The Historian's Task

Abstract

The Historian’s task is a delicate one. Historians employ analytical categories to understand the past. We also use theories and categories created within a historical context – almost always a narrative that reflects the values of the ruling elites. We try to navigate both the past and the present in an intricate balancing act to form a coherent bridge of understanding between these two worlds. Historical theories can help accomplish this to some extent. Harold Perkin, one of the great social historians of Britain, told his graduate students, however, that “a little theory goes a long way.” This statement came from a man with impeccable erudition and an intense interest in ideas and ideals. Indeed he structured his magisterial The Origins of Modern English Society and The Rise of Professional Society around a frame-work of ideas that seemed to capture the zeitgeist of society – the aristocratic ideal, the entrepreneurial ideal, and the professional ideal of merit. He understood that a theory should be historical in its application – framed within a specific period of history, applicable only to that time-period, and testable. He might have also warned against employing universal models that are un-testable. A theory, historical or scientific, should be tested. It should not function as an ideological framework to guide the conclusions with an iron hand. Theory is not the plumb line by which we measure how people in the past lived. Evidence from the past is the final arbiter of theory, and not the other way around. In this issue of the British Scholar Journal, we seek to live up to these ideals by following the path of evidence and reason wherever it leads, and by drawing not upon universal categories but a rigorous understanding of specific historical process and context. Historians must be free to follow evidence where they find it. This means historians disagree with each other and debate. The first article in this issue of British Scholar attempts to historicize the writing of imperial history to better understand divergent historical philosophies. Stephen