What is political history?
• "political history as a whole cannot exist without the study of ideological differences and their implications” – Joanne B Freeman
• Politics understood through a historical framework
Methodology
• Disagree about subject matter • ‘true politics’ • Agent of change? • Should policy and politics be combined?
20th century
• The supremacy of governments now questioned
• World War One highlighted the ineffectiveness of institutions
• Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931)
Political History
Dr Mark J Crowley E-Mail: MJC83@
Announcement
• No class on 18 April • Next class is on 19 April, 1900-20.30 • No women’s history class today • Next women’s history classes 19 April, 08.00-
The development of political history
• Sir John Seeley “history is past politics, and politics present history” (The Growth of British Policy, 1895)
• History following a linear course?
09.30 and 26 April, 08.00-09.30 in teaching building 5
What is political history?
• “is an idea of the state with a moral and spiritual force beyond the material interests of its subjects: it followed that the state was the main agent of historical change” - Hegel
• Individuals, not institutions were now important
20th century
• Lewis Namier, Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (1929)
• Move away from the ‘Great men’ theory • Individuals are important • Collective biography • Psychological, personal and material factors • What influenced people?
High politics
• Principles are not important • Motivated by belief • Ideas are important • Politicians ‘play to win’
High politics – newer approaches
• Local factors • Individual behaviour within a group • Thought and political action • Emphasis on ‘situation’ • Look at history of ideas or popular politics
19th century British political history
• Influenced by the Liberal (Whig) government • Believed the government improved political
institutions • Claimed responsibility for reforms • Thomas Macaulay ‘History of England’
Influence of ‘ideas’
• J G A Pockock • Quentin Skinner • J W Burrow • analysis of speeches • Placing ideas in the contemporary social
context • Situational necessities
What does it look at
• Single nation • Political development
Challenges
• Social history • Women’s history • Feminist history
New political histories
• New post-Marxist challenge • Challenged reductionist analyses betweenΒιβλιοθήκη High politics
• “the politicians that mattered” – Maurice Cowling, The Impact of Labour (1974)
• ‘situational necessity’ • Rivalry in a small political elite • ‘game theory’