历史学专业英语09-_Political_History.ppt

Political History Dr Mark J Crowley E-Mail: MJC83LIVE.CO.UK Announcement No class on 18 April Next class is on 19 April, 1900-20.30 No womens history class today Next womens history classes 19 April, 08.00- 09.30 and 26 April, 08.00-09.30 in teaching building 5 What is political history? “is an idea of the state with a moral and spiritual force beyond the material interests of its subjects: it followed that the state was the main agent of historical change” - Hegel What is political history? “political history as a whole cannot exist without the study of ideological differences and their implications” Joanne B Freeman The development of political history Sir John Seeley “history is past politics, and politics present history” (The Growth of British Policy, 1895) History following a linear course? Politics understood through a historical framework Methodology Disagree about subject matter true politics Agent of change? Should policy and politics be combined? 19th century British political history Influenced by the Liberal (Whig) government Believed the government improved political institutions Claimed responsibility for reforms Thomas Macaulay History of England 20th century The supremacy of governments now questioned World War One highlighted the ineffectiveness of institutions Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) Individuals, not institutions were now important 20th century Lewis Namier, Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (1929) Move away from the Great men theory Individuals are important Collective biography Psychological, personal and material factors What influenced people? High politics “the politicians that mattered” Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour (1974) situational necessity Rivalry in a small political elite game theory High politics Principles are not important Motivated by belief Ideas are important Politicians play to win High politics newer approaches Local factors Individual behaviour within a group Thought and political action Emphasis on situation Look at history of ideas or popular politics Influence of ideas J G A Pockock Quentin Skinner J W Burrow analysis of speeches Placing ideas in the contemporary social context Situational necessities What does it look at Single nation Political development Challenges Social history Womens history Feminist history New political histories New post-Marxist challenge Challenged reductionist analyses between social class and political allegiances But Marxism wasnt strong in Britain! E P Thompsons influence was greatest The future direction? G M Trevelyan described social history as the history of a people with the politics left out Did this because political history was written without reference to their social environment What happened? Greater emphasis on culture Postmodernism (Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault) Jacques Derrida “Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of methodology” Michel Foucault “The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re- examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re- evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will where he has his role as citizen to play.” Advantages Avoids class or personal interests Takes political ideas seriously Opposition Postmodernists criticise the obsession with elite politics Political historians criticise postmodernists for being nave The result 2 types of political history Elite politics Popular politics Are these really separate? Can it incorporate these two beliefs? Criticisms of the state Neo-liberalism criticised Purpose of politics questioned Decline of the nation state? What it needs to do Explain change over time Combine several elements of society Explain power relationships Integrate new meth