IB TOK History 1 - Scope: what history is and is not.

This is the first in a series of six lessons dedicated to the fundamental philosophical issues that revolve around the question of ‘what is history’?’ Over the course of these lessons, I’ll be considering problems such as ‘how can claim we know what happened in the past?’ How is the past used and abused. And ultimately what is the point of studying history?

These lessons are especially designed for students studying Theory of Knowledge (TOK) as part of the IB Diploma programme. But hopefully they will be useful to anyone who has stopped to consider what history really is. This first lesson what history is and what it is not, what IB TOK calls the scope of history. I am going to make 5 points:

1. History is not the past
2. History is both a process and a product.
3. History is made by historians.
4. History is both an art and a (social) science.
5. History is plural.

[jeremygreene]

History is not done just by historians. The best selling history author of US history for the last 2 generations was David McCullough. He was not a professional historian. Nor were Thucydides and Herodotus. Now this question about who is a historian was taken up in one of the most famous essays ever written about history which is Carl Becker's 1931 presidential address to the American Historical Association, "Everyman His Own Historian." I recommend everyman and everyperson read it. It still holds up today in the tension between professional historians and the people. It should be noted that the audience Becker was talking to was not all historians with doctorates. The profession was not as professionalized in 1931.
I agree with your other points. Thank you for the talk.