
1. Which of the following quotations from the Hayden White's "Public Relevance of Historical Studies" refers to "practical history?"
~ "(...the kind of historiography written since the time of Herodotus) was still motivated by existential concerns over the traditional topics of myth, religion, and metaphysics (loss, violence, absence, death), and it continued to live a somewhat shabby existence as 'popular' or amateur historiography, and (horrors!) the historical novel."
@ "(...the kind of historiography written since the time of Herodotus) was still motivated by existential concerns over the traditional topics of myth, religion, and metaphysics (loss, violence, absence, death), and it continued to live a somewhat shabby existence as 'popular' or amateur historiography, and (horrors!) the historical novel."
a. "...its own scientificity (or objectivity) consisted precisely in its status as negation of its inferior antitype."
*b. "(...the kind of historiography written since the time of Herodotus) was still motivated by existential concerns over the traditional topics of myth, religion, and metaphysics (loss, violence, absence, death), and it continued to live a somewhat shabby existence as 'popular' or amateur historiography, and (horrors!) the historical novel."
c. "...it claimed authority to criticize and judge the kinds of visions of history found in literary writing, poetry, religion, and myth, and 'ideology' in general."
d. "...historians interested in 'disinterested' study of the past 'as it really was' and 'as an end in itself....'"

2. According to White, the only hope for "professional history" would be
~ According to White, the only hope for "professional history" would be to abandon pretense of objective, scientific historical reporting and bring history writing back to the relationship it once had with art.
@ According to White, the only hope for "professional history" would be to abandon pretense of objective, scientific historical reporting and bring history writing back to the relationship it once had with art.
a. to overhaul its methodologies to better represent subalterns.
b. to use computers to fully obtain objectivity in historical research.
c. to completely disregard any search for meaning behind events.
*d. to abandon pretense of objective, scientific historical reporting and bring historical writing back to the relationship it once had with art.

3. Judging from the text provided, Hayden White most likely belongs to which philosophical school?
~ Judging from the text provided, Hayden White most likely belongs to the postmodernist school of philosophical thought.
@ Judging from the text provided, Hayden White most likely belongs to the postmodernist school of philosophical thought.
*a. Postmodernist
b. Frankfurt School
c. Modernist
d. Empiricist

4. According to White, due to historians' continued valorization of objectivity,
~ According to White, due to historians' continued valorization of objectivity, the public has ceased to believe in "professional" history because it pretends to tell "the" truth; the public has turned to "practical" or popular history instead. The pretense of being able to tell "the" truth, which often does not agree with what the general public believes, has caused historians to lose their moral authority or legitimacy. 
@ According to White, due to historians' continued valorization of objectivity, the public has ceased to believe in "professional" history because it pretends to tell "the" truth; the public has turned to "practical" or popular history instead. The pretense of being able to tell "the" truth, which often does not agree with what the general public believes, has caused historians to lose their moral authority or legitimacy. 
a. ideas such as aliens building the pyramids have emerged.
b. the entertaining romantic narratives of Herodotus have lost popularity with the public.
*c. the public has ceased to believe in "professional" history because it pretends to tell "the" truth; the public has turned to "practical" or popular history instead.
d. history has become one of the complicated branches of knowledge; therefore, history is useless because it is too complex.

5. What does the term "relativism" mean in the following quotation from Hayden White? "Moses notes that many historians think that my 'moral relativism, epistemological skepticism, and failure...to distinguish myth from history' expose me to the danger of seduction by a 'dubious politics' (a code word for 'fascism')...."
~ The idea that no absolute truths exist; what one believes to be true is always relative to one's frame of reference such as culture.
@ The idea that no absolute truths exist; what one believes to be true is always relative to one's frame of reference such as culture.
a. The belief that meaning is derived from a combination of a signifier and a signified.
b. The belief that history should provide some sort of poetic meaning.
c. The idea that reality is dependent on the mind; the objects we perceive are ideals.
*d. The idea that no absolute truths exist; what one believes to be true is always relative to one's frame of reference such as culture.

6. According to White, history in the West was originally seen as 
~ According to White, history in the West was originally seen as both art and science. It "aimed at moral instruction by provision of idealized examples of virtue and vice for imitation, and served as a basis of pedagogy."
@ According to White, history in the West was originally seen as both art and science. It "aimed at moral instruction by provision of idealized examples of virtue and vice for imitation, and served as a basis of pedagogy."
a. an objective science.
*b. both art and science.
c. a poetic force.
d. entertainment. 

7. Which of the following is the best example of what Hayden White calls the "practical past"?
~ The "practical past" is the past that the community believes and which gives meaning to people's lives. If a community collectively believes it suffered a massacre in the past, that massacre has become part of communal identity. No amount of professional historicizing will convince them otherwise. Historical fiction and TV narratives can inform the practical past, but they are not themselves that past. White argues that historians have to write histories that touch people on an emotive level, so that the narratives have meaning for people.
@ The "practical past" is the past that the community believes and which gives meaning to people's lives. If a community collectively believes it suffered a massacre in the past, that massacre has become part of communal identity. No amount of professional historicizing will convince them otherwise. Historical fiction and TV narratives can inform the practical past, but they are not themselves that past. White argues that historians have to write histories that touch people on an emotive level, so that the narratives have meaning for people.
a. A TV show explains how aliens created the pyramids.
*b. A community agrees collectively that its people suffered a massacre.
c. A historian lists quantitative data that demonstrates why an army was able to win a particular battle.
d. A novel with a historical setting explores what life might have been like if 10% of Londoners could perceive and interact with ghosts.

8. Hayden White writes, "The dead can be studied scientifically, but science cannot tell us what we desire to know about the dead. Or rather, those aspects of the past that can be studied scientifically do not yield the kinds of information or knowledge that drives us to the study of the past in the first place." In this quotation, what do we want to know from history but cannot find out?
~ The key to figuring out this passage is provided in the de Certeau quotation. We want to know "the relation of the social to the event, to violence, to the past, to death"--in other words, how the history relates to larger structures of meaning.
@ The key to figuring out this passage is provided in the de Certeau quotation. We want to know "the relation of the social to the event, to violence, to the past, to death"--in other words, how the history relates to larger structures of meaning.
*a. We want to know "the relation of the social to the event, to violence, to the past, to death"--in other words, how the history relates to larger structures of meaning.
b. We want to know "the past as it actually was," that is, the truth.
c. We just want a good story.
d. We want to know what was going on in the inner workings of the dead person's mind, which is why psychbiographies are so popular.

9. White would most likely express disapproval of which of the following authors:
~ White would most likely express disapproval of Leopold von Ranke. Ranke helped launch of the modernist school of historiography, the objective "professional history" that White blames for the decline of history as a discipline. Diamond advocated "scientific history," but his histories also had a great narrative that answered a vexing question about differential development. Thompson's writings helped us understand working class identity. Gramsci helped us understand why genuine working class intellectuals are so rare. In other words, their histories held meaning and provided inspiration.
@ White would most likely express disapproval of Leopold von Ranke. Ranke helped launch of the modernist school of historiography, the objective "professional history" that White blames for the decline of history as a discipline. Diamond advocated "scientific history," but his histories also had a great narrative that answered a vexing question about differential development. Thompson's writings helped us understand working class identity. Gramsci helped us understand why genuine working class intellectuals are so rare. In other words, their histories held meaning and provided inspiration.
a. Antonio Gramsci
b. E. P. Thompson
*c. Leopold von Ranke
d. Jared Diamond

10. What is White suggesting in the following quotation? "The best counter to a narrative that is supposed to have misused historical memory is a better narrative." 
~ The best way to counter unfactual narratives is to produce narratives that have greater artistic force and emotive connection to people's lives (a narrative showing how humans built the pyramids and how that process testifies to human brilliance and human capacity to inflict suffering on others).
@ The best way to counter unfactual narratives is to produce narratives that have greater artistic force and emotive connection to people's lives (a narrative showing how humans built the pyramids and how that process testifies to human brilliance and human capacity to inflict suffering on others).
*a. The best way to counter unfactual narratives (aliens built the pyramids) is to produce narratives that have greater artistic force and emotive connection to people's lives.
b. The world of professional history should adopt the postmodern ideas of Roland Barthes.
c. Historians should demand that the History Channel content be provided only by professional historians.
d. Historical narratives that are incorrect can be countered by narratives that provide more, better, and more convincing historical facts.