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Critical Analysis Of E. H. Carr

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What is History? This is the question posed by historian E.H. Carr in his study of historiography. Carr debates the ongoing argument which historians have challenged for years, on the possibility that history could be neutral. In his book he discusses the link between historical facts and the historians themselves. Carr argues that history cannot be objective or unbiased, as for it to become history, knowledge of the past has been processed by the historian through interpretation and evaluation. He argues that it is the necessary interpretations which mean personal biases whether intentional or not, define what we see as history. A main point of the chapter is that historians select the facts they think are significant which ultimately …show more content…

However, Carr rebuts this, as he states that ‘the belief in a hard core of historical facts existing objectively and independently of the interpretation of the historian is a preposterous fallacy, but one which it is very hard to eradicate.’ This statement explains the misconception that history is made up entirely of facts without the interference of opinion and biases. Carr’s argument is that for facts to become historical facts they must be interpreted and analyzed by the historian. This requires the process of selecting facts, evaluating and interpreting them, which inevitable will contain certain elements of personal prejudices. It is based on this reasoning which he therefore claims that facts can only become historical once they have been selected by a historian and this is what makes them significant. He therefore questions the extent to which a historian could be objective as experience could affect what we perceive as being important, meaning that historians are determining what the facts of the past are according to the own biases and agendas, whether they are consciously or unconsciously aware. Hence emphasising Carr’s point that history is an interpretation. He uses several examples to explain this for example it was the historian that decided Caesar crossing the Rubicon was a significant event whilst ignoring the many others that crossed it before and after him. Thus,

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