What is History? Theory? How are they tied into the history of our professsion?

I.    History

A.   Investigation of the past

B.  Attempt to Uncover some 'truth'  

C.  Attempt to establish meaning (of the past, of the present)

D.  Theoretically, it is untheoretical (huh?)  

II.    Theory

A.   An idea of the world based on observation or experience

B.  A hypothesis proposed as explanation (OED)

C.  Speculation  

III. The intermix

A.   All history is theoretical

1.    based on evidence, observations and experience

2.    proposes new explanations about the past (hypothesizes)

3.    as history "progresses" old hypotheses either substantiated or refuted

B.  Science versus Rhetoric (Objectivity vs. Subjectivity)

1.    the scientific method; experience (Bacon)  

2.    can history duplicate it? A social science (and therefore truly "objective")  

3.    Move from "the" truth to "a" truth  

4.    Increasing recognition that historians construct identities, meanings

C.  Historical Theories CAN change -- they are not stagnant (historiography)

1.    contexts  

2.    debates within the field

3.    new evidence  

4.    ever-changing process

IV. History not a new phenomenon in the "west"--i.e. this stuff I'm talking about isn't "new-fangled" ways of looking at the profession, but wrapped up in the construction of the profession itself.

A. Ancient historians--Thucydides, Herodotus

B. Renaissance and the "rebirth" of history in the West

C. The Enlightenment

D. "Professionalization" in the 20th century (refer to your Novick chapter)