Module 1

History
 is a discipline
 It is like liquid, it takes a shape of our minds
 Exist thousands of years

Nature of history
 Enables individuals to understand the contemporary world since the present is the manifested outcomes of the
past events.
 Deals with the narratives of human civilizations, but is not static. It reveals various social context and ideas of
each period.
 Assesses the interaction between human civilizations and the forces that led to its sudden development.
 Values the process of human development in time, thus focuses on human civilizations and their time.
 The historian’s careful analysis, not just narration, of the past’s crucial events and phenomena.
 Discussed only events which have relevance and purpose for the contemporary times.
 Considers continuity and coherences as essential elements in studying the narratives of human civilizations.
 Characterized by a dialogue between the past and emerging future.
 Tackles every aspect of human life, thus has the quality of being comprehensive
 Multisided in nature which means the discipline should be viewed using different lenses of the societal forces.

History
 is either art or science
 ability to take the form as science is somehow problematic
 focus on extricating the truth, its pieces on evidence are based on the narrative accounts of the past
 historians deciphering the past sometimes fail to administer absolute impartiality on given primary sources
 scientific and technological advances of 18th century trickled historians’ minds to question whether scientific
methods are applicable to better understand the human past or not
 asserts the discipline’s scientific status, stimulating the heated debate about the discipline’s nature
 historians employ scientific methods of inquiry which are systematic, sequential, logical, and progressive in
nature before they interpret, construct, or reconstruct the past, scholars are still very much divided in
considering the discipline a branch of science.
 It is interdisciplinary in the view of social scientific history with elements to remodel their skills in constructing
and reconstructing the past
 discipline is considered a social science, its contribution is perspective
 study of the past deals with fact that narratives from across societies varies
 it is both art and science
 it employs scientific methods in data gathering and analysis and is literary and artistic in presentation
 what matters is that it seeks to supply knowledge gaps
 discipline’s nature should not be placed at the core of any academic enterprise
 essential is the ultimate goal of research – how to commensurate human knowledge from different fields of
learning to combat societal problems and create a peaceful, just, and progressive world

History in contemporary times

 studies dealing with the past to explain the present continue to prove that History already departed from its
traditional purpose
 serve as witness to the greatness of monarchies, their battles and wars
 discipline sought to take mankind in the discourse where they can best comprehend the totality of their
respective civilizations
 historians dive deeper to the very fabric of their daily lives – from their social, political, and economic to the
smallest details that reveal their aspirations and failures
 it becomes present oriented
  assumes the role determining the potentialities and limitation in present times

Historiography
 refers to the study of historians' methods and practices in writing history
 defined the ideas of presented evidence, the rigor and standards of reasoning for historical inquiry.

Some Schools of Historical Thought Meaning and Grounds

Positivism
Annales School
Marxist History
The New Social History
Post-Colonialism
Cultural History
Intellectual History
Political History
Dictates that without documents, there is no history.
Known for using geography for setting historical scene.
Often focuses on the clash between classes.
Dives into history from below everyday life.
Manifests how the colonized fought the colonizers.
Incorporates anthropology and linguistics to enter the minds of the past.
Discussed the history of ideas and other methods of writing history.
Concentrates on great events and people of the political landscape.

This historiography
 is introduced by Dr. Zeus Salazar
 aims to be a guiding philosophy for writing and teaching history in the country.
 In context, this follows the notion of “for us – from us” perspective
 it highlights the crucial role of language, that is understood by everyone, in facilitating an internal conversation
and discourse regarding Philippine history.

Historical Awareness vs Social Memory

Social memory
 is a very powerful force that shapes the Filipino society.
 it is how a society remembers its past.
 is a distorted historical narrative established to uphold and strengthen societies

Historical Awareness
 historical knowledge necessitates bias treatment of the remains of the past
 requires an individual to judge and interpret the past based on its respective standards
 acquire strong sense of zeitgeist and historical process recognition
 void exercising anachronism
 develop skill pertaining to contextual analysis

Distorting Elements How?

Tradition An assumption that elements established in the past serve as an authoritative guide for the
present to follow.
Nostalgia A backward-looking treatment of historical change – interpretation that history evolved
negatively.
Progress Fundamental to modernity, it treats the past as an inferior element to the present.

Propaganda and Historical Revisionism

 great difference between propaganda and history
 politics is a major driver of propaganda
 considered a crucial element in any political campaigns
  politicians often resort to propaganda either to make uplift their names before the public or end the career of
their opponents
 history takes a crucial role

Propaganda
 associated with selfishness, dishonesty, and subversiveness
 Marcos exploited the myths of nationalism, imperialism, betrayal, and historical fulfilment in order to justify and
reinforce the declaration of martial law

Historical revisionism
 pertains to the manipulation certain historical events mainly for political events.
 abandons the application of scientific methods and confuses the borderline between legitimate evidence and
fiction in the process of interpreting history

Post-Modernism
 supports the legitimization of multiple truths
 when the issue of the sex slaves broke out in the global arena in 1991, Japan countered their claims stating that
these comfort women were wartime prostitutes – giving rise for two conflicting views grounded on a single
event

Revising History
 is the historians’ way to correct or update certain historical data based on new findings
 reason why each generation has its own version of history or perception of the past

Historical Objectivity
 Impartiality is crucial element
 Compels historians to process their central question without changing the results
 concept of objectivity guides historians to treat and process their historical data in the highest extent of
impartiality
 historians depart from treating historical data with bias
 resorting to omission and selection of details in attaining desired outcome, and wrongful interpretation.
 be able to channel the competence of their historical knowledge to represent the past
 historians enforce a strong sense of objectivity, their conclusions may change, just as in science, and may not be
valid at all times
 why each generation rewrite and reinterpret its history
 primary concern of historians is to provide an almost crystal understanding of the past disengaged from their
biases and prejudices

Branches of History

Focus Scopes
Political History It studies aspects of the past that deal with organization and power
Biography It pertains to the narratives of individuals.
Social History It revolves around the narratives of the society as a whole such as the everyday life at
home, workplace, and the community.
Economic History It deals with earthly necessities.
World History It tells about the rise of societies, emergence of nations, until the age of globalization.
Transnational History It narrates events beyond borders and political jurisdictions.
Local History It deals with the narratives of the common people from the local scale.
Total History It is the interplay of all aspects of human civilization in the long and medium term.
Big History It suggests that historical events are following certain patterns – chain of events
Cultural History It deals with entering the minds of the populace in the creations of a historical narrative.
Uses of History to our Lives
 provides us the fundamental and factual information pertaining to the evolution of our society
 Through the critical analysis of pieces of historical evidence, historians substantiated the fact that it has the
following uses to the students and their respective societies:

1. Allows you to comprehend the factors that instigated change to the very institution they live in.
2. Adds meaning on what it is really like to be a human being as it develops “beauty and excitement”, and
provides contexts of human societies in the past.
3. Develops the essence of moral understanding, as you are given the opportunity to test their moral sense
against the narratives of the past.
4. Provides you identity as the discipline inculcates among the students the ―distinctive features of national
experience honing their understanding of national values and loyalty.
5. Lays the foundation of ―genuine citizenship.
6. Encourages you to develop, as previously discussed, the habits of mind.
7. Essentially, the discipline cultivates among you the skill to:
7.1 Assess historical data and formulate arguments based on it.
7.2 Determine conflicting interpretations of historical data.
7.3 Identify the dramatic changes brought by the continuity of time.

Notable Attributes of Historians and Students of History

 historians are equipped with the power to ―conceptualize, describe, contextualize, explain, and interpret
events and circumstances of the past.
 With such set of skills, they are expected to crystalize the ambiguities of the past based from the historical data.

Primary Sources
 any materials or objects; photographed, recorded, written, the object itself made or present during the exact
period of a historical event.
 the author or the source of the specific material is a primary witness to the event.
 In absence of tangible sources, historians tend to utilize a new trend of extracting information from the elderlies
or direct witnesses through an interview, the oral history.
 utilized archaeological and anthropological; and other sources that reflect our society such as bugtong and epics.

Secondary Sources
 any printed or motion picture materials that are created using the primary sources.
 information is supplied by a person who is not a direct observer or participant of the event, object, or condition.
 In the context of historical research, this source is generally scholarly historical books and journal articles that
analyze primary sources.
 Other examples are: bibliographies; biographical works; reference books, including dictionaries, encyclopaedias,
and atlases (if the materials used in the making are majority primary sources); literature reviews and other
review articles; commentaries; and works of criticism and interpretation.

Types of Primary Sources

 Since primary sources are not easily available everywhere
 one of the questions historians and students ask is where can they acquire data about their historical research.

The National Library of the Philippines

 established the Filipiniana Division as the country’s official repository of printed and recorded
 intellectual and cultural heritage.
 It has respective sections:
o General Books
o Rare Books and Manuscripts
o Serials
 o Special Collections
o Government Publications
o Multimedia
o Conservation.

 Its collection activities began in 1903 in accordance to Act No. 688 of the Philippine Commission initiating the
acquisition and conservation of materials and resources regarding the country’s culture, history, literature, and
linguistics.

The National Archives of the Philippines

 is tasked to preserve all the primary sources of information (documents and records) related on the history of
our country, basic components of cultural heritage, and collective history.
 These documents and records define the wholeness of the Filipino nation as well as the testaments of
 national experiences.
 It is home to about sixty million documents from the centuries of Spanish colonization, the American and
 Japanese occupations, as well as the years of our republic.
 Lastly, the voluminous notarized documents of the country are likewise put under their supervision.

Lopez Museum and Library

 privately owned and managed
 is the oldest in country specializing In Philippine material – over 500 works and 30, 000 titles.
 It is the home for rare books and maps of the 16th century:
o the works of Juan Luna and Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo
o priceless ―personal effects of Jose Rizal.
 known to preserve and hold 600 years of scholarship and artistry.

The American Historical Collection

 established in 1950 and located at the Rizal Library Special Collections Building, Ateneo de Manila University
 has 13, 518 books, 18, 674 photographs, and other materials related to the Philippine-American relationship and
American experience in the country such as maps and memorabilia.
 Significantly, this establishment has the largest, most diverse and complete collection of materials with said
themes in the world.
 In this regard, the collection is of great importance in studying the Philippines under the United States of
America.

The University of the Philippines

 Diliman Main Library houses
 the Filipiniana Section
 Serials
 Special Collections
 which has voluminous sources pertaining to literature, history, political science, economics, and sociology.
 the Filipiniana Section- is consisting of periodicals published by academic and research institutions, government
agencies, societies, commercial publishers, as well as extensive sets of national and regional newspaper, both
contemporary and retrospective.

De La Salle University
 the Marcelino A. Foronda, Jr. Center for Local and Oral History
 Located at the Henry Sy, Sr. Hall
 has largest collection of oral history in the country with over 5,000 interviews.
 Aimed to recognize the inarticulate the Department of History is currently taking steps to make it accessible for
the public in the coming days.
 The DLSU Learning commons likewise has a big reservoir of historical materials.
The University of Santo Tomas Miguel de Benavides Library
 Has sixteen sections and five branch libraries scattered around the university’scolleges.
 It is considered to be the oldest library in our country which contains priceless primary sources particularly
during the Spanish period.

With the advent of the 21st century technology, both primary and secondary sources can now be access digitally. Some
of the noteworthy online scholarly sites that can be used in writing and studying Philippine history include:
1. The Malacañan Presidential Museum and Library Online Archive
http://malacanang.gov.ph/about/full-list-of-resources/
 is the repository ―of the history and heritage of the Philippine presidency and government
 contains a broad range of preserved historical and digitized materials
 like official papers and documents
 made available to researchers and students alike…[In addition, it has] documentary films, maps, charts, scanned
and colorized historical photographs, announcements, articles, briefers, timelines, readings, infographic maps,
and commemorative pages available for everyone.

2. Ateneo de Manila’s Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

http://www.philippinestudies.net/ojs/index.php/ps
 Founded in 1935
 this journal which was later on placed on the cyberspace
 internationally refereed journal that publishes scholarly articles and other materials on the history of the
Philippines and its peoples, both in the homeland and overseas.

3. The journal of the National Commission for Culture & the Arts, Talas: Interdisciplinary Journal in Cultural Education
https://philippineculturaleducation.com.ph/talas-journal/
 It has diverse scholarly articles on cultural education and topics on Philippine history as well.

4. The Tala (Kasaysayan): An Online Journal of History

http://talakasaysayan.org/
 is an online journal in History
  unyoked by the significance of historical research in understanding and contributing to the holistic development
of knowledge, society, and state. It operates under the guiding principle of imparting accessible historical
research studies verified by a thorough and rigorous double-blind review process to ensure originality, accuracy,
and credibility.

5. The Filipinas Heritage Library Online Filipiniana Collection

https://opac.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/
 has some free primary and secondary sources about Philippine history.
 Established in 1996, and later developed an online website, it ―a one-stop digital research center on the
Philippines,
 its mission is to spark and stoke interest in the visual, aural, and printed story of the Filipino.

6. The Miguel de Benavides Library and Archives Digital Collection

http://digilib.ust.edu.ph/
 It contains important documents in our history digitized to avoid from perishing.
 In particular, it as ―rich historical resources and the current publications of the different faculties and colleges
of the University of Santo Tomas

7. The Philippine Diary Project

https://philippinediaryproject.com/
 contains several digitized diaries of some personalities involved in our nation’s history from Age of Exploration
up to the present times.

8. The JSTOR, short for Journal Storage

https://www.jstor.org/
 is digital library
 a not-for-profit organization
 helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance
research and teaching in sustainable ways.

9. The Project Guttenberg

https://www.gutenberg.org/
 which has over 60,000 digitalized books free for researchers and students to access – some are about Philippine
history. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, an American writer, and is considered as the oldest digital
library.

10. The University of Michigan Digital Library

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/philamer
 has a particular site for Philippine-American sources.
 It has over 2,100 images of the Philippines during the American occupation in our country; and other
noteworthy documents about our history during their time.

External and Internal Criticism

 refer to the purpose or objective of criticism and not method or procedure in dealing with the sources.

External Criticism
 is the process of knowing the authenticity of the evidence
 physical characteristics, consistency with the historical characteristic of the time when it was produced, and the
materials used for evidence.
 aims to answer some of the important inquiries regarding the author and source itself:
1. What caused the fabrication of the source?
2. Was the origin of the source questionable?
3. Was the source created or written long after the event?
 4. Are there consistencies in terms of time?
5. Is the source an original version, reproduced copy, or translated copy?
6. If undated source, are there significant pieces of evidence such as events, idea, theories, fads and fashion,
names of people and places, style of language and print, kind of ink and paper used, that would lead when and
where the source is produced?
7. Were there pieces of evidence that points to the author’s manifested ignorance that he or she should have
known?
8. Did the author presented events, things, or places that are not existing during the period of the study?
9. Who made the pieces of historical evidence that the author used in the source?
10. Does the source exhibits the author’s heavy reliance on his or her personal observations?
11. Do the sources where the author gathered his or her pieces of evidence be verified by simply looking at the
coherence of the publication dates with the forms and contents?

Internal Criticism
 process focuses on the credibility, validity, and worth of the material’s contents
 looking at the source of the author, its context, the agenda behind its creation, the knowledge which informed
it, and its intended purpose
 the following principles are being utilized:
1. Judging a historian of being ignorant of certain events at points inadmissible.
2. Reading and looking historical evidence in contemporary conceptions is erroneous.
3. Identical errors in various pieces of historical evidence signify the dependence on a common source.
4. Underestimating historical evidence is tantamount to overestimating it.
5. Historical evidence may establish the existence of an idea, but should be subjected to independent witnesses
to prove its reality.
6. Comparing the official and unofficial versions of testimonies is of essence for neither one nor the other alone
is sufficient.
7. If primary witnesses contradict at certain points, one of them may be credible, but both are in error.
8. Central historical evidence, with different points of view, sourced from various primary witnesses is
admissible.
9. A historical document may be credible evidence, yet has no weight to others it mentions.

Relevance of Studying History to Filipinos

 Laboratory of human experience
 Virtual facility provides the preconditions of our civilization aiding historians and students of history to critically
determine the context of the contemporary times through history.
 opportunity to analyze and valuate first-hand information to determine the forces that spurred development of
various societies
 develop certain habits of the mind:
o persisting
o thinking flexibility
o striving for accuracy
o questioning and posing problems
o applying past knowledge to new situations
o gathering data through all senses
o creating, imagining, innovating; taking responsible risks
o thinking independently
o remaining open to continuous learning

 Our nation has experienced a grave decline in the population of citizens

 capable of digesting their own historical narratives intelligently and critically.
 History has been continuously revised and distorted for political ends, and most are not empowered to grasp the
difference between a propaganda and legitimate narrative.
 commences when you begin to open not only their ears and eyes, but hearts and souls during class discussions.
 Studying the past has a higher meaning.
 As our society drowns in an ocean of endless conflicts and controversies, history provides the answers.
 Some of this country’s contemporary problems are either already solved in the past and reoccurred or rooted in
the past and remained unsolved.
 What you need to do is to deal with the complexities of history to arrive with the possible answers that are not
present today
 allows you to travel beyond the horizons of our textbooks; see what the past has to offer in a new set of lenses.
 Studying history in a manner of knowing how the past is analysed, written, and presented will give you a fresher
perspective on how to look at our society in a daily basis.