History as Science or Literature

Michelet would see history as literature and not science, for he does not take an objective point of view but instead a very personal one. He makes this clear in his introduction to The People in 1846:

I have made this book of myself, of my life, and of my heart. It is the fruit of my experience, rather than of my research. I have derived it from my observation, and my intercourse with friends and neighbors; I have gleaned it from the highway: fortune loves to favor him who ever follows the self-same thought. . . To know the life of the people, their toils and sufferings, I had but to interrogate my memory.

He speaks in this book directly to the French people, and he speaks as one of them. His is a literary quest for meaning through the writing of history, and he seeks meaning in observation and personal experience.

Thomas Babingrton Macaulay addresses the issue of history as literature directly, and he sees the role of the historian as being an art rather than a science, yet there is a science involved in using only the materials that exist as evidence of what occurred and what

. . .
covered in so complex a subject, but the interpretation of the cause and effect of any particular event cannot rightly be called "scientific." The scientific approach assumes an objectivity that is denied by Trevelyan and others, and they see the application of a particular human mind to the facts of history to be more important, more worthwhile, and more possible. This is more in keeping with the view of Carlyle that history is a subject attainable by all men. Bibliography Buckle, J.T. "History of Civilization in England." In The Varieties of History, Fritz Stern (ed.), 120-137. New York: Vintage, 1972. Bury, J.B. "History as a Science." In The Varieties of History, Fritz Stern (ed.), 209-226. New York: Vintage, 1972. Macaulay, Thomas. "History." In The Varieties of History, Fritz Stern (ed.) 71-89. New York: Vintage, 1972. Michelet, Jules. "The People." In The Varieties of History, Fritz Stern (ed.) 108-119. New York: Vintage, 1972. Trevelyan, George Macaulay. "Clio Rediscovered." In The Varieties of History, Fritz Stern (ed.), 227-245. New York: Vintage, 1972. For Karl Marx, bourgeois society developed as part of a system of class conflict involving the domination of the bourgeois class o
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Karl Marx, Macaulay Trevelyan, , Babingrton Macaulay, JB Bury, Hegelians Feuerbach, Marx British, JT Buckle, Fritz Stern, York Vintage, history science, varieties history fritz, history fritz stern, york vintage, varieties history, history fritz, stern ed, fritz stern, fritz stern ed, vintage 1972, york vintage 1972, instruments production, bourgeois society, scientific approach, production relations production,
Approximate Word count = 1632
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

More Essays on History as Science or Literature