Investigating the Extent to Which Historians Can Be Objective

Investigating the Extent to Which Historians Can Be Objective

‘You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to

instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt

does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell you how it

really was’ - Leopold Von Ranke

‘There are no facts, only interpretations’ – Nietzsche

Here we encounter two diametrically opposed views concerning

objectivity. It can be argued that “true” objectivity cannot exist, as

history is more exposed to differing interpretations than any other

discipline and to be “factual”, dispassionate or truly objective would

be at best unrealistic and at worst impossible. Historians, in their

selective analysis of the past on the basis of surviving historical

records and evidence, draw conclusions, which must necessarily be

subject to their own individual interpretations – interpretations that

are in turn subject to the historians’ own individual ideologies. The

fact that history is constantly being rewritten is testimony to the

impossibility of attaining “true” objectivity.

On the other hand, “true” subjectivity would constitute a threat to

history itself as a discipline – the logical outcome of this would be

to grant every historian his or her own perspective, no matter how out

of synch with the “truth” it might be. The moral entanglement

resulting from such an approach is not difficult to imagine.

This essay will attempt to examine (some) historian’s views on

objectivity, within these two extremes, but the limited word count

necessitates the exclusion of others (White, Collingwood).

Can objective “facts” exist in history? Even whe...

... middle of paper ...

...reflections on

the present state of historical study Cambridge University Press,

1991

Gooch, G. P: History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century

Longmans, 1952 (Includes a chapter on Leopold Von Ranke)

Jenkins, Keith: On ‘What is History’: From Carr and Elton to Rorty and

White Routledge, 1995

Marwick, Arthur: The Nature of History Macmillan, 1970

Zinn, Howard: The Politics of History University of Illinois Press,

1990

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[1] Elton, G.R: Return to Essentials – Some reflections on the present

state of historical study Cambridge University Press, 1991 (P. 43)

[2] Zinn, H: The Politics of History University of Illinois Press,

1990 (P.10-11)

[3] Carr, E.H: What is History Penguin, 1990 (P. 37)

[4] Carr (P. 107)