ABSTRACT
Why bother? Why study history? Why does history matter? For professionals who teach and research history it provides, let it be said, a source of income and occasionally a very
pleasing one at that. But it is more than that. Most historians are deeply engaged in trying to uncover the past, not only because there are fascinating stories to be told, but also because the telling of the past has enormous contemporary importance. Our understanding of the present relies in large part upon how we view the past, and this vital issue is of concern to us all, whether or not we are trained historians. This recognition lies at the very heart of what we would describe as historical imagination - an imagination possessed by all those
who look to the past as a means o f understanding their place in the contemporary world. Something of this spirit is captured by the comic writer and raconteur, Stephen Fry:
This does not address the question o f precisely what history is. Put simply, history is the study o f the past, but as you make your way through this chapter, indeed this book, you will realise such simplicities mask some complex issues. Note, for example, that there is ambiguity in the term ‘history’. When we talk of ‘history’, do we mean the past? Or do
we mean what is written and taught about the past - historiography? It is usually clear from the context which meaning we are using, but the very fact that we have the same term to describe both meanings says something rather important. Studying history at a more
relationship between the past and what is written and taught about the past. Fry defines history and historians in a promiscuous way (as writers about the past) and that too will be the approach o f this chapter as we seek to get at the essence of our subject and why we are or why we want to be historians. In particular we shall examine the extent to which history as a discipline can be seen, crudely put, as either a science or an art and the implications for taking one view over the other.
