Objectivity in History: An Analysis Report Writing - History Assignment Help

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Abstract.

The controversy as to whether or not historical truth is objective is as old as the profession itself. However the issue became a hotly debated point of contention only after Ranke openly and confidently declared that truth in history was not only objective but achievable. Though initially Ranke's argument found great support from historians all over Europe, and the United States as well, however by the beginning of the 20th century scepticism began to be raised among philosophers and philosophically minded historians on the accuracy of historical accounts written by historians. One of the reasons for this scepticism was the belief that historical explanation was not based on any empirical or scientific methods but rather expressed by the historian based on his personal assumption of what could possibly have happened. As such, it was argued that historical truth could at best be true only relative to the values and needs of the time of the historian who writes it. Due to their emphasis on relativism these critics later came to be referred as Relativists. The debate between the Relativists and those who staunchly believe that history is objective and achievable continues to this day. This article makes a modest attempt to analyse the objections put forth by the Relativists against objectivity to argue that history, indeed, is objective and also achievable.

Keywords and phrases: objectivity, Relativists, Ranke, Becker, Beard

Introduction

In the Preface of his first major work, History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations from 1494 to 1514 (1824), Ranke wrote that the job of the historian is to present the past as it had actually happened. To achieve this he had outlined several guidelines that a historian has to adhere to while writing history such as using only validated facts and ridding oneself of prejudices and moral judgments against the object that was investigated. Ranke lamented that in the past history was diverted from its actual purpose and had been used to judge the past so that the future generation would benefit from that. This, Ranke argued, was not the job of history or historians. He cautioned historians against allowing their own judgements in recreating the past lest the degree of objectivity in their work would be compromised.

Ranke advocated this view in the first quarter of the 19th century. Since Ranke's view had created a strong impact among historians sometimes it is mistakenly assumed that the effort to write objective history began only since the time of Ranke. But, this is not correct. Actually, the yearning to write objective history had always been a practice among historians since the time of Herodotus itself. Herodotus travelled to almost all the countries involved in the Persian War, including the countries of enemies, and interviewed as many witnesses as possible to ensure that facts presented in his Persian Wars were accurate. He had used some kind of critical analysis to ascertain that the information given by the witnesses was true and correct (see Brown 1954, 829–833).

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