history essay scholarships

history essay scholarships

Exploring the Impact of History on Modern Society: An Essay Collection

1. Introduction: The Relevance of History in Contemporary Scholarship

They are also engaged in broader issues by historians as well as by economists, albeit in this particular set of essays mainly by the former. They address pertinent political themes such as the formation of representative assemblies and constitutional conflicts, and vital economic matters about the size and sources of national income and economic growth of the societies under investigation. Their normative, as well as positive, purpose is to enhance our understanding of both micro and macro questions about each individual case and then to suggest important lessons possibly transferable to other settings as well.

The essays that follow this introduction from past public lectures at Texas Tech University on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta are located within the borders of the political, economic, and social history of specific times and places. They cover a temporal span somewhat wider than 800 years and encompass several states, regions, and civilizations. The first essay focuses on medieval France, England, and Italy, the second analyzes the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War, and the third is concerned with all the regions and economies of the world in the years 1500-1900.

2. Historical Scholarship and Its Influence on Modern Thought

In her contribution, “In Defense of the Present: The Impossibility of History,” the noted philosopher Hannah Arendt criticized the merging of the past and the present and warned that “historicism evicted statesmen from philosophy, whose rightful task it is to attend to the affairs of men as they arise and occur.” A number of essays in the secondary literature have focused on these comments and presented them in the context of a general pleading for the importance of the non-historical, non-theoretical approach to the study of politics and social phenomena. What is lacking in the present Arendt-reception is an adequate comparison of her concept of history and historical consciousness and her views on historiography with the opinions and concepts of history of philosophers and historians with whom she was in dialogue in her later years. These were, of course, influential contemporary philosophers and historians whose views had a significant impact upon our present notions of history, historical evidence, historical epistemology, historical interpretation, and the nature of historical practice. Some of these people—mainly Droysen, Dilthey and Heidegger—created the field of historical method and epistemology as an identifiable research area for modern philosophers and historians, while others—mainly the hermeneutic philosophers and historians, especially Hans-Georg Gadamer—continued to work in the same area. Of course, Arendt, whose reflections on history are interesting in many ways, if only because they uncover no analytical pattern or time scheme of progress, does not contribute to a coherent theory of history herself and her writings leave grave questions unanswered, often unaddressed.

3. Case Studies: Applying Historical Perspectives to Current Events

Among the varied themes we cover are marriage and domestic violence, sex education in schools, political careers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, not only Australian activist protest in the 1980s but retail politics in the 1870s. We provide here the applications of some experienced historians to the resolution of important, contentious, contemporary issues, hoping to offer some new historical perspectives on some of the more contentious current topics of consideration in our society.

The past is not a foreign country; we live there, Don Watson wrote in his 2012 ABC Boyer Lecture series. This essay collection both satisfies Watson’s claim and extends the range of implications of the assertion. The essays cover a range of subjects – cultural change and education, politics and society, traditional military history, the historiography of major historical events – and demonstrate that looking at the past is a vital mechanism for reflecting on and understanding the present. This possibility rests on a range of concerns about the nature of the historian, the nature of history itself, and the nature of the relationships between history and literature, biography, sociology, and other disciplines.

4. The Future of History Scholarship: Emerging Trends and Technologies

1. Introduction The massive expansion undertaken in the domain of historical scholarship over the last century has seen the range of researchers’ interests expand to almost incomprehensible depths. Yet, of the multiple connected promises that the future holds, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) appear especially significant for the world of history. VR and AR redefine the notion of the operator’s interface through enhanced interaction and a sense of “living” within a simulated world. They effectively provide an operator with the ultimate tool for exploring complex databases such as historical databases through immersive data interaction, while supporting an extended sensory interface that might essentially double the subtle aspects of intrahuman communication, such as written expression of thoughts, emotions, and professional intention. A very limited number of historical databases currently exist that have been independently designed to support great learning in rich contexts. Yet, the sheer size of the developing VR/AR market demands that we consider the benefits of a scalable form of research within a field that is not limited to VR/AR databases or commercial stand-alone applications.

The recent introduction of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology devices overseas, accompanied by an increasing diversification of technologies enabling a sweeping innovation in historical presentation, presents an opportunity for the exploration of the emergence of a new interdisciplinary research area. The exploration of the possibilities of this area is the primary focus of the current compilation.

5. Conclusion: The Enduring Value of Historical Inquiry

Numerous historians—and other humanists and social scientists—already analyze a wide range of global challenges. Their work can make substantial contributions to solving those dilemmas. To do so, it must inform broader policy, popular, and educational debates and decisions about our pasts and presents. The historian’s paths to policy and public influence will usually be more indirect and diplomatic than those of other experts, such as scientists often are. Nonetheless, a variety of existing models, tools, and strategies enable historians to bridge them. At the same time, the fundamental—and, indeed, inalienable—urgency remains: historians must keep producing the kinds of groundbreaking and diverse scholarship that address and clarify the pressing questions of our eras. Our history is, after all, our shared heritage: a unique, fallible, and complex guide drawn from countless human and nonhuman journeys, experiences, and wisdom through the ages.

In this conclusion, the authors discuss the enduring importance of historical inquiry as a deep well from which we can draw invaluable lessons to address contemporary challenges. They address the critiques aimed at the academic study of history and clarify the inimitable value of precisely what historians do and know best. The authors accentuate the critical unity of cutting-edge historical and interdisciplinary research for understanding global challenges and for moving us toward a just, stable, and secure world.