ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the history of both as a discipline and as an approach to historical knowledge and also explores some of the fundamental problems faced by historians as they seek to understand past societies. It examines the extent to which history as a discipline can be seen, crudely put, as either a science or an art and the consequences of taking one view over the other. The chapter focuses on the most important –and intractable–question faced by historians, namely, can historians ever explain what happened in the past? It considers how historians have approached the past is that there is no consensus; indeed the topic has remained a contentious one. According to Geoffrey Elton, the successful resolution of all historical problems depends upon the appropriate use of evidence. Elton was thus adamant that the involvement of the historian as a subjective individual, the 'infiltration of historiographical methods' and the 'problem of historical reconstruction' should be 'reduced to a minimum'.
