Topic: Defining History (inquiry)

1. History

"History in its root sense means inquiry…" The stress was on the inquiry as such, regardless of subject matter, on the search for explanation and understanding. [Humans are] rational beings: if [they] ask rational questions, [they] can, by the unaided efforts of [their] intellect, discover rational answers. But first [they] must discover that about [themselves]. The Classical Greeks did, in the 7^th century B.C. (insofar as so abstract a notion can be dated at all), and thereby they established the greatest of their claims to immortality. Significantly, the inquiry was first directed to the most universal matters, the nature of being and the cosmos. Only later was [it] extended to [humans, their] social relations and [their] past." Source: The Greek Historians

2. You must inquire into the Past, Present, and Future in order to search for rational answers.
3. "Historiography" is the process of understanding how the environment impacts the writing of history. All disciplines undergo changes as the intellectual climate changes. Hence, different "schools of thoughts" develop and, in turn, different approaches to the discipline occur.
4. Six major historiographical phases impact the study of history:

1. Rise of Nationalism– 1700 to 1800:

a. Interest in Spanish Colonies

b. Interest in Native peoples

2. Expansion – 1800 to 1890s:

Economic Religious CulturalTerritorial. Era of grandeur for America; if anyone can, an American

Continual interest in

a.Spanish Southwestern Settlements b. Natives: Apaches, Commanches, etc

c. New element, the Mexican: Nuevo Mexicano, Calfornios,Tejano

3. Politics– 1890s to 1920s:

Instability abounds: Mexican Revo= 1910-17; Russian Revolution, Irish vs English 1916; wwi 1914-17

a. Interest in Roman/Spanish/Mexican Law

1. community property
2. riparian law.

1. Economics– 1920s (robust growth) to "bust" in 1930s ("bust" decline):

Capitalism vs socialism vs communism…

a. Interest in immigrants( Jews Italians, Mexicans) as a positive forces (Reserved (surplus) labor force allows for wage decrease). By the depression (1930s) immigrants/Mexicans are view as a negative factor in our economy.

2. Social - Post WWII (1940-45) to 1960s: history from the "bottom up"

WWII contributed to the rise of the Women, Black, and Chicano Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Organized/structured course in Mexican American Studies developed.

3. Quantitative (information age/computers) – 1970s to today: Current trend is to use computers to write the history of those who do not write…

1. Three "methodologies" exist in the inquiring process:

a. Linear/Progressive: Western Tradition wholeheartedly accept this approach. To view history on a chronological/linear perspective while learning and improving society. To build blocks of knowledge.

1. Linear/Progressive/Repetitive

some in the Western tradition reluctantly accepts this perspective it differs from the linear/progressive approach insofar that history "may" repeat itself…

c. cyclical approach suggests that history will repeat itself: wars, business cycles, religious holiday…this allows for some "comfort and security in our lives…but it is not accept by Western traditionalist….