What is History?

[Dullahan]

This is a test.

What is history to you?

Removed from any specifics - i.e. History as a discipline, something you study at university - but simply the abstract concept of history, 'the past'. What is it to you?

[Mcjon01]

I don’t know, why don’t you just tell me why I’m wrong instead of making me jump through these hoops first

[Tobias]

Other:

Baby don’t hurt me!

Dont hurt me

no more

[Dullahan]

I don’t know, why don’t you just tell me why I’m wrong instead of making me jump through these hoops first

i can't tell you why you're wrong a priori, i need more information

[Five_X]

Don't make me do this again my professors already put me through this flaming hoop

[Dullahan]

I'm trying to do quantitative research here and you people can't stop bitching for long enough to answer a simple poll on an entry-level topic

the only one jumping through hoops is me

[SpoonyViking]

Strictly speaking, "a collection of events" is correct, but it also lacks everything that makes history actually history.
I'll vote "Other" for now, but I'm postponing the explanation.

[Dullahan]

see, this is an answer, it's that simple.

that said, the high contracting parties call upon this plaintiff to clarify what is 'actually history'

[Zurvan]

A collection of events and texts describing them, be it through oral tradition/written in some medium/found by other means, as well as the interpretations of events by people from generations far removed from the events in an attempt to make a recognizable order into what is essentially a chaotic puzzle that cannot be solved.

Now, if you can in your nicest words, correct me where I'm wrong, since I'm sure to be in some way or another

[Dullahan]

despite your impressions I'm not actually here to tell people why they're wrong. I'm conducting a survey. Put your answers in the poll kthx

[Zurvan]

Mind giving the class some context why you are conducting a survey then?

[Dullahan]

I told you, it's a test.

[Skull]

An aggregated narrative of past events as told through written documentation.

Or something along those lines anyways.

[34]

History is a shitty American TV channel about aliens


alternatively, history is also an inquiry to a collection of narratives

[SpoonyViking]

that said, the high contracting parties call upon this plaintiff to clarify what is 'actually history'

As soon as I can manage to formulate an answer with which I'm satisfied, I'll be sure to do so, Your Honour!

On a more serious note, I'm thinking of the historical constructs which, in some way, still shape our socio-ideological landscape. I'm just trying to formulate an actual concept which isn't me just quoting from, I don't know, Jenkins, Ginzburg or similar.

[Dullahan]

complex articulation is really secondary here, i'm just trying to assess in very general terms (hence the extreme reductiveness of the poll categories) where the forum stands

[Historia]

hungover and tired but i answered

[SpoonyViking]

complex articulation is really secondary here, i'm just trying to assess in very general terms (hence the extreme reductiveness of the poll categories) where the forum stands

Hmmm... Then I guess I'd say history is both a collection of events and the underlying forces behind said events.

[Five_X]

"For in the history of philosophy, as in every other kind, nothing capable of being learnt by heart, nothing capable of being memorized, is history."

thanks as always Dr Collingwood

[pinetree]

History: The collection of actions taken by every person in the past, actions that, together, shaped humanity and the world we live in today, just like we are currently shaping humanity's future.

At least that's how I see it. You could describe it as a collection of events/texts, but that's more like how we perceive/record it, and not history itself.