\/a>\u00a0(1818\u201397), whose masterpiece,\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050776\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Civilization-of-the-Renaissance-in-Italy\">The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy<\/a><\/em>, begins with a chapter called \u201cThe State as a Work of Art\u201d and argues that artistic production in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Renaissance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a>\u00a0is of a piece with politics and statecraft.\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051131\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giambattista-Vico\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giambattista Vico<\/a>\u2019s idea of the poetic tropes of an age of heroes, as contrasted with the prose of an age of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/irony\" data-term=\"irony\" data-type=\"MW\">irony<\/a>, points in the same direction, as does\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Georg-Wilhelm-Friedrich-Hegel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">G.W.F. Hegel<\/a>\u2019s conception of Spirit coming to full self-consciousness through art,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>, and philosophy.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110771\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/68\/10968-050-68F95DDA\/Holy-Family-oil-panel-hardboard-Giorgione-Washington.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110771\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/68\/10968-050-68F95DDA\/Holy-Family-oil-panel-hardboard-Giorgione-Washington.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/68\/10968-050-68F95DDA\/Holy-Family-oil-panel-hardboard-Giorgione-Washington.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Giorgione: The Holy Family\" data-width=\"1042\" data-height=\"851\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/68\/10968-050-68F95DDA\/Holy-Family-oil-panel-hardboard-Giorgione-Washington.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110771\">Giorgione:\u00a0<em>The Holy Family<\/em><\/a><em>The Holy Family<\/em>, oil painting by Giorgione, c. 1508; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The history of painting has gained the most attention from scholars in part because paintings are traded commodities that often require authentication by experts. The authentication of modern paintings seldom requires the services of a professional historian, but works from previous centuries, especially those in which the cult of the individual artistic genius had not fully developed and paintings were not always signed, often do. One of the great art historians of the early 20th century,\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050778\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Bernard-Berenson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bernard Berenson<\/a>\u00a0(1865\u20131959), borrowed a technique for\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/attributions\" data-term=\"attributions\" data-type=\"MW\">attributions<\/a>\u00a0that depended on mannerisms of painting ears and noses, but he also overestimated his ability to identify paintings by the Italian Renaissance master\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giorgione\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giorgione<\/a>\u00a0and others, incidentally making large sums for himself. In the late 20th century, art historians developed more-rigorous\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criteria\" data-term=\"criteria\" data-type=\"MW\">criteria<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/attribution\" data-term=\"attribution\" data-type=\"MW\">attribution<\/a>, with the result that works once attributed to great artists such as Giorgione were demoted to \u201cschool of,\u201d \u201cfollower of,\u201d and the like. Art history is thus a field in which detecting forgeries is still a live issue. One of the great forgers of the 20th century, Hans van Meegeren, succeeded in passing off a number of his own canvases as works of the Dutch painter\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johannes-Vermeer\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johannes Vermeer<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Art historians have taken a variety of approaches. Such eminent figures as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ernst-H-Gombrich\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Ernst Gombrich<\/a>\u00a0(1909\u20132001) stoutly defended the establishment of a canon of indubitably great paintings, whereas\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Heinrich-Wolfflin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Heinrich W\u00f6lfflin<\/a>\u00a0(1864\u20131945) treated \u201ccategories of beholding,\u201d which reveal the ways in which paintings create their effects. Paintings and works of sculpture also can have an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0content. One school of art historians, most prominently identified with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Erwin-Panofsky\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Erwin Panofsky<\/a>\u00a0(1892\u20131968), studied iconology, or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/iconography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">iconography<\/a>, which consists of the formal analysis of visual motifs used to express thematic content or to identify important figures (thus, a skull or hourglass indicated death, and a figure carrying his skin over his shoulder referred to St.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Saint-Bartholomew\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bartholomew<\/a>, who according to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/legend\" data-term=\"legend\" data-type=\"MW\">legend<\/a>\u00a0was flayed). To understand such paintings, knowledge of iconology is necessary but not sufficient. Iconologists have tried to move beyond providing simple lists of motifs to developing treatments of how motifs change and of what these changes indicate regarding the cultural and intellectual\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/context\" data-term=\"context\" data-type=\"MW\">context<\/a>\u00a0of the painting.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Painting has not escaped the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conceptual\" data-term=\"conceptual\" data-type=\"MW\">conceptual<\/a>\u00a0issue besetting most of the arts: how to identify an object as a work of art. Several developments challenge historians of contemporary art: the presentation of ordinary objects as \u201cart\u201d\u2014such as the urinal that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Marcel-Duchamp\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marcel Duchamp<\/a>\u00a0submitted to a gallery as\u00a0<em>The Fountain<\/em>; the rise of abstract painting; and portraits of soup cans by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Andy-Warhol\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Andy Warhol<\/a>. In\u00a0<em>Transfiguration of the Commonplace<\/em>\u00a0(1981), the American philosopher of art Arthur Danto argued that art is at an end, since there is now no way to distinguish between works of art and urinals and no distinct mode in which works of art can convey their intellectual content. Concurrently with this proclamation of the end of art came the question of whether art history has also come to an end. This is a typical\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/postmodernism-philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">postmodern<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/provocation\" data-term=\"provocation\" data-type=\"EB\">provocation<\/a>, of a piece with the claim that history as a whole has ended.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"16\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274951\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050781\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/biography-narrative-genre\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Biography<\/a>\u00a0and psychohistory<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Ancient\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/biography-narrative-genre\" data-show-preview=\"true\">biography<\/a>, especially the entire\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/hagiography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">hagiography<\/a>, subordinated any treatment of individual character to the profuse repetition of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/edifying\" data-term=\"edifying\" data-type=\"MW\">edifying<\/a>\u00a0examples. They were generally about eminent men, but women could qualify as subjects by being\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/martyred\" data-term=\"martyred\" data-type=\"MW\">martyred<\/a>. Although biographies written in the Italian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Renaissance\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Renaissance<\/a>, such as that of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Giorgio-Vasari\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Giorgio Vasari<\/a>, began to resemble modern biographies, those written in the Northern Renaissance were still of great public figures, by someone who knew them. They were almost totally lacking in psychological insight, personality being swathed in thick layers of virtue. For example, the life of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-More-English-humanist-and-statesman\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas More<\/a>, written by his son-in-law, does not even mention that More was the author of\u00a0<em>Utopia<\/em>\u00a0(1516). In the 17th century, however,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Izaak-Walton\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Izaak Walton<\/a>\u00a0(better known today for his classic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/treatise\" data-term=\"treatise\" data-type=\"MW\">treatise<\/a>\u00a0on angling) wrote some lives of literary figures, adding heroes of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/culture\" data-show-preview=\"true\">culture<\/a>\u00a0to those of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>\u00a0and politics as appropriate subjects. The renowned\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Samuel-Johnson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Samuel Johnson<\/a>\u00a0(1709\u201384) has the distinction of being both a biographer (of English poets) and the subject of the biography by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/James-Boswell\" data-show-preview=\"true\">James Boswell<\/a>,\u00a0<em>Life of Johnson<\/em>\u00a0(1791), which was roughly as important for biography as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Edward-Gibbon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Edward Gibbon<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/em>\u00a0(1776\u201388) was for historiography.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Biographers of contemporaries are often faced with one of two unique challenges. They sometimes discover that the letters, diaries, and other personal documents of the subject that are most necessary for writing the biography have been destroyed, sometimes precisely to prevent a biography from being written. Writers of authorized biographies, however, are often granted privileged access to these materials but are somewhat constrained by the commission. Even when the biographer is not dependent on the subject (or literary executor) for the necessary sources, the relationship between the two persons can be intense. There is likely to be some\u2014perhaps overriding\u2014emotional attraction on the part of the biographer to the person he wishes to write about. Some writers believe that the biographer must become intimately acquainted with the mind and emotions of the subject. This requirement is obviously easier to meet if the two are close friends, but biographers can also generate deep\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/empathy\" data-term=\"empathy\" data-type=\"MW\">empathy<\/a>\u00a0with people long dead. However, it seems to be fascination, not admiration, that is essential, since good biographies have been written by authors who came to despise their subjects. Otherwise there presumably could never have been good biographies of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adolf-Hitler\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adolf Hitler<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Joseph-Stalin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Joseph Stalin<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Writing the life of a major writer or artist presents different problems\u2014and opportunities\u2014from those presented in writing the life of a statesman. It also makes a vast difference whether or not one is writing about a contemporary. Biographers face the problem of access to private collections as well as the problem of the quality of those collections, which vary enormously in size and informativeness. For example, whereas only about 300 often terse letters by the American novelist\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Herman-Melville\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Herman Melville<\/a>\u00a0survive, there are about 15,000\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/extant\" data-term=\"extant\" data-type=\"MW\">extant<\/a>\u00a0letters by the American writer\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Henry-James-American-writer\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Henry James<\/a>\u2014this after James had burned all his copies of his letters and everything else that might have been useful to a biographer.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although at times faced with the willful destruction of the personal papers of their subjects, almost every biographer of a contemporary figure faces an embarrassment of documents and must at times envy the biographer of such sparsely documented figures as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-Shakespeare\" data-show-preview=\"true\">William Shakespeare<\/a>. Victorian biographers generally surrendered to a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/plethora\" data-term=\"plethora\" data-type=\"MW\">plethora<\/a>\u00a0of sources by writing extremely long accounts of the life and times of statesmen, larded with extensive\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/verbatim\" data-term=\"verbatim\" data-type=\"MW\">verbatim<\/a>\u00a0quotations from their correspondence and speeches. The English critic\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050785\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lytton-Strachey\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lytton Strachey<\/a>\u00a0(1880\u20131932) ridiculed these multivolume monuments piled on the bones of the dead, and in his\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050784\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Eminent-Victorians\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Eminent Victorians<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1918) he completely changed the course of biography as a literary genre. In four short and witty sketches of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Florence-Nightingale\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Florence Nightingale<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Henry-Edward-Manning\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Henry Cardinal Manning<\/a>, Gen.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-George-Gordon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Charles George Gordon<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Arnold\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Arnold<\/a>, Strachey gave vent to all that a modernist generation that had survived\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War I<\/a>\u00a0felt for its pious and overbearing predecessors. Strachey was particularly adept at pouncing upon and pointing out instances of unconscious hypocrisy. Although his brother James Strachey was the first translator of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Sigmund-Freud\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Sigmund Freud<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>, it is not clear that Lytton Strachey had read anything by him, but Freud\u2019s ideas were in the air and could not fail to interest a biographer\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/imbued\" data-term=\"imbued\" data-type=\"EB\">imbued<\/a>\u00a0with \u201cthe hermeneutics of suspicion.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Those seeking a balanced account of these four great Victorians will not find it in Strachey\u2019s pages. Yet though he was sometimes unfair and sacrificed judiciousness to witticisms, Strachey became a model for future biographers who wanted to escape from the thousand-page tomes that monumentalized great statesmen and authors. This meant touching subjects that had previously been passed over, either through prudery or respect for privacy. Thus, the poet\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Robert-Southey\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Robert Southey<\/a>\u2019s life of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Horatio-Nelson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Horatio Nelson<\/a>, the English naval hero, denied that there was any \u201ccrudity\u201d (sexual intercourse) in his relationship with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Emma-Lady-Hamilton\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lady Hamilton<\/a>. As late as 1951 Roy Harrod published a biography of the influential economist\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/John-Maynard-Keynes\" data-show-preview=\"true\">John Maynard Keynes<\/a>\u00a0that did not mention homosexuality. By contrast, many biographers in the later 20th century considered their primary task to be the interpretation of their subject\u2019s psychosexual development.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">For this enterprise there are, of course, psychological theories. Unfortunately, there are all too many of them. Even if the biographer decides on\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/psychoanalysis\" data-show-preview=\"true\">depth psychology<\/a>\u2014and there are alternatives\u2014the choice is not much simplified. Although Freudian psychoanalysis has pretty much swept the field in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>, there are still European scholars influenced by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Carl-Jung\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Carl Jung<\/a>. Furthermore, there are a bewildering variety of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/alternative\" data-term=\"alternative\" data-type=\"MW\">alternative<\/a>\u00a0Freudian theories\u2014not a few of them propounded by the master himself. So it is not altogether clear what orthodox Freudianism is, but it would emphasize the importance of instinctual drives and of experiences in early childhood.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Even for the psychoanalyst, these are the most difficult areas, and the most difficult time, of human life to get evidence about; this is why full analyses run toward the interminable. For the biographer with little or no access to reports of the dreams of his subject\u2014very few of anyone\u2019s dreams have been recorded\u2014or to the other ways in which the unconscious most often gives itself away, \u201cpsychobiography\u201d inevitably becomes speculative. Freud\u2019s own\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/ventures\" data-term=\"ventures\" data-type=\"EB\">ventures<\/a>\u00a0into the field are not reassuring. Art historians have pointed out that the smile of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Mona-Lisa-painting\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Mona Lisa<\/a>\u00a0was a standard way of painting a certain emotion, not necessarily an unconscious revival of a childhood sexual memory of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Leonardo-da-Vinci\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Leonardo da Vinci<\/a>. American political historians have been even more dismissive of the joint effort by Freud and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-C-Bullitt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">William C. Bullitt<\/a>\u00a0to write a psychological biography of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Woodrow-Wilson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Woodrow Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In practice, many psychohistorians have adopted the psychoanalytic theories of the analyst who analyzed them (a few have become psychoanalysts themselves). The problem of getting evidence for psychobiographies is easier, however, if one accepts the American revision of Freudianism known as\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050789\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/ego-psychology\">ego psychology<\/a>. This theory\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/denies\" data-term=\"denies\" data-type=\"EB\">denies<\/a>\u00a0that personality is fixed after the age of five; it can still be substantially influenced by what goes on later, especially in adolescence. The most influential exponent of this approach for biographers was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050790\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Erik-Erikson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Erik Erikson<\/a>, who propounded an eight-stage theory of the normative life course and wrote substantial psychobiographies of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Martin-Luther\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Martin Luther<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Mahatma-Gandhi\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Mahatma Gandhi<\/a>. The overriding theme of both was the way in which an individual leader, working out his own \u201cidentity crisis,\u201d was also able to do what Erikson called \u201cthe dirty work of his society.\u201d This reinterpretation of the \u201cgreat man\u201d theory of history (which holds that the course of history is determined by a few individuals) made it possible to argue not only that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/culture\" data-term=\"culture\" data-type=\"MW\">culture<\/a>\u00a0influences adolescent personality development but also that adolescent personality development might at times powerfully influence culture.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Construal of evidence by psychobiographers can be radically different from normal historical practice (as reviewers were not slow to remind Erikson). Historians are accustomed to \u201cweighing\u201d the evidence, almost in a literal sense. Frequent\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/iteration\" data-term=\"iteration\" data-type=\"MW\">iteration<\/a>\u00a0of an attitude generally persuades, even if there are one or two exceptions. For the psychobiographer, an apparently trivial event or slip of the pen can be the vital clue to the personality of the subject. Luther\u2019s toilet habits, treatment of Hitler\u2019s mother by a Jewish doctor who used a gas therapy in an attempt to cure her cancer, or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Baudouin-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Baudouin I<\/a>\u00a0of Belgium\u2019s auto\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/accident\" data-show-preview=\"true\">accident<\/a>\u00a0a few years before World War II would be dismissed by many historians as of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/dubious\" data-term=\"dubious\" data-type=\"EB\">dubious<\/a>\u00a0relevance to public careers; to psychobiographers they can be the foundation of an entire work.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although they cannot study dreams, biographers have in the writings of poets and novelists a kind of public dream. Deciphering these for their disguised biographical content runs against current literary critical as well as historiographical orthodoxy, yet many biographers of writers place great stock in their ability to do this. The conventional historian, asked to describe\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Nathaniel-Hawthorne\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a>\u2019s state of mind during the years he lived at Salem, would look for the various documents he produced while he was there. But these throw little light on the question. The literary biographer, in contrast, claims to be able to answer it by interpreting the works that Hawthorne wrote while he was there. One has even said that, no matter how much other, more usual evidence might turn up, he would still stay with what he drew from his interpretation.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Like cliometrics,\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050782\"><\/span>psychohistory was a fashionable\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/methodology\" data-term=\"methodology\" data-type=\"MW\">methodology<\/a>\u00a0in the 1960s and \u201970s but has become distinctly less fashionable since. It has to a degree been discredited by the excesses of some of its partisans, and its difficulties proved greater than most of its early advocates had expected. Just as biography has made a contribution to historiography generally through prosopography (the study of related persons within a given historical context),\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/collective\" data-term=\"collective\" data-type=\"MW\">collective<\/a>\u00a0psychology has reappeared in a psychoanalytic study of early adherents of Nazism and in the history of mentalit\u00e9s (semiarticulated or even unconsciously held beliefs and attitudes that set limits to what is thinkable;\u00a0<em>see below<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/History-of-science#ref274958\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Social and cultural history<\/a>). Freud\u2019s exercise in group\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/dynamics\" data-term=\"dynamics\" data-type=\"MW\">dynamics<\/a>,\u00a0<em>Massenpsychologie und Ich-analyse<\/em>\u00a0(1921;\u00a0<em>Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego<\/em>), was appropriated by Henry Abelove for his fine study\u00a0<em>The Evangelist of Desire: John Wesley and the Methodists<\/em>\u00a0(1990). These are signs that neither the biographical nor the psychohistorical impulse has exhausted its energy.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274952\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050795\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/diplomatic-history\">Diplomatic history<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Diplomatic history comes closer than any other branch of history to being \u201ccompleted\u201d\u2014not in the sense that everything about past diplomatic relationships has been discovered but rather in the sense that apparently all the techniques proper to it have been perfected. Unfortunately, the sharpest set of tools is useless without the matter on which to work, and in this respect historians of 20th- and 21st-century\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/diplomacy\" data-term=\"diplomacy\" data-type=\"EB\">diplomacy<\/a>\u00a0are at a considerable disadvantage compared with those of earlier periods.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">There is probably no branch of history\u2014excepting perhaps biography\u2014in which access to sources is so tricky, or their interpretation so difficult. The main obstacle to contemporary diplomatic history is the shroud of security that almost every state has thrown over its records, especially states that have mixed conventional diplomacy with covert operations. Historians typically have to wait 30 years or more for state papers to be declassified. The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/copier\" data-show-preview=\"true\">photocopying machine<\/a>, however, created new opportunities for diplomatic leaks, most notably the publication in 1971 of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Pentagon-Papers\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Pentagon Papers<\/a>, which revealed American planning for military intervention in Indochina from World War II until 1968 (<em>see also<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Vietnam-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Vietnam War<\/a>).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">After coming to power in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Russian-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Russian Revolution of 1917<\/a>, the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Bolshevik\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bolsheviks<\/a>\u00a0gave historians of the origins of World War I a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bonanza\" data-term=\"bonanza\" data-type=\"MW\">bonanza<\/a>\u00a0by publishing the secret dispatches of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/tsar\" data-show-preview=\"true\">tsarist<\/a>\u00a0government, which for the first time revealed the web of alliances and secret agreements that had allowed a Balkan incident eventually to embroil all the great powers. Each government thereupon published its own editions of documents. This plethora of documentation did not allow historians to reach\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consensus\" data-term=\"consensus\" data-type=\"MW\">consensus<\/a>\u00a0about the responsibility for starting the war, but the blame was certainly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/allocated\" data-term=\"allocated\" data-type=\"MW\">allocated<\/a>\u00a0more evenly than it had been in the \u201cwar guilt\u201d clause of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Treaty-of-Versailles-1919\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Treaty of Versailles<\/a>. Many historians in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Britain<\/a>\u00a0and the United States concluded that the Germans were no more responsible than anyone else for starting the war. Surprisingly, in 1961 a German historian,\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050798\"><\/span>Fritz Fischer (1908\u201399 ), reopened this question with\u00a0<em>Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegziel politik das kaiserlichen Deutschland, 1914\/18<\/em>\u00a0(1961;\u00a0<em>Germany\u2019s Aims in the First World War<\/em>, 1967), kindling a lively debate in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/West-Germany\" data-show-preview=\"true\">West Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Comparatively little was said about the diplomacy preceding\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050801\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-II\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War II<\/a>\u2014and there was little basis for saying anything\u2014until more than the captured papers of Nazi Germany were made completely available (the British\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/prime-minister\" data-show-preview=\"true\">prime minister<\/a>\u00a0and historian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Winston-Churchill\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Winston Churchill<\/a>\u00a0simply took the relevant English state papers with him when writing his six-volume history of the war). It has seemed obvious that Hitler intended to start a war, if not necessarily on September 1, 1939. But the postwar relations between the United States and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Soviet-Union\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Soviet Union<\/a>\u00a0became the subject of controversy when the American historians\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050802\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-Appleman-Williams\">William Appleman Williams<\/a>\u00a0(1921\u201390) and Gabriel Kolko (1932\u20132014) challenged the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/conventional\" data-term=\"conventional\" data-type=\"EB\">conventional<\/a>\u00a0American view that the Soviets intended world conquest and were deterred only by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/North-Atlantic-Treaty-Organization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">North Atlantic Treaty Organization<\/a>\u00a0(NATO) and its nuclear umbrella. Williams and his students, who were influential in the 1960s, produced a series of revisionist accounts of the outbreak of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Korean-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Korean War<\/a>\u00a0and later of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Vietnam-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Vietnam War<\/a>. These were in turn attacked by defenders of the orthodox view.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This sketch of the liveliest issues in postwar diplomatic history would seem to support the view of those who claim that all history is implicated in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/ideology-society\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ideology<\/a>. The disagreements of diplomatic historians do suggest that political and national passions play an unusually large part in their interpretation of diplomatic history. On the other hand, lack of new techniques does not mean that diplomatic historians are no better at their task than their predecessors were. Some interpretations have been definitively discredited, and signs of convergence have emerged even on such contested topics as the origins of World War I. As the European nations entered the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/European-Union\" data-show-preview=\"true\">European Union<\/a>, an effort was made to write a history textbook on which historians from various countries could agree. Although it relied upon a certain amount of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/euphemism\" data-term=\"euphemism\" data-type=\"MW\">euphemism<\/a>\u00a0(the German invasion of Belgium in 1914 was referred to as a \u201ctransit\u201d of their troops), it did show that, even in this controversial field, some consensus can be achieved.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274953\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050804\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/economic-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Economic history<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"110925\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/13\/60213-050-13F3DBA4\/Adam-Smith-paste-medallion-James-Tassie-Scottish-1787.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110925\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/13\/60213-050-13F3DBA4\/Adam-Smith-paste-medallion-James-Tassie-Scottish-1787.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/13\/60213-050-13F3DBA4\/Adam-Smith-paste-medallion-James-Tassie-Scottish-1787.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Adam Smith\" data-width=\"1167\" data-height=\"1600\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/13\/60213-050-13F3DBA4\/Adam-Smith-paste-medallion-James-Tassie-Scottish-1787.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/110925\">Adam Smith<\/a>Adam Smith, paste medallion by James Tassie, 1787; in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.<\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">History and economics were once closely related.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adam-Smith\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adam Smith<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Thomas-Malthus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Malthus<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Karl-Marx\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Karl Marx<\/a>\u00a0were all political economists who incorporated historical data into their analyses. A\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historical-school-of-economics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">historical school of economics<\/a>\u00a0developed in Germany in the late 19th century and was associated with figures such as Gustav von Schmoller (1838\u20131917). Reacting against the free-trade doctrines of British economists (which would have prevented Germany from protecting its industries until they were strong enough to compete), the historical economists argued that there are no universally valid economic laws and that each country should define its own economic path.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A similar interest in historical development was shown by institutional economists such as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/eccentric\" data-term=\"eccentric\" data-type=\"MW\">eccentric<\/a>\u00a0genius\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Thorstein-Veblen\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thorstein Veblen<\/a>\u00a0(1857\u20131929). The\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050805\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/American-Historical-Association\">American Historical Association<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050807\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/American-Economic-Association\">American Economic Association<\/a>\u00a0were founded together and did not separate for several years; it was common in American colleges for historians and economists to be in the same department. From the turn of the 20th century, however, the two\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciplines\" data-term=\"disciplines\" data-type=\"MW\">disciplines<\/a>\u00a0pursued radically different paths. While economists developed ever-more-elaborate mathematical models, historians remained mired in the messy details of the world.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">While this division between the disciplines occurred, much good work was done on the workings of preindustrial economies and on the question of why serfdom was introduced in Poland and Russia just as it was dying out in western Europe. In several countries, cost-of-living indexes that covered several centuries were computed. Although these estimates were imperfect (as they still are), they\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/illuminated\" data-term=\"illuminated\" data-type=\"MW\">illuminated<\/a>\u00a0such famous questions as the causes of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/French-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">French Revolution<\/a>\u00a0and the condition of the working\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-class\" data-show-preview=\"true\">class<\/a>\u00a0during the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Industrial-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>\u00a0in England. The French historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050810\"><\/span>Camille-Ernest Labrousse (1895\u20131988) showed that in France during the period from 1778 to 1789, a long recession was\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/exacerbated\" data-term=\"exacerbated\" data-type=\"MW\">exacerbated<\/a>\u00a0by high bread prices and eventually the bankruptcy of the crown. Believers in \u201cdeeper\u201d causes of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/revolution-politics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">revolution<\/a>\u00a0treated this conjunction as only a trigger, but since many popular disturbances in the first years of the revolution were bread riots that turned to political violence, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the history of the period would have been quite different under different economic conditions.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Economic history in Britain has always been influenced by the fact that it was the first country to undergo an industrial revolution. In the aftermath of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-II\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War II<\/a>, economic planners looked to Britain for an example of how countries in the developing world might achieve the same\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/transformation\" data-term=\"transformation\" data-type=\"EB\">transformation<\/a>. The American economist and political theorist\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050811\"><\/span>Walt Whitman Rostow (1916\u20132003), in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050813\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Stages-of-Economic-Growth-A-Non-Communist-Manifesto\">Stages of Economic Growth<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1960), attempted a general theory of how economies industrialize. His six-stage model did not gain general acceptance, but he did raise the issue of long-term economic development, which directed some economists, at least, toward history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The proposition that the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050814\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Industrial-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>\u00a0was a good thing was universally maintained by historians who were sympathetic to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/capitalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">capitalism<\/a>. Socialist historians, on the other hand, judged it more ambivalently. For orthodox\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Marxism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marxists<\/a>, only industrialized countries would create a proletariat strong enough to expropriate the means of production, and the enormous productive power of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/industrialization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">industrial society<\/a>\u00a0would be the basis of the \u201ckingdom of plenty\u201d under\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/communism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">communism<\/a>. At the same time, they emphasized the arbitrary way in which industrialization was carried out and the suffering of the workers. Because much of the evidence for the suffering of the workers was in fact\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/anecdotal\" data-term=\"anecdotal\" data-type=\"MW\">anecdotal<\/a>, a number of economic historians tried to determine whether their\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050818\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/standard-of-living\" data-show-preview=\"true\">standard of living<\/a>\u00a0actually declined. Although wage rates were known, industrial workers were often laid off, so their annual income was not a simple multiple of their average wage. Despite the difficulties of the inevitably controversial calculations, it seems to be true that workers\u2019 standard of living at least did not decline, and may even have improved slightly, before 1850. This conclusion did not resolve the issue of their suffering, however, since workers also endured noneconomic losses. The matter continues to be a concern for social and economic historians.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The distinctive feature of the American economy was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050821\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/slavery-sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slavery<\/a>. One overriding issue for economic historians has been whether slavery was inherently inefficient as well as inhumane and thus whether it might have disappeared through sheer unprofitability had it not been legally abolished. This is an extremely complicated question. An answer requires not only large amounts of data but also data about almost all aspects of the American economy. To see how the data fitted together, historians after World War II drew upon macroeconomic theory, which showed how various inputs affect the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/gross-national-product\" data-show-preview=\"true\">gross national product<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">There was, however, a further problem: how did the productivity of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/forced-labour\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slave labour<\/a>\u00a0compare with the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hypothetical\" data-term=\"hypothetical\" data-type=\"MW\">hypothetical<\/a>\u00a0product of free labour applied to the same land? In other words, if there had been no slavery, would Southern agriculture have been more (or less) profitable? One attempt to resolve this counterfactual question was offered in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050826\"><\/span>Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Economic History<\/em>\u00a0(1964) by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050827\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Robert-Fogel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Robert Fogel<\/a>, an American economist who shared the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Nobel-Prize\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nobel Prize<\/a>\u00a0for Economics with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Douglass-C-North\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Douglass C. North<\/a>\u00a0in 1993. Fogel tested the claim that railroads were of fundamental importance in American economic development by constructing a model of the American economy without railroads. The model made some simplifying assumptions: passenger travel was ignored, and since canals were the principal\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/alternatives\" data-term=\"alternatives\" data-type=\"MW\">alternatives<\/a>\u00a0to railroads, the part of the United States west of the continental divide was also left out. With these provisos, the model showed that the importance of railroads had been exaggerated, because in 1890 the gross national product without railroads would have reached the same level as the actual one.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050829\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Time-on-the-Cross-The-Economics-of-American-Negro-Slavery\">Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1974), Fogel and his colleague Stanley Engerman addressed the issue of the profitability of slavery, using the methods Fogel had developed in his earlier study. Using evidence only from the last decade of American slavery, they argued that the system was not only profitable but more profitable than free labour would have been. The response to their work illustrates many of the accomplishments and pitfalls of what came to be called\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050828\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/cliometrics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">cliometrics<\/a>, the application of statistical analysis to the study of history. It sold more than 20,000 copies, a large number for a scholarly book; it shared the Bancroft Prize for history; and it was the subject of stories and bemused reviews in the popular press. However, because it adopted the French custom of segregating tables and other statistical matter in a second volume\u2014which appeared not simultaneously but several months later\u2014the initial reviewers had access only to the conclusions and the supporting textual arguments. These initial reviews were generally respectful, but when the second volume appeared, many cliometricians attacked its statistical analysis. Other scholars assailed the work for everything from insufficient indignation about the evils of slavery to improper\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/attributions\" data-term=\"attributions\" data-type=\"MW\">attributions<\/a>\u00a0of classical profit-maximizing economic motives to participants in an institution that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Jefferson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Jefferson<\/a>\u00a0characterized as \u201ca continuous exercise of the most\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/boisterous\" data-term=\"boisterous\" data-type=\"MW\">boisterous<\/a>\u00a0of passions.\u201d (Fogel and Engerman argued that slaves were rarely whipped, because whipping would have diminished their capacity for work.)<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Some of these\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticisms\" data-term=\"criticisms\" data-type=\"MW\">criticisms<\/a>\u00a0missed the mark. Fogel and Engerman did not undertake even a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/political-economy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">political economy<\/a>\u00a0of slavery, much less a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0evaluation. The most searching\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/critiques\" data-term=\"critiques\" data-type=\"MW\">critiques<\/a>, from fellow cliometricians, were\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/arcane\" data-term=\"arcane\" data-type=\"MW\">arcane<\/a>\u00a0and technical. But they resembled disputes in the natural sciences in that the data were publicly available, and fairly well-understood\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criteria\" data-term=\"criteria\" data-type=\"MW\">criteria<\/a>\u00a0were available to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adjudicate\" data-term=\"adjudicate\" data-type=\"MW\">adjudicate<\/a>\u00a0the issues. Furthermore, the authors\u2019 main conclusion, which was anticipated by earlier studies, has not been refuted: slavery was indeed profitable and was not withering on the vine in 1861.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Cliometrics was an important\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/innovation\" data-term=\"innovation\" data-type=\"MW\">innovation<\/a>\u00a0because it offered new answers to old questions and provided a methodology better suited to tackling large questions of system and structure. Although it was a new and rather spectacular technique, it did not eclipse older branches of economic history. In the United States, which had pioneered business history, institutional historians continued their work on\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/entrepreneurs\" data-term=\"entrepreneurs\" data-type=\"MW\">entrepreneurs<\/a>\u00a0and on management tactics, while labour history was avidly pursued not only in the United States but throughout Europe. Historians were also preoccupied by peasants in numbers sufficient to justify a\u00a0<em>Journal of Peasant Studies<\/em>, and, since peasants were found all over the world, peasant studies easily became comparative. These studies readily crossed the fluid boundary between economic history and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social history<\/a>. Quantitative analysis of the records left by ordinary people, gathered for cliometric purposes, has brought their experiences to light\u2014the great accomplishment of the social historians of our time.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"17\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274954\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050834\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Intellectual history<\/a><\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">\u201cAll history,\u201d as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/R-G-Collingwood\" data-show-preview=\"true\">R.G. Collingwood<\/a>\u00a0said, \u201cis the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0of thought.\u201d One traditional view of history, now discarded, is that it is virtually synonymous with the history of ideas\u2014history is composed of human actions; human actions have to be explained by intentions; and intentions cannot be formed without ideas. On a grander scale, the doctrines of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christianity<\/a>\u00a0were the core of the providential universal histories that persisted until the 18th century, since the acceptance\u2014or rejection\u2014of Christian ideas was considered history\u2019s master plot. When the providential argument in its simpler\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0form lost credibility, it was reformulated by Vico, with his\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conception\" data-term=\"conception\" data-type=\"MW\">conception<\/a>\u00a0of the tropes appropriate to the different ages of humanity, and by Hegel, whose \u201cobjective\u201d\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/idealism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">idealism<\/a>\u00a0identified the development of Spirit, or the Idea, as the motor of history. In the techniques of historical investigation too, the history of ideas was the source for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/hermeneutics-principles-of-biblical-interpretation\" data-show-preview=\"true\">hermeneutical<\/a>\u00a0skills required for reading complex texts. The interpretation of ancient laws and religious doctrines was the workshop in which were forged the tools that were subsequently used in all historical work.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">It was not until the speculative schemes that identified the development of ideas with the historical process were generally discredited, and its hermeneutic techniques thoroughly naturalized elsewhere, that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0history became a specialty\u2014the first specialized field to supplement the traditional historical specialties of political, diplomatic, and military history. It emerged slightly earlier than\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social history<\/a>, and for a time the two were allies in a joint struggle to gain acceptance. The incompatibility\u2014indeed, antagonism\u2014between the two emerged only later.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Confusion can arise because\u00a0<em>history of ideas<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>intellectual history<\/em>\u00a0are sometimes treated as synonyms. The former is properly the name of a field of study in which ideas themselves are the central subject. The most sophisticated approach to the history of ideas was formulated by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Arthur-O-Lovejoy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Arthur Lovejoy<\/a>\u00a0(1873\u20131962). Lovejoy focused on what he called \u201cunit ideas,\u201d such as the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/notion\" data-term=\"notion\" data-type=\"EB\">notion<\/a>\u00a0of a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Great-Chain-of-Being\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Great Chain of Being<\/a>\u00a0extending from God through the angels to humans down to the least-complicated life-forms. Lovejoy traced this idea from its classical roots through the 19th century in both philosophical and literary elaborations. Philosophical or theological doctrines (e.g.,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Plato\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Plato<\/a>\u2019s theory of Forms, or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Manichaeism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Manichaeism<\/a>, a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/dualism-religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">dualist<\/a>\u00a0religious movement founded in Persia) lend themselves best to the unit-idea mode of study. One difficulty with the history of unit ideas, however, is that it is often difficult to establish the identity of an idea through time. The term\u00a0<em>natural law<\/em>, for example, meant quite different things to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Stoicism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Stoic<\/a>\u00a0philosophers, to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Hobbes\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Hobbes<\/a>, to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/John-Locke\" data-show-preview=\"true\">John Locke<\/a>, and to the prosecutors of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Nazi-Party\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nazi<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war-crime\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war criminals<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Nurnberg-trials\" data-show-preview=\"true\">N\u00fcrnberg trials<\/a>\u00a0(1945\u201346); the meaning of the same words can change radically. This drives the historian to the\u00a0<em>Oxford English Dictionary<\/em>\u00a0or its equivalents for other languages to get a first take on the history of meaning changes. This step, however, must be supplemented by extensive reading in the contemporary literature, not only to see what semiotic load the words bear but also to see what controversies or contrary positions might have been in the mind of the writer.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The phrase\u00a0<em>intellectual history<\/em>\u00a0did not come into common usage until after World War II. It seems to owe its first currency to\u00a0<em>The New England Mind: From Colony to Province<\/em>\u00a0(1953), by Perry Miller (1905\u201363), who required it for his approach to the complex of religious, political, and social ideas and attitudes in Massachusetts in the 17th and 18th centuries. The focus of intellectual history has been not on the formal analysis of ideas, as in the history of ideas, but on the conditions of their\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/propagation\" data-term=\"propagation\" data-type=\"MW\">propagation<\/a>\u00a0and dissemination. It also considers not just the formally\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/articulated\" data-term=\"articulated\" data-type=\"MW\">articulated<\/a>\u00a0ideas of theorists or poets but also the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/sentiments\" data-term=\"sentiments\" data-type=\"MW\">sentiments<\/a>\u00a0of ordinary people. Even popular\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/delusions\" data-term=\"delusions\" data-type=\"MW\">delusions<\/a>\u00a0come within the ambit of intellectual history; in this respect it intersects studies within psychohistory and the cultural history of\u00a0<em>mentalit\u00e9s<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Perhaps because their area of study is so ill-defined, intellectual historians have been unusually reflective and argumentative about the methods appropriate to their work. One methodological controversy was initiated in the 1960s by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Quentin-Skinner\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Quentin Skinner<\/a>. Skinner questioned the custom in political\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">philosophy<\/a>\u00a0of identifying certain \u201ceternal\u201d questions (such as \u201cWhy does anyone have an obligation to obey the state?\u201d) and then arraying various political texts according to the answers they give. This procedure, he argued, led to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/invalid\" data-term=\"invalid\" data-type=\"EB\">invalid<\/a>\u00a0historical conclusions, since the eternal questions were the constructions of modern political philosophers and reflected modern concerns. Taking his cue from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/ordinary-language-analysis\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ordinary language philosophy<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/J-L-Austin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">John Langshaw Austin<\/a>\u00a0and other postwar Oxford philosophers, Skinner contended that the task for the historian of political thought was to discover what effect the writer of a text intended it to have.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Skinner\u2019s best example was Locke\u2019s\u00a0<em>Second Treatise of Civil Government<\/em>\u00a0(1690), which for generations had been paired with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Hobbes\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Hobbes<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em>Leviathan<\/em>\u00a0as one of two versions of a\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-contract\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social contract<\/a>\u00a0theory. Skinner and his colleague John Dunn started from the obvious but often ignored fact that there was a first\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/treatise\" data-term=\"treatise\" data-type=\"MW\">treatise<\/a>\u00a0by Locke that refuted the idea that political power devolved from the power that God gave to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adam<\/a>. Absurd as this idea seems to contemporary philosophers, it nevertheless commanded widespread assent in 17th-century\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Britain<\/a>. Similarly, a great deal of controversial writing was then done by clergymen, and Locke (as is evident from his many quotations of the Anglican divine\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Richard-Hooker\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Richard Hooker<\/a>) participated actively in this discourse. On the other hand, there is very little evidence that Locke was responding to Hobbes.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In no branch of history has the challenge of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/postmodernism-philosophy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">postmodernism<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/deconstruction\" data-show-preview=\"true\">deconstruction<\/a>\u00a0been felt more keenly than in the history of ideas. Here the goal has been to interpret past texts; the intentions of the author, as revealed in those texts, set limits to possible interpretations even where they do not\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/mandate\" data-term=\"mandate\" data-type=\"MW\">mandate<\/a>\u00a0a single one. Deconstructionists such as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jacques-Derrida\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jacques Derrida<\/a>\u00a0assert that the intentions of the author can never be known and would be irrelevant even if they could be. All that an interpreter has is the text\u2014thus,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Michel-Foucault\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Michel Foucault<\/a>, drawing upon the work of literary critic\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Roland-Gerard-Barthes\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Roland Barthes<\/a>, declared the \u201cdeath\u201d of the author. No single meaning can be assigned to the text, because what it does not say may be more significant than what it does. Even what it does say cannot be reduced to a stable meaning, because of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intrinsic\" data-term=\"intrinsic\" data-type=\"MW\">intrinsic<\/a>\u00a0opacity and slipperiness of language. (Most words in ordinary usage have several different definitions; there is no way to use them so as to totally exclude all traces of the other meanings. Puns, of which Derrida was fond, illustrate these \u201csurplus\u201d meanings.)<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The subversiveness of such views for the traditional practice of the history of ideas is obvious. Derrida\u2019s advocates presented his ideas as liberating and as allowing critics to exercise the same creativity as imaginative writers. The apparent\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/concession\" data-term=\"concession\" data-type=\"MW\">concession<\/a>\u00a0to total relativism, however, has seemed too high, not least because it renders the deconstructionist position\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/vulnerable\" data-term=\"vulnerable\" data-type=\"MW\">vulnerable<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/paradox\" data-term=\"paradox\" data-type=\"MW\">paradox<\/a>\u00a0of relativism (if the deconstructionist is right that there are no stable meanings, then there is no stable meaning to the assertion that there are no stable meanings, in which case the deconstructionist position cannot even be formulated). Derrida occasionally complained of being misread. But the deconstructionist position is not absurd, nor can it be refuted by saying that few historians have accepted it.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274955\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050869\"><\/span>Military history<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Soldiers in battle were the theme of the earliest Greek epic and the earliest histories. It has not lost its interest for modern readers and writers. The focus of academic military history, however, has changed as markedly as the nature of modern warfare has changed. The campaigns of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/American-Civil-War\" data-show-preview=\"true\">American Civil War<\/a>, with their chesslike maneuvering and great set-piece battles, continue to fascinate, but\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/attrition\" data-term=\"attrition\" data-type=\"MW\">attrition<\/a>\u00a0and pounding by superior force assumed an ever-greater role in 20th-century military strategy, despite yielding few brilliant generals or individual heroes. On the other hand,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War I<\/a>\u00a0was the first European war to be fought by literate armies, and the soldiers in that\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conflagration\" data-term=\"conflagration\" data-type=\"MW\">conflagration<\/a>\u00a0created not only a great literature but also a mass of material about their experiences. In\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050870\"><\/span>The Great War and Modern Memory<\/em>\u00a0(1975), Paul Fussell made full use of these documents to produce an account of life in the trenches. Although the literary output of soldiers in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-II\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War II<\/a>\u00a0was much less significant, the American writer\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Studs-Terkel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Studs Terkel<\/a>, using techniques of oral history, managed to compile in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050871\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Good-War-The\">The Good War<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1984) a comparable panorama of its participants, including those on the home front. Perhaps the leading exponent of military history as the social history of war is John Keegan, whose work ranges from the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Battle-of-Agincourt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Battle of Agincourt<\/a>\u00a0in 1415 to the wars of the 21st century.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274956\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050872\"><\/span>Political history<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">For many people, and for many years, \u201chistory\u201d simply meant political history. A large proportion of published works by historians was devoted to political history as late as the 1970s, but even before that time historians had begun to examine other topics. Although E.A. Freeman\u2019s slogan \u201cHistory is past politics\u201d no longer rings true, it is safe to say that political history will continue to be a prominent part of historical writing and will challenge the subtlety, worldly wisdom, and narrative powers of historians as long as history is written.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The primary goal of political history in the immediate postwar years was to supplement (or, in the minds of some, to supplant) the historian\u2019s traditional reliance on narrative with a scientific or quantitative approach; inevitably, this endeavour came to be called \u201cnew political history.\u201d It was to be, as\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050893\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-Aydelotte\">William Aydelotte<\/a>\u00a0put it, \u201ca sedate, hesitant,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/circumspect\" data-term=\"circumspect\" data-type=\"MW\">circumspect<\/a>, little behavioral revolution\u201d in American historical practice. The postwar\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>\u00a0furnished some innovative young historians who combined an interest in political history with a program for making it more scientific. Among the most systematic of these scholars was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050875\"><\/span>Lee Benson, author of an influential work that applied quantitative techniques to the study of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Andrew-Jackson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jacksonian<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/democracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">democracy<\/a>. \u201cBy 1984,\u201d he predicted in 1966,<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>a significant proportion of American historians will have accepted \u2026 two basic propositions: (1) past human behavior can be studied scientifically; (2) the main business of historians is to participate in the overall scholarly enterprise of discovering and developing general laws of human behavior.<\/blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Wherever possible, all statements in historical works should be formulated so precisely as to be \u201cverifiable.\u201d Implicitly but vaguely quantitative terms (e.g.,\u00a0<em>most<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>significant proportion<\/em>) should be replaced by numerical expressions.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Quantitative data to support such ambitions were available for elections. Using what he found in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/New-York-state\" data-show-preview=\"true\">New York<\/a>\u00a0state, Benson succeeded in showing that party affiliation was largely determined by ethnic and cultural loyalties and remained surprisingly immune to the issues raised by party platforms or political speeches.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/University-of-Iowa\" data-show-preview=\"true\">University of Iowa<\/a>\u00a0was another hotbed of quantitative approaches, and electoral statistics of Iowa and other Midwestern states soon joined those of New York. The new political historians also established an archive of national\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/election-political-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">election<\/a>\u00a0data at the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/University-of-Michigan\" data-show-preview=\"true\">University of Michigan<\/a>, which they hoped to use to prepare a truly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprehensive\" data-term=\"comprehensive\" data-type=\"MW\">comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0electoral history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Less-ambitious quantitative projects focused on parliamentary bodies.\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050889\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lewis-Bernstein-Namier\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lewis Namier<\/a>\u00a0(1888\u20131960), probably the greatest English historian of his generation, undertook the biographical study of members of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Parliament\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Parliament<\/a>. Namier borrowed the prosopographic technique of Ronald Syme, a historian of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/ancient-Rome\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancient Rome<\/a>, which involved tracing the family connections, sources of income and influence, and offices held by a defined group of the political elite. This approach was most useful for the study of oligarchic regimes and hence was especially suitable for the Roman Senate and mid-18th-century British parliaments. The main effect of such work was to de-emphasize the impact of political\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ideologies\" data-term=\"ideologies\" data-type=\"MW\">ideologies<\/a>\u00a0and to assert the importance of kinship and personal relations in deliberative assemblies.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">More directly quantitative was the work of\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050895\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-Aydelotte\">Aydelotte<\/a>, who investigated the conventional claim that the English\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Corn-Law-British-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Corn Laws<\/a>\u00a0(protective tariffs on grain imports) were abolished because members of Parliament who represented manufacturing districts wanted the cheapest-possible food for their workers (allowing the lowest-possible wages). As plausible as this view was, significant correlations frequently failed to appear.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The new political historians carried the quantitative program into the stronghold of traditional historiography. Terms such as\u00a0<em>impressionistic<\/em>,\u00a0<em>anecdotal<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>narrative<\/em>\u00a0acquired dismissive\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/connotations\" data-term=\"connotations\" data-type=\"MW\">connotations<\/a>. More-traditional historians were\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/admonished\" data-term=\"admonished\" data-type=\"MW\">admonished<\/a>\u00a0for excessive reliance on literary evidence (i.e., anything that could not be quantified).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A generation later, the debate over quantification fizzled out, leaving some permanent mark on political history. Few would now deny the value of some quantitative studies or the desirability of precision in historical language. The habit of collaboration with other historians and membership in research teams, virtually unknown earlier, is now well established. A number of intuitively obvious interpretations have been shown to be exaggerated or plainly wrong.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">On the other hand, it is clear that quantification in political history was oversold. Its idea of scientific procedures was startlingly old-fashioned, and many of the studies based solely on quantification failed to produce significant results. Sometimes things already believed were confirmed\u2014not a useless exercise but not a high priority either. More-interesting correlations often failed the significance test or showed inexplicable relationships. Finally, attention was diverted to bodies of data that could be quantified. The most judicious of the new political historians warned against the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/exclusive\" data-term=\"exclusive\" data-type=\"MW\">exclusive<\/a>\u00a0reliance on quantification and recognized that archival research would remain indispensable, especially in the traditional fields of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitutional\" data-term=\"constitutional\" data-type=\"MW\">constitutional<\/a>, administrative, and legal history.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"18\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274957\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050896\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/history-of-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">History of science<\/a><\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0of all the branches of learning has always been a part of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/intellectual-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">intellectual history<\/a>, but the history of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/history-of-science\" data-show-preview=\"true\">science<\/a>\u00a0has had a peculiarly tense relationship with it, and with history more generally. Although much history of science has been written by practicing scientists, it is almost never formally taught in science departments. It is now mostly treated as\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/autonomous\" data-term=\"autonomous\" data-type=\"MW\">autonomous<\/a>, but in some cases historians of science have been included in history faculties. Even though their relationships with other historians may be distant (though cordial), the study of the history of science is in many ways\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/analogous\" data-term=\"analogous\" data-type=\"MW\">analogous<\/a>\u00a0to the study of other aspects of the past. The history of science has also produced, in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050898\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Structure-of-Scientific-Revolutions\">The Structure of Scientific Revolutions<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1962), by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050899\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-S-Kuhn\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Kuhn<\/a>\u00a0(1922\u201396), one of the most influential books by any American historian in the postwar period. Almost everybody who uses the word\u00a0<em>paradigm<\/em>\u00a0in any of the many senses in which Kuhn used it is indebted to that book.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The tension between the history of ideas and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intellectual\" data-term=\"intellectual\" data-type=\"MW\">intellectual<\/a>\u00a0history reappears in the history of science in a tension between \u201cinternalist\u201d and \u201cexternalist\u201d approaches to the subject. To the internalist the critical questions are: What problem was the scientist attempting to solve, and how did he solve it? To answer these questions, the historian obviously needs to know in\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/intimate\" data-term=\"intimate\" data-type=\"MW\">intimate<\/a>\u00a0detail the state of scientific thought during the time about which he is writing. But he also needs to be familiar with the nuts and bolts of scientific work\u2014the apparatus, the experimental animals, if any, and the like. The problems for investigation are likely to be generated within the compass of what Kuhn calls \u201cnormal science,\u201d which has well-established procedures for verifying results. (Anomalous results can be dismissed as experimental error, though when they accumulate they can lead to an overturning of an established\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/paradigm\" data-term=\"paradigm\" data-type=\"MW\">paradigm<\/a>\u00a0of normal science.)<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The great merit of the internalist approach is also the source of its greatest difficulty. It deals with how science is actually done, which means that not many historians have the necessary knowledge of science to write it. This difficulty becomes particularly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/acute\" data-term=\"acute\" data-type=\"MW\">acute<\/a>\u00a0when modern science (roughly, science since the start of the 19th century) is the subject. The literature in the history of science is disproportionately focused on the so-called scientific\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/revolution-politics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">revolution<\/a>\u00a0of the 17th century. One reason for this is that the scientific revolution was a heroic period, but another is that much less knowledge of modern science is required to understand\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Galileo-Galilei\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Galileo<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Johannes-Kepler\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Johannes Kepler<\/a>, or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Isaac-Newton\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Isaac Newton<\/a>\u00a0than is required to understand\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Albert-Einstein\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Albert Einstein<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Werner-Heisenberg\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Werner Heisenberg<\/a>.\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/Ignorance\" data-term=\"Ignorance\" data-type=\"EB\">Ignorance<\/a>\u00a0of scientific practice can be further concealed by concentrating on what scientists say about their method in the prefaces to their works. It may seem strange to make a distinction between\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/scientific-method\" data-show-preview=\"true\">scientific method<\/a>\u00a0and practice, but it is not. \u201cMethod\u201d is not simply distilled practice, and sometimes it is a poor description of what scientists actually do. It seems clear that improvements in scientific method had relatively little to do with the successes of the scientific revolution. Furthermore, some scientific works (those of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francis-Thomas-Bacon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francis Bacon<\/a>, for example) are barely disguised appeals for funding, and the prefaces of others are not free of self-advertisement.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In part because a history of modern science would require knowledge of modern science, some historians who attempt the internalist mode have focused their investigations on what counted as science in the past. An influential early work in this vein, Lynn Thorndike\u2019s\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050903\"><\/span>A History of Magic and Experimental Science<\/em>\u00a0(1923\u201358), discussed two seemingly distinct approaches that share the belief that human practice can affect the natural world. Distinguishing between the two approaches requires criteria\u2014effectiveness and rationality\u2014that are essentially modern. Sorting out what was scientific work can easily lead to a history that begins with the concepts of modern science and then looks backward to see how those categories were anticipated by earlier scientists. The result is a story of how scientists finally \u201cgot it right\u201d after the bungling and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/delusions\" data-term=\"delusions\" data-type=\"MW\">delusions<\/a>\u00a0of their predecessors were corrected\u2014though such stories inevitably tend to mangle the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrity\" data-term=\"integrity\" data-type=\"MW\">integrity<\/a>\u00a0of past scientific traditions. Another approach is to give a \u201crational reconstruction\u201d of the history of science\u2014that is, to show how the underlying logic of scientific discovery unfolded, without bothering with the irksome details of how things actually happened.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The externalist approach aims at a retrospective sociology or anthropology of scientific discovery. One of its earliest advocates was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050913\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Bruno-Latour\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bruno Latour<\/a>, who with his colleague\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050916\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Steve-Woolgar\">Steve Woolgar<\/a>\u00a0did fieldwork in a biological laboratory, where they discovered that scientific practice was not a pure expression of scientific method and that scientists did not\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disdain\" data-term=\"disdain\" data-type=\"MW\">disdain<\/a>\u00a0the use of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/rhetoric\" data-term=\"rhetoric\" data-type=\"MW\">rhetoric<\/a>\u00a0in reporting their results. The most aggressive partisans of this approach advocated a \u201cstrong program\u201d for contextualizing science. Important work in contextualization has been done by Marxist historians; their masterpiece is\u00a0<em>Science and Civilization in China<\/em>\u00a0(1954), a multivolume history of Chinese science by the English historian and scientist\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Joseph-Needham\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Joseph Needham<\/a>. The traditional point of intersection between science and society is technology, and Marxist historians made valiant efforts to argue that the practical needs of ballistics influenced Newton\u2019s celestial\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/mechanics\" data-show-preview=\"true\">mechanics<\/a>. However, this approach is of limited usefulness for any time before the late 19th century, when chemistry revolutionized dyestuffs,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/pharmaceuticals\" data-term=\"pharmaceuticals\" data-type=\"EB\">pharmaceuticals<\/a>, and photography; before then, science and technology had proceeded on essentially unrelated paths, accompanied by condescension from scientists and resentment from artisans. In modern times, the relationship has been much closer, and even advocates or practitioners of \u201cpure\u201d science often entertain the hope that some useful device will emerge.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Externalists can get by with much less scientific knowledge than internalists, which accounts for some of the appeal of the former school. Externalists have undoubtedly made clearer the process whereby people become accepted as scientists; this is vital, because there is no way to know what science is other than by knowing what the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/community\" data-term=\"community\" data-type=\"MW\">community<\/a>\u00a0of scientists say it is. Externalists have also shown why some topics become interesting to scientists while others are ignored. Yet natural science is probably more autonomous than most modes of knowledge production, and there are limits to how much illumination a historian can bring to the history of science without knowing a lot of science himself.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274958\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050908\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Social and cultural history<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"287132\" data-asm-type=\"video\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"video\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/video\/historical-interpreter-Stephen-Seals-Colonial-Williamsburg-enslaved-people-Colonial-America\/-287132\" data-id=\"249421\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/21\/249421-138-DF70B826\/historical-interpreter-Stephen-Seals-Colonial-Williamsburg-enslaved-people-Colonial-America.jpg?w=800&amp;h=450&amp;c=crop\" alt=\"How a historical interpreter connects to the past at colonial Williamsburg\" \/><\/a>\r\n<div class=\"btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><span class=\"md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption\">How a historical interpreter connects to the past at colonial Williamsburg<\/span>Historical interpreter Stephen Seals talks about how he educates the public on the history of slavery at colonial Williamsburg.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<a class=\"font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/images-videos\">See all videos for this article<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Many historians in the past echoed the calls of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jules-Michelet\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jules Michelet<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Carlyle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Carlyle<\/a>\u00a0to rescue ordinary people from the silence and condescension of history, but they generally lacked the means to go beyond\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/anecdote\" data-term=\"anecdote\" data-type=\"MW\">anecdote<\/a>, sentimentalism, and left-wing politics. Only since\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-II\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War II<\/a>\u00a0(and here the journal\u00a0<em>Annales: histoire, sciences sociales<\/em>\u00a0was an extraordinary engine for progress) have historians developed the techniques to begin carrying out the program now called \u201chistory from the bottom up.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><span id=\"ref1050910\"><\/span>Historical demography, virtually created in the postwar period, was the armature around which much of modern social history was wound. Although the first theorist of population was the English economist\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Thomas-Malthus\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thomas Malthus<\/a>, modern population studies developed mainly in France, the first country on the continent of Europe to experience declining population in the late 19th century. For the French, the main issue in population study was the cause of their population decline and how it might be reversed; for the English, the issue was why population had exploded from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century. Historical demography has many ramifications beyond the question of population size: migration,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-mobility\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social mobility<\/a>, household size and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/composition\" data-term=\"composition\" data-type=\"MW\">composition<\/a>, and marriage patterns. The conventional wisdom in 1945 was that peasants in traditional European societies rarely moved from the parish of their birth; they lived in large multigenerational households and married young. Two generations of research proved that these views were either wholly false or true only of other parts of the world.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">While some\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/demographic\" data-term=\"demographic\" data-type=\"MW\">demographic<\/a>\u00a0historical techniques were developed by Louis Henry of the Institut National d\u2019\u00c9tudes D\u00e9mographiques (National Institute of Demographic Studies) in Paris, the Cambridge-based Group for the History of Population and Social Structure was responsible for helping to extend demographic studies to Japan, China, and most parts of Europe and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-America\" data-show-preview=\"true\">North America<\/a>. It served as a clearinghouse for researchers on three continents and directed attention to types of evidence that were previously unknown. The picture of population that emerged from these researches was complex. A northwestern European pattern was visible in which until 1750 first marriages on average were late\u2014mid-20s for women, late 20s for men. Households were small, and three-generation households were uncommon. One surprise was that the custom of kinfolk\u2019s living together was more common in industrialized than in agrarian areas. Another was the discovery that in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>\u00a0the main reason for the large population increase after 1750 was increased fertility, achieved through earlier marriages. On the other hand, south and west of a line from Trieste to St. Petersburg, people married much younger, and celibacy was rare. Households also tended to be larger, reaching remarkable sizes in the\u00a0<em>zadruga<\/em>s (corporate family groups) of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Yugoslavia-former-federated-nation-1929-2003\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Yugoslavia<\/a>\u00a0and the Baltic provinces of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Russian-Empire\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Russian Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Such findings may seem only of specialized interest, but their ramifications are broad. Studies of family structure in colonial Massachusetts revealed that fathers were reluctant to agree to opening new lands for settlement, wishing to keep their sons within the household. Resentment of this by the sons may have played some role in the mind-set that led to the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/American-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">American Revolution<\/a>. Migration too is a key to understanding not only the way that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/industrialization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">industrialization<\/a>\u00a0occurred (where did the new workers come from?) but also the settlement patterns of North America (the much higher\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/propensity\" data-term=\"propensity\" data-type=\"MW\">propensity<\/a>\u00a0in the British than in the French or Spanish to leave their native parishes created an overwhelming British North American population). Migration is also a factor in social mobility; a 1964 study of Newburyport, Massachusetts, by Stephan Thernstrom (<em>Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City<\/em>) tested the reality of the American dream of rising to wealth. It was followed by others proclaiming a new urban history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Quite different data helped create a history of sexuality. Extramarital or premarital sexual activity was indicated in figures on prenuptial or bridal pregnancy and birth of children to unmarried parents. Here again a surprise was that these seemed to be higher in 18th-century England\u2014especially after 1750\u2014than in France. Considering that in northwestern Europe people reached sexual maturity almost 10 years before they married, the relatively low level of illicit sexual activity suggests a general acquiescence to a repressive sexual\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/morality\" data-show-preview=\"true\">morality<\/a>. Although homosexual relations do not appear directly in these data, it may be significant that homosexual roles appear to have become available in the late 18th century just as the insistence on chastity began to weigh less heavily on heterosexuals. The history of sexuality was treated in depth by the French philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Michel-Foucault\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Michel Foucault<\/a>\u00a0in his final work, the multivolume\u00a0<em>Histoire de la sexualit\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0(1976\u201384).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Foucault wrote important works in other areas of social history in which quantitative methods were relatively unimportant. Particularly significant was his treatment of &#8220;the great sequestration.&#8221; In his\u00a0<em>Surveillir et punir: naissance de la prison<\/em>\u00a0(1975;\u00a0<em>Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison<\/em>), Foucault argued that prisons and hospitals (and by\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/implication\" data-term=\"implication\" data-type=\"MW\">implication<\/a>\u00a0schools) developed as means of social control, and the oppressiveness of these institutions was only\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/enhanced\" data-term=\"enhanced\" data-type=\"MW\">enhanced<\/a>\u00a0by high-minded rhetoric that declared them to be entirely devoted to their inmates\u2019 good. The image of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/panopticon\" data-show-preview=\"true\">panopticon<\/a>\u2014a prison design by the English philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Jeremy-Bentham\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jeremy Bentham<\/a>\u00a0that allowed for constant surveillance of the inmates\u2014represented for Foucault the intimate link between power and knowledge and raised disturbing questions about who benefited from the activities of (for example) historians.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Protest and social control had long been a staple of social history. The former was the theme of the most-admired work of the period,\u00a0<em>The Making of the English Working Class<\/em>\u00a0(1963), by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/E-P-Thompson\" data-show-preview=\"true\">E.P. Thompson<\/a>. Thompson defined the working\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-class\" data-show-preview=\"true\">class<\/a>\u00a0not as a statistical\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/aggregate\" data-term=\"aggregate\" data-type=\"MW\">aggregate<\/a>\u00a0of people who had only their labour power to sell but as a group who between 1790 and 1840 came to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/consciousness\" data-term=\"consciousness\" data-type=\"MW\">consciousness<\/a>\u00a0of themselves as \u201cworking class.\u201d As the prospect of social revolution faded after 1968, however, historians, especially in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>, began to investigate the absence of effective working-class protest in previous centuries. Although there was clear evidence of multiple acts of resistance by African American slaves, organized revolts were rare, especially after 1832.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Eugene-D-Genovese\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Eugene Genovese<\/a>\u00a0looked for an explanation in the work of the Italian Marxist philosopher\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Antonio-Gramsci\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Antonio Gramsci<\/a>\u00a0(1891\u20131937), who responded to the defeat of communist movements in Europe (except for Russia) after\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/World-War-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World War I<\/a>\u00a0by stressing the \u201chegemony\u201d exercised by the ruling class through its control of education and other institutions that mold\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/public-opinion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">public opinion<\/a>\u00a0so that their rule appears natural and inevitable.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Historians are promiscuous borrowers from other\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/disciplines\" data-term=\"disciplines\" data-type=\"MW\">disciplines<\/a>, and in the late 20th century most borrowed techniques and concepts came from\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/anthropology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">anthropology<\/a>\u2014especially the symbolic anthropology espoused by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Pierre-Bourdieu\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Pierre Bourdieu<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Clifford-Geertz\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Clifford Geertz<\/a>. Rather than seeking laws that govern social behaviour (the ambition of early\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">sociology<\/a>) or compiling quantitative data, symbolic anthropologists conceived human social relations as \u201ctexts\u201d to be interpreted. The texts were exhibited as language, of course, but also as rituals of various sorts, and they had to be approached without any theoretical preconceptions. In \u201cDeep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight,\u201d for example, Geertz claimed to \u201cread\u201d the event he witnessed. His method, which he called \u201cthick description,\u201d was not far removed from traditional ethnography. It was also\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/congenial\" data-term=\"congenial\" data-type=\"MW\">congenial<\/a>, in its\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/aversion\" data-term=\"aversion\" data-type=\"MW\">aversion<\/a>\u00a0to theory, to traditional historical practice, which was never comfortable with the attempt to explain historical events by subsuming them under laws.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Like much social history,\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050917\"><\/span>cultural history could claim an ancestry from early works by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050920\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lucien-Paul-Victor-Febvre\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lucien Febvre<\/a>\u00a0(1878\u20131956) and\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050919\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Marc-Bloch\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Marc Bloch<\/a>\u00a0(1866\u20131944), who were early contributors to the social-science journal\u00a0<em>Revue de Synth\u00e8se Historique<\/em>. In\u00a0<em>Les Rois Thaumaturges: \u00e9tude sur le caract\u00e8re surnaturel attribu\u00e9 \u00e0 la puissance royale, particuli\u00e8rement en France et en Angleterre<\/em>\u00a0(1924;\u00a0<em>The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France<\/em>), Bloch investigated the belief that the kings of France and England possessed the quasi-magical power of curing\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/scrofula\" data-show-preview=\"true\">scrofula<\/a>\u00a0(a disease affecting the bones and lymphatic glands) by touching sufferers; in\u00a0<em>La Probl\u00e8me de l\u2019incroyance au XVIe si\u00e8cle: la religion de Rabelais<\/em>\u00a0(1942;\u00a0<em>The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais<\/em>), Febvre showed that the French writer and priest\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francois-Rabelais\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francois Rabelais<\/a>\u00a0lived in a mental world in which\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/atheism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">atheism<\/a>\u00a0was not\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/yet\" data-term=\"yet\" data-type=\"EB\">yet<\/a>\u00a0possible. These were studies of\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050921\"><\/span>mentalit\u00e9s<\/em>, which naturally often lay at the intersection between superstition and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>. Although the field was pioneered by French historians, Anglo-American scholars also studied\u00a0<em>mentalit\u00e9s<\/em>; their works were concerned with the history of witchcraft and witch persecutions as well as with the decline in belief in magic.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The 1980s were marked by the emergence of a different kind of cultural history, \u201c<span id=\"ref1050922\"><\/span>microhistory,\u201d which consists essentially of a story about a person or persons. Two famous examples are Carlo Ginzburg\u2019s\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050923\"><\/span>The Cheese and the Worms<\/em>\u00a0(1980), about the unorthodox cosmological and theological beliefs of a 16th-century Italian miller, and\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051143\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Natalie-Zemon-Davis\">Natalie Zemon Davis<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050924\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Return-of-Martin-Guerre\">The Return of Martin Guerre<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1983), a scholarly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/treatment\" data-term=\"treatment\" data-type=\"EB\">treatment<\/a>\u00a0of a famous true story about an imposter who took over the farm (and bed) of a substantial peasant in 16th-century France. Typically, microhistories featured central characters who were socially marginalized\u2014exactly the sort likely to be overlooked by social history no less than by orthodox political history. Nevertheless, the marginal can be defined only relative to the typical, and the latter is something that only social history can provide.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Cultural history can be applied to nearly anything, and it has enriched understanding of a wide variety of phenomena. A good illustration is the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050926\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/French-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">French Revolution<\/a>, one of the most intensively studied events in European history. For at least a century after it took place it was treated as a political breakdown of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/ancien-regime\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancien r\u00e9gime<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/facilitated\" data-term=\"facilitated\" data-type=\"MW\">facilitated<\/a>\u00a0by the spread of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Enlightenment-European-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Enlightenment<\/a>. Later, the economic and social organization of 18th-century France was studied\u2014first by Marxists who saw it as a classic \u201cbourgeois revolution\u201d in which a feudal order was overthrown by a more progressive capitalist one and then by more-nuanced investigators who analyzed the various social and interest groups within the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bourgeoisie\" data-term=\"bourgeoisie\" data-type=\"MW\">bourgeoisie<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/aristocracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">nobility<\/a>. A cultural-historical approach emphasized the important role of cultural symbols\u2014the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Great-Fear\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Great Fear<\/a>\u00a0(prompted by rumours of an aristocratic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conspiracy\" data-term=\"conspiracy\" data-type=\"MW\">conspiracy<\/a>\u00a0to overthrow the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Third-Estate\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Third Estate<\/a>), the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/Phrygian-cap\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Phrygian cap<\/a>\u00a0(an emblem of liberty during the revolution), the planting of \u201cliberty trees,\u201d the great revolutionary festivals (such as the Festival of Federation, held in Paris in 1790 on the first anniversary of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/storming-of-the-Bastille\" data-show-preview=\"true\">storming of the Bastille<\/a>)\u2014and denied that they could be reduced to underlying inequalities and social tensions.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"19\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<section data-level=\"1\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274959\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1050932\"><\/span>Women\u2019s history<\/h1>\r\n<div class=\"assemblies\">\r\n<div class=\"w-100\">\r\n<figure class=\"md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false\" data-assembly-id=\"111232\" data-asm-type=\"image\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-wrapper card-media\" data-type=\"image\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/43\/8243-050-682D91B3\/Elizabeth-England-series-fashion-pendant-pearl-choker.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/111232\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/43\/8243-050-682D91B3\/Elizabeth-England-series-fashion-pendant-pearl-choker.jpg?w=300\" media=\"(min-width: 680px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/43\/8243-050-682D91B3\/Elizabeth-England-series-fashion-pendant-pearl-choker.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Queen Elizabeth I\" data-width=\"1061\" data-height=\"1361\" \/><\/picture><button class=\"magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10\" aria-label=\"Zoom in\"><\/button><\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"card-body\">\r\n<div class=\"md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp\"><a class=\"gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.britannica.com\/43\/8243-050-682D91B3\/Elizabeth-England-series-fashion-pendant-pearl-choker.jpg\" data-href=\"\/media\/1\/267436\/111232\">Queen Elizabeth I<\/a><em>Queen Elizabeth of England<\/em>, portrait in oil by an unknown artist, English, 16th century; in the Pitti Palace, Florence.<button class=\"js-more-btn btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content\" aria-label=\"Toggle more\/less fact data\"><span class=\"link-blue\">(more)<\/span><\/button><\/div>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In the 19th century, women\u2019s history would have been inconceivable, because \u201chistory\u201d was so closely identified with\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/war\" data-show-preview=\"true\">war<\/a>, diplomacy, and high politics\u2014from all of which women were virtually excluded. Although there had been notable queens and regents\u2014such as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Elizabeth-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Elizabeth I<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Catherine-de-Medici\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Catherine de Medici<\/a>\u00a0of France,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Catherine-the-Great\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Catherine the Great<\/a>\u00a0of Russia, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Christina-queen-of-Sweden\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christina of Sweden<\/a>\u2014their gender was considered chiefly when it came to forming marriage alliances or bearing royal heirs. Inevitably, the ambition to write history \u201cfrom the bottom up\u201d and to bring into focus those\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/marginalized\" data-term=\"marginalized\" data-type=\"MW\">marginalized<\/a>\u00a0by previous historiography inspired the creation of women\u2019s history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One of the consequences of the professionalization of history in the 19th century was the exclusion of women from academic history writing. A career like that of\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050938\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Catharine-Macaulay\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Catherine Macaulay<\/a>\u00a0(1731\u201391), one of the more prominent historians of 18th-century England, was impossible one hundred years later, when historical writing had been essentially monopolized by all-male universities and research institutes. This exclusion began to break down in the late 19th century as women\u2019s colleges were founded in England (e.g., at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge) and the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>. Some of these institutions, such as\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Bryn-Mawr-College\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Bryn Mawr College<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/state-United-States-political-subdivision\" data-show-preview=\"true\">U.S. state<\/a>\u00a0of Pennsylvania, had strong research agendas.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although the earliest academic women\u2019s historians were drawn to writing about women, it cannot be said that they founded, or even that they were interested in founding, a specialty like \u201cwomen\u2019s history.\u201d Alice Clark wrote\u00a0<em>Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century<\/em>\u00a0(1920), and Eileen Power wrote\u00a0<em>Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535<\/em>\u00a0(1922), a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/definitive\" data-term=\"definitive\" data-type=\"EB\">definitive<\/a>\u00a0monograph, and\u00a0<em>Medieval Women<\/em>\u00a0(published posthumously in 1975). Many women (including some in the early history of the\u00a0<em>Annales<\/em>) worked as unpaid research assistants and cowriters for their husbands, and it is doubtless that they were deprived of credit for being historians in their own right. An exception was\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050940\"><\/span>Mary Ritter Beard (1876\u20131958), who coauthored a number of books with her more famous husband,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-A-Beard\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Charles Beard<\/a>, and also wrote\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050942\"><\/span>Women as a Force in History<\/em>, arguably the first general work in American women\u2019s history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Since it was still possible in the 1950s to doubt that there was enough significant evidence on which to develop women\u2019s history, it is not surprising that some of the earliest work was what is called \u201ccontribution history.\u201d It focused, in other words, on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/illustrious\" data-term=\"illustrious\" data-type=\"EB\">illustrious<\/a>\u00a0actions of women in occupations traditionally dominated by men. The other preoccupation was the status of women at various times in the past. This was customarily evaluated in terms of comparative incomes, laws about ownership of property, and the degree of social freedom allowed within marriage or to unmarried women. In\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1050943\"><\/span>The Creation of Patriarchy<\/em>\u00a0(1986),\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050945\"><\/span>Gerda Lerner, whose work chiefly concerned women in the United States, examined Mesopotamian society in an attempt to discover the ancient roots of the subjection of women. Explorations of the status of women also contributed to a rethinking of fundamental historical concepts, as in Joan Kelly\u2019s essay \u201cDid Women Have a Renaissance?\u201d (1977).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Another area of study, which was curiously slow to emerge, was the\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050947\"><\/span>history of the family. Since in all times most women have been wives and mothers for most of their adult lives, this most nearly universal of female experiences would seem to\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/dictate\" data-term=\"dictate\" data-type=\"EB\">dictate<\/a>\u00a0that women\u2019s historians would be especially interested in the history of the family. Yet for a long time few of them were. The history of the family was inspired primarily not by women\u2019s history but by advances made in historical demography, whose heavy quantification women\u2019s history generally avoided.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This partly explains why the majority of works in women\u2019s history have dealt with unmarried women\u2014as workers for wages, nuns, lesbians, and those involved in passionate friendships. Evidence concerning the lives of these figures is in some ways easier to come by than evidence of maternal and family life, but it is also clear that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/feminism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">feminist<\/a>\u00a0historians were averse to studying women as victims of matrimony\u2014as they all too often were. There are, however, intersections between history of the family and women\u2019s history. A few historians have written works on family\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/limitation\" data-term=\"limitation\" data-type=\"EB\">limitation<\/a>\u00a0(<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/birth-control\" data-show-preview=\"true\">birth control<\/a>) in the United States, for example; one of these scholars, Linda Gordon, raised the important question of why\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/woman-suffrage\" data-show-preview=\"true\">suffragists<\/a>\u00a0and other feminists did not as a rule support campaigns for family limitation.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Another way in which women\u2019s history can lead to a reassessment of history in general is by analyzing the concept of gender. Joan Scott has taken the lead in this effort. Gender, according to Scott and many others, is a socially constructed category for both men and women, whereas sex is a biological category denoting the presence or absence of certain chromosomes. Even physical differences between the sexes can be exaggerated (all fetuses start out female), but differences in gender are bound to be of greatest interest to historians. Of particular interest to women\u2019s historians are what might be called \u201cgender systems,\u201d which can be engines of oppression for both men and women.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274960\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\"><span id=\"ref1051109\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/world-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">World history<\/a><\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">World history is the most recent historical specialty, yet one with roots in remote antiquity. The great world religions that originated in the Middle East\u2014<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Judaism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Judaism<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Christianity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Christianity<\/a>, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Islam\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Islam<\/a>\u2014insisted on the unity of humanity, a theme\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/encapsulated\" data-term=\"encapsulated\" data-type=\"MW\">encapsulated<\/a>\u00a0in the story of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adam and Eve<\/a>.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Buddhism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Buddhism<\/a>\u00a0also presumed an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/ecumenical\" data-term=\"ecumenical\" data-type=\"MW\">ecumenical<\/a>\u00a0view of humankind. The universal histories that characterized\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0chronicles proposed a single story line for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/human-being\" data-show-preview=\"true\">human race<\/a>, governed by divine providence; and these persisted, in far more sophisticated form, in the speculative philosophies of history of Vico and Hegel. Marxism too, although it saw no divine hand in history, nevertheless held out a teleological vision in which all humanity would eventually overcome the miseries arising from\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-class\" data-show-preview=\"true\">class<\/a>\u00a0conflict and leave the kingdom of necessity for the kingdom of plenty.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">These philosophies have left their mark on world history, yet few historians (except for Marxists) now accept any of these master narratives. This fact, however, leads to a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conceptual\" data-term=\"conceptual\" data-type=\"MW\">conceptual<\/a>\u00a0dilemma: if there is no single story in which all of humanity finds a part, how can there be any\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/coherence\" data-term=\"coherence\" data-type=\"MW\">coherence<\/a>\u00a0in world history? What prevents it from simply being a congeries of national\u2014or at the most regional\u2014histories?<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><span id=\"ref1051110\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/modernization\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Modernization<\/a>\u00a0theorists have embraced one horn of this dilemma. There is, after all, a single story, they argue; it is worldwide Westernization. Acknowledging the worth of non-Western\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/cultures\" data-term=\"cultures\" data-type=\"MW\">cultures<\/a>\u00a0and the great non-European empires of the past, they nevertheless see the lure of Western consumer goods\u2014and the power of multinational corporations\u2014as irresistible. This triumphalist view of Western economic and political institutions drew great new strength from the downfall of the managed economies of eastern Europe and the emergence in China of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/blatant\" data-term=\"blatant\" data-type=\"MW\">blatant<\/a>\u00a0state\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/capitalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">capitalism<\/a>. It is easier to claim worldwide success for capitalism than for\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/democracy\" data-show-preview=\"true\">democracy<\/a>, since capitalism has been perfectly compatible with the existence of autocratic governments in Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; but history does suggest that eventually capitalist institutions will give rise to some species of democratic institutions, even though multinational corporations are among the most secretive and hierarchical institutions in Western society.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Modernization theory has been propounded much more enthusiastically by sociologists and political scientists than by historians. Its purest expression was\u00a0<em>The Dynamics of Modernization<\/em>\u00a0(1966), by Cyril Edwin Black, which made its case by studying social indexes of modernization, such as literacy or family limitation over time, in developing countries. Extending this argument in a somewhat Hegelian fashion, the American historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050949\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Francis-Fukuyama\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Francis Fukuyama<\/a>\u00a0provocatively suggested, in\u00a0<em>The End of History and the Last Man<\/em>\u00a0(1992), that history itself, as traditionally conceived, had ceased. This, of course, meant not that there would be no more events but that the major issues of state formation and economic organization had now been decisively settled in favour of capitalism and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/democracy\" data-term=\"democracy\" data-type=\"MW\">democracy<\/a>. Fukuyama was by no means a simple-minded cheerleader for this denouement; life in a world composed of nothing but liberal nation-states would be, among other things, boring.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A much grimmer aspect of modernization was highlighted by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050950\"><\/span>Theodore H. Von Laue (1987) in\u00a0<em>The World Revolution of Westernization<\/em>. Von Laue focused on the stresses imposed on the rest of the world by Westernization, which he saw as the root cause of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/communism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">communism<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Nazi-Party\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nazism<\/a>, dictatorships in developing countries, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/terrorism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">terrorism<\/a>. He declined to forecast whether these strains would continue indefinitely.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The stock objection to modernization theory is that it is Eurocentric. So it is, but this is hardly a refutation of it. That European states (including Russia) and the United States have been the dominant world powers since the 19th century is just as much a fact as that Europe was a somewhat insignificant peninsula of Asia in the 12th century. Some modernization theorists have caused offense by making it clear that they think European dominance is good for everybody, but it is noteworthy how many share the disillusioned view of the German sociologist\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Max-Weber-German-sociologist\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Max Weber<\/a>\u00a0(1864\u20131920), who compared the rational\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bureaucracies\" data-term=\"bureaucracies\" data-type=\"MW\">bureaucracies<\/a>\u00a0that increasingly dominated European society to an \u201ciron cage.\u201d More-valid\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticisms\" data-term=\"criticisms\" data-type=\"MW\">criticisms<\/a>\u00a0point to the simplistic character of modernization theory and to the persistence and even rejuvenation of ostensibly \u201cpremodern\u201d features of society\u2014notably religious\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/fundamentalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">fundamentalism<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A considerably more complex scheme of analysis, world-systems theory, was developed by\u00a0<span id=\"ref1050951\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Immanuel-M-Wallerstein\">Immanuel Wallerstein<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>The Modern World System<\/em>\u00a0(1974). Whereas modernization theory holds that economic development will eventually\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/percolate\" data-term=\"percolate\" data-type=\"MW\">percolate<\/a>\u00a0throughout the world, Wallerstein believed that the most economically active areas largely enriched themselves at the expense of their\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/peripheries\" data-term=\"peripheries\" data-type=\"MW\">peripheries<\/a>. This was an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/adaptation\" data-term=\"adaptation\" data-type=\"MW\">adaptation<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Vladimir-Lenin\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Vladimir Ilyich Lenin<\/a>\u2019s idea that the struggle between classes in capitalist Europe had been to some degree displaced into the international economy, so that Russia and China filled the role of proletarian countries. Wallerstein\u2019s work was centred on the period when European capitalism first extended itself to Africa and the Americas, but he emphasized that world-systems theory could be applied to earlier systems that Europeans did not dominate. In fact, the economist Andr\u00e9 Gunder Frank argued for an ancient world-system and therefore an early tension between core and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/periphery\" data-term=\"periphery\" data-type=\"MW\">periphery<\/a>. He also pioneered the application of\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051111\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/world-systems-theory\">world-systems theory<\/a>\u00a0to the 20th century, holding that \u201cunderdevelopment\u201d was not merely a form of lagging behind but resulted from the exploitative economic power of industrialized countries. This \u201cdevelopment of underdevelopment,\u201d or \u201cdependency theory,\u201d supplied a plot for world history, but it was one without a happy ending for the majority of humanity. Like modernization theory, world-systems theory has been criticized as Eurocentric. More seriously, the evidence for it has been questioned by many economists, and while it has been fertile in suggesting questions, its answers have been controversial.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A true world history requires that there be connections between different areas of the world, and trade relations\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/constitute\" data-term=\"constitute\" data-type=\"MW\">constitute<\/a>\u00a0one such connection. Historians and sociologists have revealed the early importance of African trade (Columbus visited the west coast of Africa before his voyages to the Americas, and he already saw the possibilities of the slave trade), and they have also\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/illuminated\" data-term=\"illuminated\" data-type=\"MW\">illuminated<\/a>\u00a0the 13th-century\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/market\" data-show-preview=\"true\">trading<\/a>\u00a0system centring on the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Indian-Ocean\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Indian Ocean<\/a>, to which Europe was\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/peripheral\" data-term=\"peripheral\" data-type=\"MW\">peripheral<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Humans encounter people from far away more often in commercial relationships than in any other, but they exchange more than goods.\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051112\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/William-H-McNeill\" data-show-preview=\"true\">William H. McNeill<\/a>, the most eminent world historian, saw these exchanges as the central motif of world history. Technological information is usually coveted by the less adept, and it can often be stolen when it is not offered. Religious ideas can also be objects of exchange. In later work, McNeill investigated the communication of infectious diseases as an important part of the story of the human species. In this he contributed to an increasingly lively field of historical studies that might loosely be called ecological history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Focusing on the biological substrate of history can sometimes capture a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/vital\" data-term=\"vital\" data-type=\"EB\">vital<\/a>\u00a0element of common humanity. This was an early topic for the\u00a0<em>Annales<\/em>\u00a0historians, who were often trained in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/geography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">geography<\/a>.\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051113\"><\/span>Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie grounded his great history of the peasants of Languedoc in the soil and climate of that part of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/France\" data-show-preview=\"true\">France<\/a>, showing how the human population of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/ancien-regime\" data-show-preview=\"true\">ancien r\u00e9gime<\/a>\u00a0was limited by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/carrying-capacity\" data-show-preview=\"true\">carrying capacity<\/a>\u00a0of the land. He went on to write a history of the climate since the year 1000. Even more influential were the magisterial works of\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051114\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Fernand-Braudel\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Fernand Braudel<\/a>\u00a0(1902\u201385), perhaps the greatest historian of the 20th century. Braudel\u2019s\u00a0<em>La M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e et le monde m\u00e9diterran\u00e9en \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9poque de Philippe II<\/em>\u00a0(1949;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1051115\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-Mediterranean-and-the-Mediterranean-World-in-the-Age-of-Philip-II\">The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II<\/a><\/em>) had a political component, but it seemed almost an afterthought. Although it was not a world history, its\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprehensive\" data-term=\"comprehensive\" data-type=\"MW\">comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0treatment of an entire region\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprising\" data-term=\"comprising\" data-type=\"MW\">comprising<\/a>\u00a0Muslim and Christian realms and the fringes of three continents succeeded in showing how they shared a similar\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/environment\" data-term=\"environment\" data-type=\"MW\">environment<\/a>. The environment assumed an even greater role in Braudel\u2019s\u00a0<em>Civilisation mat\u00e9rielle et capitalisme, XVe\u2013XVIIIe si\u00e8cle<\/em>\u00a0(vol. 1, 1967; vol. 2\u20133, 1979;\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1051116\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Civilization-and-Capitalism-15th-18th-Century\">Civilization and Capitalism, 15th\u201318th Century<\/a><\/em>). Although some of its claims seemed designed to shock conventional historical sensibilities\u2014the introduction of forks into Europe, he wrote, was more important than the Reformation\u2014no historical work has done more to explore the entire material base on which civilizations arise<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">One of the most important links between ecological history and world history is the so-called\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051117\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Columbian-exchange\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Columbian exchange<\/a>, through which pathogens from the Americas entered Europe and those from Europe devastated the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/indigenous\" data-term=\"indigenous\" data-type=\"MW\">indigenous<\/a>\u00a0populations of the Americas. The Native Americans got much the worse of this exchange; the population of Mexico suffered catastrophic losses, and that of some Caribbean islands was totally destroyed. The effect on Europeans was much less severe. It is now thought that\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/syphilis\" data-show-preview=\"true\">syphilis<\/a>\u00a0entered Europe from Asia, not the Americas.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Overt moralizing in historiography tends to attract professional\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>, and historians in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Europe\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Europe<\/a>\u00a0and the United States, where nation-states have long been established, no longer feel the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/moral\" data-term=\"moral\" data-type=\"MW\">moral<\/a>\u00a0obligation that their 19th-century predecessors did to exalt\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/nationalism\" data-term=\"nationalism\" data-type=\"MW\">nationalism<\/a>. They can therefore respond to global concerns, such as the clear-cutting of rainforests and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/global-warming\" data-show-preview=\"true\">global warming<\/a>. It has become obvious that the world is a single ecosystem, and this may require and eventually evoke a corresponding world history.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">There is, however, a powerful countertendency:\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051120\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/subaltern-history\">subaltern history<\/a>.\u00a0<em>Subaltern<\/em>\u00a0is a word used by the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/British-Army\" data-show-preview=\"true\">British army<\/a>\u00a0to denote a subordinate officer, and \u201csubaltern studies\u201d was coined by Indian scholars to describe a variety of approaches to the situation of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/South-Asia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">South Asia<\/a>, in particular in the colonial and postcolonial era. A common feature of these approaches is the claim that, though colonialism ended with the granting of independence to the former colonies of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Britain<\/a>, France, the United States, and other empires, imperialism did not. Instead, the imperial powers continued to exert so much cultural and economic\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hegemony\" data-term=\"hegemony\" data-type=\"MW\">hegemony<\/a>\u00a0that the independence of the former colonies was more notional than real. Insisting on\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/free-trade\" data-show-preview=\"true\">free trade<\/a>\u00a0(unlimited access to the domestic markets of the former colonies) and anticommunism (usually enforced by autocratic governments), the old empires, as the subaltern theorists saw it, had reverted to the sort of indirect rule that the British had exerted over Argentina and other countries in the 19th century.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The other belief that united subaltern theorists is that this hegemony should be challenged.\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1051122\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Orientalism-by-Said\">Orientalism<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1978), by the literary critic\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051121\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Edward-Said\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Edward Said<\/a>, announced many of the themes of subaltern studies. The Orient that Said discussed was basically the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Middle-East\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Middle East<\/a>, and the Orientalism was the body of fact, opinion, and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/prejudice\" data-term=\"prejudice\" data-type=\"MW\">prejudice<\/a>\u00a0accumulated by western European scholars in their encounter with it. Said stressed the enormous appetite for this lore, which influenced painting, literature, and anthropology no less than history. It was, of course, heavily coloured by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/racism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">racism<\/a>, but perhaps the most\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/insidious\" data-term=\"insidious\" data-type=\"MW\">insidious<\/a>\u00a0aspect of it, in Said\u2019s view, was that Western categories not only informed the production of knowledge but also were accepted by the colonized countries (or those nominally independent but culturally subordinate). The importation of Rankean historiography into Japan and Russia is an example. The result has been described rather luridly as epistemological rape, in that the whole cultural stock of colonized peoples came to be discredited.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Although originally and most thoroughly applied to the Middle East and South Asia, subaltern history is capable of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/extension\" data-term=\"extension\" data-type=\"EB\">extension<\/a>\u00a0to any subordinated population, and it has been influential in histories of women and of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/African-American\" data-show-preview=\"true\">African Americans<\/a>. Its main challenge to world history is that most subaltern theorists deny the possibility of any single master narrative that could form a plot for world history. This entails at least a partial break with Marxism, which is exactly such a narrative. Instead, most see a postmodern developing world with a congeries of national or tribal histories, without closures or conventional narratives, whose unity, if it has one at all, was imposed by the imperialist power.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The project of bringing the experience of subordinated people into history has been common in postwar historiography, often in the form of emphasizing their contributions to activities usually associated with elites. Such an effort does not challenge\u2014indeed relies on\u2014ordinary categories of historical understanding and the valuation placed on these activities by society. This has seemed to some subaltern theorists to implicate the historian in the very oppressive system that ought to be combated. The most extreme partisans of this combative stance claim that, in order to resist the hegemonic powers, the way that history is done has to be changed. Some feminists, for example, complain that the dominant system of logic was invented by men and violates the categories of thought most\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/congenial\" data-term=\"congenial\" data-type=\"MW\">congenial<\/a>\u00a0to women. This is one of the reasons for the currency and success of postmodernist and postcolonialist thought. It licenses accounts of the past that call themselves histories but that may deviate wildly from conventional historical practice.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Such histories have been particularly associated with a \u201cnativist\u201d school of subaltern studies that rejects as \u201cWestern\u201d the knowledge accumulated under the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/auspices\" data-term=\"auspices\" data-type=\"MW\">auspices<\/a>\u00a0of imperialism. An instructive example was the effort by Afrocentric historians to emphasize the possible Egyptian and Phoenician origins of classical Greek thought.\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051125\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Martin-Bernal\">Martin Bernal<\/a>, for example, tried to show in\u00a0<em><span id=\"ref1051124\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Black-Athena-The-Afroasiatic-Roots-of-Classical-Civilization\">Black Athena<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1987) that the racist and anti-Semitic Orientalist discourse of the late 19th century (particularly but not exclusively in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Germany\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Germany<\/a>) obscured the borrowings of the classical Greeks from their Semitic and African neighbours. That there were borrowings, and that Orientalist discourse was racist and anti-Semitic, is beyond doubt, but these are findings made through ordinary historical investigation\u2014whose conventions Bernal did not violate, despite the speculative character of some of his conclusions. How much distortion there was would also seem to be an ordinary, though difficult, historical question (made more difficult by the claim that the Egyptians had an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/esoteric\" data-term=\"esoteric\" data-type=\"MW\">esoteric<\/a>\u00a0and unwritten philosophical tradition that has left no documentary traces but that may have been imparted to Greek thinkers). But no historian could accept the claim that Aristotle gained knowledge from the library at\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Alexandria-Egypt\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Alexandria<\/a>, since it was not built until after his death. If the idea that effects cannot precede causes is merely a culture-bound presupposition of Western-trained historians, then there is no logical basis for rejecting even a claim such as this. The nativist subaltern historians deserve credit at least for raising this issue (though, of course, not with such extreme examples). However, the price to be paid is high: if there are no logical categories that are not culture-bound, then people from different cultures cannot have a meaningful argument\u2014or agreement\u2014because these require at least some mutual acceptance of what will count as evidence and how reasoning is to be\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/done\" data-term=\"done\" data-type=\"EB\">done<\/a>. Most subaltern historians have therefore steered between the Scylla of contribution history and the Charybdis of nativism, and their emphasis on studying the mass of the people rather than colonial elites has had a powerful effect not only on the history of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Asia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Asia<\/a>\u00a0and Africa but also on that of Europe and even the United States.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"chatbot-root\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div data-page-index=\"20\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"loaded-infinite-scroll-container qa-infinite-scroll-container\">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box w-100 \">\r\n<div class=\"grey-box-content mx-auto w-100\">\r\n<div class=\"page2ref-false topic-content topic-type-REGULAR\">\r\n<div class=\"reading-channel\">\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274961\" data-level=\"1\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h1 class=\"h1\">Methodology of historiography<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">This concluding section surveys contemporary historical practice and theory. As the previous section has demonstrated, there are many branches of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">history<\/a>\u00a0today, each with different kinds of evidence, particular canons of interpretation, and distinctive conventions of writing. This\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/diversity\" data-term=\"diversity\" data-type=\"MW\">diversity<\/a>\u00a0has led some to wonder whether the term\u00a0<em>history<\/em>\u00a0still designates an\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integral\" data-term=\"integral\" data-type=\"MW\">integral<\/a>\u00a0body of or approach to knowledge. Although the emphasis of this article falls on what historians share, it is well to remember that deviations from these norms are always lurking.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"md-sentinel--spy-target\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"ref274962\" data-level=\"2\" data-has-spy=\"true\">\r\n<h2 class=\"h2\">The historian\u2019s sources<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The oldest source, oral history, is also in some ways the newest. As the emphasis of many historians has turned to\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/social-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">social history<\/a>, especially history \u201cfrom the bottom up,\u201d they have had to create their own evidence through interviews with those shut out of the documentary record. Students of Victorian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/England\" data-show-preview=\"true\">England<\/a>\u00a0have long depended on the interviews with costermongers and other street people by\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Henry-Mayhew\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Henry Mayhew<\/a>, the author of\u00a0<em>London Labour and the London Poor<\/em>, 4 vol. (1851\u201362); without these we would not know of their attitudes toward marriage and organized\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/religion\" data-show-preview=\"true\">religion<\/a>\u00a0(casual for both). One of the first great collaborative efforts in oral history was the interviews with former\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/African-American\" data-show-preview=\"true\">African American<\/a>\u00a0slaves conducted in the 1930s by researchers working for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Works-Progress-Administration\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Works Progress Administration<\/a>\u00a0(WPA). Although anyone who could remember\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/slavery-sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">slavery<\/a>\u00a0would by then have been well over 70 years old, the subsequently published interviews nevertheless tapped a rich vein of family stories as well as personal memories. An enterprise on a similar scale is being carried out with survivors of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Holocaust\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Holocaust<\/a>; now, however, thanks to videotaping, one can see the interviews and not merely read edited transcripts of them.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Getting permission to do an interview, and if possible to tape it, is the first task of the oral historian. Arrangements may have to be made to protect confidentiality; elaborate\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/protocols\" data-term=\"protocols\" data-type=\"MW\">protocols<\/a>\u00a0about this have been worked out by anthropologists, which historians may emulate. People remember things that historians have no independent way of discovering; however, they also seem to remember things that did not happen or that happened quite differently. And, of course, they often fail to remember things that did happen. Correcting for the fallibility of memory is the critical task, and for this there is no substitute for preparation. An entire workweek spent preparing for a single interview is none too lavish. If the interviewer knows a good deal already, he may be able to jog or correct an otherwise\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/recalcitrant\" data-term=\"recalcitrant\" data-type=\"MW\">recalcitrant<\/a>\u00a0memory or to know what is reliable and what is not. Except for the tape or\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/video-tape-recorder\" data-show-preview=\"true\">video recorder<\/a>, techniques for verifying oral testimony have perhaps progressed little since\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thucydides-Greek-historian\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Thucydides<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Different techniques are required for investigating the history of peoples who adopted writing only recently. These used to be regarded as \u201cpeople without history,\u201d but historians are now beginning to isolate the historical content of their oral traditions. Oral epic poetry is still being performed today, in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Nigeria\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Nigeria<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Serbia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Serbia<\/a>, and elsewhere, and studying it not only has revealed a great deal about classical epics such as the\u00a0<em>Iliad<\/em>\u00a0but also has shown how remarkable feats of memory could be performed by trained singers of tales, preserving the memory of historical events with much less distortion than was once suspected and recovering at least some of the early history of Africa and America.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The historian confronting written documents can also draw on a long history of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/criticism\" data-term=\"criticism\" data-type=\"MW\">criticism<\/a>. Manuals for beginning historians often dwell on the problem of forged documents, but this is seldom a problem, except occasionally for the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/medieval\" data-term=\"medieval\" data-type=\"MW\">medieval<\/a>\u00a0historian. A spectacular exception was the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/alleged\" data-term=\"alleged\" data-type=\"MW\">alleged<\/a>\u00a0diary of\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Adolf-Hitler\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Adolf Hitler<\/a>, a forgery that temporarily deceived the distinguished British historian\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Hugh-Trevor-Roper-Baron-Dacre-of-Glanton\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Hugh Trevor-Roper<\/a>\u00a0in 1983. A more\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/formidable\" data-term=\"formidable\" data-type=\"MW\">formidable<\/a>\u00a0challenge is simply to read well. This sometimes starts with learning to read at all. Modern advances in deciphering codes (stimulated by World War II) enabled classicists to translate\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Linear-A\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Linear B<\/a>, yielding evidence about the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Mycenaean-language\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Mycenaean language<\/a>\u00a0used on Crete in the 2nd millennium\u00a0<span class=\"text-smallcaps\">BCE<\/span>. Computerized technology promises to assist in deciphering other languages not presently understood.<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"module-spacing\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">A much more usual problem calls for\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/paleography\" data-show-preview=\"true\">paleography<\/a>\u2014the study of ancient or medieval handwriting. Once the handwriting styles of past epochs become familiar, anything written by a professional scribe should be legible, but one can expect the wildest variations of spelling and handwriting in personal documents. Printing stabilizes texts but also leads to a long-term decline in handwriting. The British historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051126\"><\/span><a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Lewis-Bernstein-Namier\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Lewis Namier<\/a>, (1888\u20131960), who owed much of his success to being able to read the execrable handwriting of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Thomas-Pelham-Holles-1st-duke-of-Newcastle\" data-show-preview=\"true\">duke of Newcastle<\/a>, argued that the two \u201csciences\u201d the historian must know are psychoanalysis and graphology.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Reading is, of course, far more than making out the letters and words. Establishing the plain sense is only the first step; here the pitfalls are unrecognized technical language or terms of art. Also, the words may have changed their meaning since they were written. Furthermore, texts of any length are almost always metaphorical.\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Irony\" data-term=\"Irony\" data-type=\"MW\">Irony<\/a>\u00a0may be obvious (<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Jonathan-Swift\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Jonathan Swift<\/a>\u2019s \u201cA Modest Proposal\u201d was not seriously advocating raising Irish babies for the English table), but it may also be so subtle as to escape detection (did\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Niccolo-Machiavelli\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli<\/a>\u00a0really intend that his praise for\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Cesare-Borgia\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Cesare Borgia<\/a>\u00a0be taken seriously?). What is not said is often the most important part of a text. Historians have to establish the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/genre\" data-term=\"genre\" data-type=\"MW\">genre<\/a>\u00a0to which a document belongs in order to begin to attack these hermeneutical questions (a step they sometimes omit, to their peril). Almost all English wills in the early modern period, for example, started with a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bequest\" data-term=\"bequest\" data-type=\"MW\">bequest<\/a>\u00a0of the body to the graveyard and the soul to God; omission of this might be highly significant but would be noticed only if one knew what to expect from a will. The British historian\u00a0<span id=\"ref1051127\"><\/span>G.M. Young said that the ideal historian has read so much about the people he is writing about that he knows what they will say next\u2014a\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/counsel\" data-term=\"counsel\" data-type=\"MW\">counsel<\/a>\u00a0of perfection, no doubt, but a goal to aspire to.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Written documents of quite a different kind have come to prominence in social and\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/economic-history\" data-show-preview=\"true\">economic history<\/a>. These are administrative records of actions that individually mean little but lend themselves to aggregation over long time spans. Social history differs from\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/sociology\" data-show-preview=\"true\">sociology<\/a>, it has been said, by having \u201clong time series and bad data.\u201d Records of dowries, baptisms, bread prices, customs receipts, or direct taxes are typical of such sources, and all of them are bad in their own way. Estimating a population by counting baptisms, for example, is hazardous if priests were\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/negligent\" data-term=\"negligent\" data-type=\"EB\">negligent<\/a>\u00a0in keeping their registers or if the custom of baptism immediately after birth gave way to long delays between birth and baptism (giving the baby a good chance to die before the rite could be performed). Tax evasion is as ancient as taxation, and tax records as indexes of economic activity are likely to measure instead the fluctuation of mercantile honesty or effective law enforcement, not to mention the ever-present possibility that the records were poorly compiled or preserved. Cost-of-living figures are particularly difficult to compute even today and were more so in earlier periods. Records of prices paid usually come from institutions and may not be typical of what individuals bought, especially since they usually did not have to buy everything they ate or used. On the other hand, their wage rates cannot simply be multiplied by the number of hours or days in the working year, since they were seldom lucky enough not to be laid off seasonally or during recessions.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Even if historians find the evidence solid, records like this are usually too numerous not to require sampling, and drawing a truly random sample of historical records is much more complex than when doing survey research. Handbooks of statistics do not always reflect this fact. Nobody would think of\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/undertaking\" data-term=\"undertaking\" data-type=\"EB\">undertaking<\/a>\u00a0a quantitative study nowadays without a computer (although desk calculators are quite adequate for some projects), and this raises a further difficulty insofar as historical records usually vary so much in terminology that they have to be encoded for computer use. Coding conventions are themselves interpretations, and few quantitative historians have never had occasion to curse themselves for premature or inconsistent coding. There is no foolproof remedy against this, but providing a database and a copy of coding conventions has become the recommended practice to enable other historians to evaluate the work.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Handbooks of historical method at the end of the 19th century assured students that if they mastered the interpretation of written documents, they would have done everything required to be a historian. \u201cNo documents, no history,\u201d one said. In this century the notion of a document has been enormously expanded so that any\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/artifact\" data-term=\"artifact\" data-type=\"MW\">artifact<\/a>\u00a0surviving from the past can serve as the answer to some historian\u2019s question. Aerial photography, for example, can reveal settlement patterns long since buried.\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Napoleon-I\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Napoleon<\/a>\u2019s hair can be examined to see whether he died a natural death or was poisoned; analysis of Newton\u2019s hair showed that he was an alchemist. The architecture along Vienna\u2019s Ringstrasse can be construed as revealing the ambitions of the liberal\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/bourgeoisie\" data-term=\"bourgeoisie\" data-type=\"MW\">bourgeoisie<\/a>. The history of sexuality cannot be written without the history of clothing\u2014even the nudes in classical paintings pose in postures influenced by the clothes they are not wearing. Indeed, the ordinary things of all kinds to be found in a folk\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/museum-cultural-institution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">museum<\/a>\u00a0are one of the best sources for the everyday life of people in the past.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\"><a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/Artifacts\" data-term=\"Artifacts\" data-type=\"MW\">Artifacts<\/a>\u00a0do not usually tell their own stories. When written documents can be\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/juxtaposed\" data-term=\"juxtaposed\" data-type=\"MW\">juxtaposed<\/a>\u00a0to them, the results are more\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/illuminating\" data-term=\"illuminating\" data-type=\"MW\">illuminating<\/a>\u00a0than either can be by themselves. Unfortunately, virtually the whole training of historians is devoted to reading written texts, so that skill is hypertrophied, while the ability to interpret material objects is underdeveloped. When historians can, for example, accurately describe how the machines of the early\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Industrial-Revolution\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Industrial Revolution<\/a>\u00a0really worked, they will have met this challenge\u2014which is, of course, a challenge to know almost everything.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">Historians today benefit from much more\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/integrated\" data-term=\"integrated\" data-type=\"MW\">integrated<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/comprehensive\" data-term=\"comprehensive\" data-type=\"MW\">comprehensive<\/a>\u00a0archival and library systems than existed in previous centuries. The state papers of the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-States\" data-show-preview=\"true\">United States<\/a>, for example, were not in usable condition in 1933. Thanks again in part to the efforts of WPA workers, great improvements were made in cataloguing and preservation; now a new archive building in suburban Maryland has been built to cope with the tide of documents produced by the U.S. government. The same step has been taken in\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/United-Kingdom\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Britain<\/a>, and both Britain and France have new national libraries. Less spectacular, but invaluable to many historians, are the local historical societies, county record offices, and the like, which have been established in many countries. These have allowed the collection and preservation of documents that originated in a great variety of places\u2014churches, courts, city and county governments, legal offices, and collections of letters. One of the remarkable developments of the period since the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/the-collapse-of-the-Soviet-Union\" data-show-preview=\"true\">dissolution of the Soviet Union<\/a>\u00a0in 1991 has been the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/dictionary\/widespread\" data-term=\"widespread\" data-type=\"EB\">widespread<\/a>\u00a0sale of public and private records to Western collectors. Libraries such as Yale or the Hoover Institution (at Stanford University) are now in many ways better places to study the Soviet period than any in Russia, and if one can fault the failure of the Russian government to pay its librarians and the wild\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/capitalism\" data-show-preview=\"true\">capitalism<\/a>\u00a0of the new Russia for dispersing these treasures, at least they will be safely preserved. They have already answered many questions about how the\u00a0<a class=\"md-crosslink autoxref \" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Soviet-Union\" data-show-preview=\"true\">Soviet Union<\/a>\u00a0was run.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">The proliferation of libraries and archives illustrates what is in some ways the greatest difficulty with regard to modern sources\u2014there are too many of them. Most discussions of historiography focus on how historians tease out the exiguous meanings of documents when they are very scarce. The problem facing the historian of the 19th century and even more of the 20th is how to cope with the vast array sources open to him. Computers and the Internet have vastly\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/enhanced\" data-term=\"enhanced\" data-type=\"MW\">enhanced<\/a>\u00a0the speed with which printed sources can be searched\u2014titles of all the books in all the major Western libraries are online\u2014but the historian must know a great many descriptors to do a reasonable subject search. Furthermore, the Internet has brought as much misinformation as information, if not more.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"topic-paragraph\">In the 16th and 17th centuries it was taken for granted that the historian would work alone and would usually own many of his books. The library of G\u00f6ttingen, the pride of 18th-century Germany, would be small even for a new university or a modest liberal-arts college today. Great reputations could be made in the 19th century for the discovery of a new archive (such as Ranke\u2019s discovery of the Venetian\u00a0<em>relazioni<\/em>). Nothing like this could possibly happen today, yet such is the\u00a0<a class=\"md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/conservatism\" data-term=\"conservatism\" data-type=\"MW\">conservatism<\/a>\u00a0of the historical profession that the model is still the single scholar exhausting the archives. The archives for modern history are inexhaustible, and collaboratively written works, already becoming somewhat common, will almost certainly have to become even more so if historians are to meet their traditional goals of comprehensive research.<\/p>\r\n<h3>Disclaimer<\/h3>This content has been reposted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/historiography\/Marxist-historiography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Britannica.com\/<\/a> for informational purposes only.<\/section>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/article>\r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Giambattista Vico world history world history, branch of history concerned with the study of historical phenomena that\u00a0transcend\u00a0national, regional, or cultural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,126,118],"tags":[456,451,453,454,452,455],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-education","category-history","tag-global-history","tag-historical-events","tag-history-of-empires","tag-history-of-technology","tag-modern-history","tag-wars-and-conflicts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1472,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions\/1472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.geekybot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}