What is and what is not history?

Non-Historians Historians

● Non-historians often say that “history ● History is the study of change over
repeats itself” or that “things were time, and it covers all aspects of
always this way.” human society.

● Non-historians often romanticize the ● History is exclusively as a story of

past and speak of the “good old days” progress with everything constantly
when they believe that things were improving.
generally better than at present.

● Non-historians derive information mainly ● Historians know that all sources,

from television, movies, and the internet even those original to a particular
as well as some books or magazines. historical time period, have some
They generally accept any sources biases, omissions, contradictions,
uncritically as long as the source is or various other limitations.
interesting.

● Non-historians read books or watch ● Historians read books or watch

documentaries of their choice. documentaries go to archives in
search of original records.

● Non-historians assume that historians ● Historians know that the philosophy

have always approached history the and methodology of history have
same way. changed over time and will keep
changing.

● Non-historians often make broad ● Historians tend to focus more on

generalizations about people, ideas, the specific, detailed developments
events, or time periods in that underpin the generalizations,
history. and sometimes question or reject
the generalizations themselves.

● Non-historians may assume that time ● Historians have various ways of

periods are fixed and absolute. organizing history thematically and
chronologically.
Meaning and relevance of history

History was derived from the Greek word historia which means "knowledge acquired through inquiry or
investigation." Historia became known as the account of the past of a person or of group of people
through written documents and historical evidences.

History is the study of the past. Events occurring before the invention of writing systems are
considered prehistory. History is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the
memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information
about these events.

Scholars who focus on history are called historians. The historian's

role is to place the past in context, using sources from moments and events, and filling in the gaps to
the best of their ability. Written documents are not the only sources historians use to develop their
understanding of the past. They also use material objects, oral accounts, ecological markers, art, and
artifacts as historical sources.

History also includes the academic discipline. which uses narrative to describe, examine, question,
and analyze a sequence of past events, investigate the patterns of cause and effect that are related to
them. Historians seek to understand and represent the past through narratives. They often debate
which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects.
Historians also debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of the
discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing "perspective" on the problems of the present.

Stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as the tales
surrounding King Arthur), are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends. History differs from
myth in that it is supported by evidence. However, ancient influences have helped spawn variant
interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries and continue to change
today. The modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the
study of certain topical or thematic elements of historical investigation. History is often taught as part of
primary and secondary education, and the academic study of history is a major discipline in university
studies.

Herodutus, a 5th-century BC Greek historian (pictured above) is

often considered (within the Western tradition) to be the "Father of history," or, by some, the "Father of
lies." Along with his contemporary historian Thucydides (pictured on the right), he helped form the
foundations for the modern study of human history. Their works continue to be read today, and the gap
between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of
contention or approach in modern historical writing.

History is and should be a science ... History is not the accumulation of events of every kind which
happened in the past. It is the science of human societies.

No historian can be 100% objective, but historians try to recognize their own limitations and biases.
Historians try not to place the values, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes of the present onto the topics
they study. Historians try to understand their topics in the context of how and why people of that era
thought and behaved, and not how people think and act today.

Many different interpretations of all historical topics exist. Historians must work to recognize the
difference between facts and interpretations in their field. Historiography refers to the study of history,
philosophy, and methodology of history. Historians must be familiar with the historiography of their
particular area of study.

Now, at least we are able to clear some misconceptions about history. Please bear in mind that history
is also a scientific field of study that involves a lot of critical thinking, analysis, statistics, and more. Don't
fall into the traps of pseudo-historians who profess to be historians proliferating in the social media,
okay?

Importance of History
The slogan of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines Institute (formerly National
Historical Institute) in their official website that reads: "A Filipino society with citizens informed of
their history, who love their country and are proud of their cultural heritage" speaks volumes
emphasizing how important it is for you to know history. So, do not be wondering why you are here in
the collegiate level enrolling in this Readings in Philippine History, okay?

For our academic discussion, the following are the reasons why we study history, courtesy of Peter N.
Stearns (1998) of American Historical Association:

1. History Helps Us Understand People and Societies. In the first place, history offers a
storehouse of information about how people and societies behave. Understanding the
operations of people and societies is difficult, though a number of disciplines make the
attempt. An exclusive reliance on current data would needlessly handicap our efforts. How
can we evaluate war if the nation is at peace—unless we use historical materials? How
can we understand genius, the influence of technological innovation, or the role that beliefs
play in shaping family life, if we don't use what we know about experiences in the past?
Some social scientists attempt to formulate laws or theories about human behavior using
history as one of their bases.
2. History Helps Us Understand Change and How the Society We Live in Came to Be.
The second reason history is inescapable as a subject of serious study follows closely on
the first. The past causes the present, and so the future. Any time we try to know why
something happened—whether a shift in political party dominance in the Philippines, a
major change in the teenage suicide rate, or a conflict in the Cordilleras or the siege of
Zamboanga and Marawi—we have to look for factors that took shape earlier.
3. History is Important in Our Own Lives. History well told is beautiful. Many of the
historians who most appeal to the general reading public know the importance of dramatic
and skillful writing—as well as of accuracy. Biography and military history appeal in part
because of the tales they contain. History as art and entertainment serves a real purpose,
on aesthetic grounds but also on the level of human understanding.
4. History Contributes to Moral Understanding. History also provides a terrain for moral
contemplation. Studying the stories of individuals and situations in the past allows a
student of history to test his or her own moral sense, to hone it against some of the real
complexities individuals have faced in difficult settings. People who have weathered
adversity not just in some work of fiction, but in real, historical circumstances can provide
inspiration.
 5. History Provides Identity. History also helps provide identity, and this is unquestionably
one of the reasons all modern nations encourage its teaching in some form. Historical data
include evidence about how families, groups, institutions and whole countries were formed
and about how they have evolved while retaining cohesion.
6. Studying History Is Essential for Good Citizenship. A study of history is essential for
good citizenship. This is the most common justification for the place of history in school
curricula. Sometimes advocates of citizenship history hope merely to promote national
identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and lessons in individual
success and morality.
7. History Develops in the Students the Ability to Assess Evidence.The study of history
builds experience in dealing with and assessing various kinds of evidence—the sorts of
evidence historians use in shaping the most accurate pictures of the past that they can.
Learning how to interpret the statements of past political leaders—one kind of
evidence—helps form the capacity to distinguish between the objective and the
self-serving among statements made by present-day political leaders.
8. History Develops in the Students the Ability to Assess Conflicting Interpretations.
Learning history means gaining some skill in sorting through diverse, often conflicting
interpretations. Understanding how societies work—the central goal of historical study—is
inherently imprecise, and the same certainly holds true for understanding what is going on
in the present day.
9. History Is Useful in Your Career and in the World of Work. History is useful for work. Its
study helps create good business people, professionals, and political leaders. The number
of explicit professional jobs for historians is considerable, but most people who study
history do not become professional historians. Rather, it the professionals from various
fields become later on historians by building on the concrete foundation of historiography
during the academic preparation as what you are doing right now.

1.3 Criticism of Historical Sources

Hello my dear students! This topic will teach you how to criticize a historical source. In this time and
age of proliferation of fake news, this skill is very much indispensable. So, join me now and let us begin
to learn how to criticize a historical source and see whether these are historically accurate or not. Here
we go!
 Historical studies on the meaning of past events in an attempt to interpret
the facts and explain the cause of events, and their effect in the present events. In doing so, historians
rely heavily on primary historical data (direct accounts of events, archival data - official documents,
personal records, and records of eyewitnesses) and less frequently on secondary historical data
(information from persons who didn’t witness the event; e.g. textbooks, newspapers, encyclopedias).

Although the Greek historian Herodotus was acknowledged as the "Father of History", it was
Thucydides (photo on the right, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons), an ancient Greek historian, is the
pioneer of historical criticism of historical data. Hence, he was acclaimed as the "Father of Scientific
History" due to his splendid work on "The History of Peloponnesian Wars."

When we read a piece of historical work, we have to be critical and discerning. We may utilize criticism
of historical data as explained below.

Criticism of Historical Sources

The historian should be able to conduct an external and internal criticism of the source, specially the
primary sources which can age in centuries.

Evaluation of historical data and information is often referred to as historical criticism and the
reliable data yielded by the process are known as historical evidence. Historical evidence is derived
from historical data by the process of criticism, which is of two types: external and internal criticism.
1. External criticism is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by examining its
physical characteristics of the time when it was produced; and the materials used for the
evidence.
○ Here, evidence is examined based on physical characteristics like materials
used for the evidence, the structure, layout and the design are scrutinized
also.
 ○ Involves finding out if the sources material is genuine and if passes textual
integrity. External criticism in historical research evaluates the validity of the
document this is,where and by whom it was produced.
2. Internal criticism, on the other hand, is the examination of the truthfulness of the
evidence.
○ It looks at the truthfulness and factuality of the evidence by looking at the
author of the source and its context.
○ Internal criticism evaluates the meaning accuracy and truth worthiness of the
content of document.
○ Internal criticism concerned with the accuracy and meaning of the data
contained in the document.

How to Criticize a Historical Source

In the advent of social media as a very ubiquitous platform of airing self-expressions and views, it is
your job, as student-historians, to evaluate and criticize the historicity of these posts / websites / blogs
and even YouTube videos proliferating around. This task requires you criticize and evaluate historical
website and any other website which publishes events in history with their accompanying
interpretations, explanations, assumptions, and even predictions.

Criteria Things to evaluate/analyze

● The historical event posted and accompanying interpretation is accurate

Accuracy
and verifiable
● Make sure author provides e-mail or a contact address/phone number.
● Know the distinction between author and Webmaster.

● What credentials are listed for the authors? Are they educated to be or
Authority
trained in historiography?
● Where is the document published and verified?

● Determine if page is a mask for advertising; if so information might be

Objectivity
biased.
● View any Web page as you would an infomercial on television. Ask
yourself why was this written and for whom?
 ● Check if there are monetary matters or motivation behind the motive of
posting

● Is the post current or latest?

Currency
● When was it produced? When was it updated'

● Is it free or is there a fee, to obtain the information?

Coverage
● Is there an option for text only, or frames, or a suggested browser for
better viewing?
●

Welcome to this topic on Historical analysis! After knowing the meaning and relevance of history, we
have actually answered the question "what?" in history. It is now time for us dig into the question "why?"
and at the same time, learn the surrounding circumstances or sort of the "history of the history". Sounds
interesting, right?

So, let us begin by learning first what is historical context.

Historical Context

Historical context is an important part of life and literature, and without it, memories, stories, and
characters have less meaning. Historical context deals with the details that surround an occurrence. In
more technical terms, historical context refers to the social, religious, economic, and political
conditions that existed during a certain time and place. Basically, it's all the details of the time and place
in which a situation occurs, and those details are what enable us to interpret and analyze works or
events of the past, or even the future, rather than merely judge them by contemporary standards
(Fleming, 2019).

Historical context is the social, political, cultural, economic, and environmental situations that
influence the events or trends we see happen during that time. Therefore, if we are unfamiliar with the
traditions, culture, thinking, or events happening at any time in history, we could misinterpret or lose the
meaning of a piece of writing we are reading.

Therefore, in order to fully understand a source, you must place it within the context of the time period
in which it was produced. This process is called contextualizing. Contextualizing a historical source
involves paying attention to the people who produced it, the time in which they worked, what was going
on during that time, and how what was going on may have influenced the production of the source. It
also involves understanding how the source's language, concepts, and terms were used within that
historical context, since meanings change over time.

In short, contextualizing a source increases a writer's credibility since it demonstrates the writer’s
willingness to understand the source and its time period on its own terms.

Why is Context Important?

The word “context” has a pretty large and abstract definition. From the Merriam-Webster dictionary,
context is “the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its
meaning" (2020). It is abstract because this definition implies that “context” can be anything providing
meaning. It can take any shape or form as long as it clarifies what one is trying to say. Context adds
specificity to your reading of historical events and directs the your attention to a particular train of
thought.

Thus avoiding, to a certain extent, unwanted interpretation (Samson, 2019). Maybe that is why, Gary
Vaynerchuck said that: "Content is king, but context is God!" It is like looking at a wider range of visible
horizon, not just looking through a tunnel.

In summary, context is information that helps the message of a history text make sense. Whether it’s a
novel, a memoir, or a collection of short stories, a piece of writing can be interpreted variably depending
on the contextual factors provided by the author. Some context is obviously stated and some requires a
close reading of the history work—so it’s important for every student of history to know what context is
and how to use it in their readings of Philippine history.

1.5 Historical Analysis of Pigafetta's Account of Magellan's Arrival in the Philippines

Now that you know what is historical context and its importance in your readings of Philippine history, it
is now time for you to do analysis of a sample historical event in Philippine history. For this activity, we
will use a sample of historical account of Antonio Pigafetta's "The First Voyage around the World
(1519-1522): An Account of Magellan's Expedition" which is pictured below:
This document reveals several insights not just in the character of the Philippines during pre-colonial
period, but also on how the fresh eyes of the European regard a deeply unfamiliar terrain, environment,
people and culture. Published after Pigafetta returned to Italy, his work became a classic that prominent
literary men in the West like William Shakespeare, Michel de Montaigne and Giambattista Vico referred
to the book in their interpretation of the New World.

Pigafetta's travelogue, when published in Europe in 1535, became a worldwide sensation. Situated
during the time when Europe, known as the Old World, is actively seeking for lands to discover and
conquer motivated by Gold, Glory, and God (Three Gs), this historical account became a bestseller,
teasing the imagination of the European readers about raw tropical beauty of Oriental lands, beautiful
women, bountiful lands awash of gold, spices, and natural resources.

Thus, this book became of one of the most important primary sources in the study of precolonial
Philippines. Importantly, his account was also a major referent to the events leading to Magellan’s
arrival in the Philippines, his encounter with local leaders, his death in the hands of Lapulapu’s forces in
the Battle of Mactan and in the depature of what was left of Magellan’s fleet from the islands. Thus,
completing what was known as the first circumnavigation of the world.

This is the historical context that we are going to analyze in this module.

Doing Historical Analysis

In order to fully understand a source, you must place it within the context of the time period in which it
was produced. Contextualizing a historical source involves: paying attention to the people who
produced it, the time in which they worked, what was going on during that time, and how and
what was going on may have influenced the production of the source.

It also involves understanding how the source's language, concepts, and terms were used within that
historical context, since meanings change over time. In short, contextualizing a source increases a
writer's credibility since it demonstrates the writer’s willingness to understand the source and its time
period on its own terms.

Questions to Consider in doing Historical Context Analysis

1. Who produced the historical source? In this part, you need to provide a brief description
of the author/writer/publisher of the historical event. Include photos/images and other ways
to introduce the source.
2. What is the genre of the source? In the case of Pigafetta's work, it is considered as a
travelogue, an account of the voyage as the official chronicler of Magellan's expedition.
Other historical sources may include diary entry, an eyewitness account, a published
book, a receipt, a log in the train ride, among others. You need to identify the genre of
the source you are reading.
3. How might this genre shape its content and viewpoint? In the case of Pigafetta's
travelogue, it highlighted his own personal viewpoint, judgment and biases towards the
things that he saw, people that he met, as well as customs, traditions, and other cultural
highlights he witnessed in his travels. In your analysis later on, you need to consider the
genre because there is difference in the way or the approach in which the historian may
write the historical event..
4. When was it produced? How does the timing of its production relate to other
events? Pigafetta's travelogue was published in 1535 and it received critical acclaim
worldwide during that time. Spain was the most powerful empire on Earth during that time
and its publication further glorified its name and the death of Magellan on the hands of the
 natives headed by Lapu-lapu was portrayed as a sacrifice in the attainment of Spain's
greater glory. Its timing was significant to the growing interest and fascination of
Westerners towards the Eastern people, its culture, its natural resources, riches, and
treasures. You need to situate the time and surrounding circumstances during which the
event was written.
5. How might political, social, religious, or economic events occurring at the same time
have influenced the production of the source? Pigafetta's book, The First Voyage
Around the World, was published under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. It is
noted that during that time, the church was very active in its quest to christianize
undiscovered lands in uncharted territories. Simultaneously, the state (government) of
Spanish empire used th opportunity to further expand its borders, and in the process,
accumulating land, riches, and fame all in the name of God, gold and glory.

Module 1 Summary

History is the study of the past. Events occurring before the invention of writing systems are
considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the
memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information
about these events.

It was derived from the Greek word "historia" which means "knowledge acquired through inquiry or
investigation".

Primary sources are those produced at the same time as the event, period, or subject being studied.

Secondary sources are those which are produced by an author who used primary sources to produce
the material.

Historical criticism is a literary criticism in the light of historical evidence or based on the context in
which a work was written, including facts about the author’s life and the historical and social
circumstances of the time.

External criticism is the practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by examining the physical
characteristics of the source, time and the materials.

Internal criticism is the examination of the truthfulness of the evidence.

In the advent of social media as a very ubiquitous platform of airing self-expressions and views, it is
very important to you, as student-historians, to evaluate and criticize the historicity of these posts /
websites / blogs and even YouTube videos proliferating around. To criticize and evaluate historical
websites and any other websites which publishes events in history with accompanying interpretations,
explanations, assumptions, and even predictions can never be overemphasized in order to combat
historical revisionism and proliferation of fake/misleading news.