HIST 1112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Ali Ibn Al-Athir, Pope Paschal Ii, Pope Urban Ii
Document Summary
When most people think of history, they think of narrative the story itself. Narrative settles on specific details one at a time neither indiscriminately nor as examples of general laws, but usually chronologically, as they happen, woven in a chain of cause and effect. The truth of narrative is different from that of social science, which aspires to generality. The problem with narrative stems from the same factors that make it so appealing. By telling a believable story, narrative bypasses our critical faculties. It gives us little if any room to stop and question. We are carried along, sometimes enthralled, by a story that seems to build its truth one incontrovertible fact at a time. If we accept the legitimacy of the narrator, we have little basis for opening the story to analysis. Of course, not all narrators are interested in telling the truth, and even those who are may make mistakes.
