The Nature of History by Arthur Marwick

Reviewed by David Freer

Our Story

Everyone has some opinion about history, no matter how ill-informed or biased. Walking

through a parking lot in a university in Miami, I noticed a bumper sticker that said, “Ruin

a Liberals (sic) Day- Recite Historical Fact!” But Marwick thinks this sort of opinion is

just fine; it is inevitable that we all feel a sense of ownership of history. History never

stands still, as Marwick asserts at the beginning of The Nature of History, “The shape and

content of history, too, vary according to the methods and materials available to different

generations.” Marwick’s goal is to explain, in plain language, the changes in the way

history is done up to the present; one method is to connect history with advances in the

physical sciences. Marwick maintains the historiography can be carefully disentangled

from the history; he examines a number of case studies toward the end of the book.

Marwick ends the book with a refreshing collection of aphorisms about history. History

truly belongs to each and every man and we all belong to history; with the proper

education, history can be made more accessible to everyone.

Marwick relates how inventions and the physical sciences have driven historical changes.

Dropping a ball in a vacuum will reveal the same properties each time the experiment is

conducted, providing the conditions are the same. But historians obviously do not have

the luxury of reproducing such conditions; historians view the past through the present

which depends on invention and science. The printing press was a catalyst for change in

the historical profession (p. 28) and Newton’s discoveries created an awareness of the
“processes of change (p.28).” During the Enlightenment the study of history picked up as

it differed from a purely theological interpretation. With Ranke in the 19th century, the

academic profession of history was recognized with Ranke’s emphasis on objectivity and

refraining from judging the past. Comte tried to bring scientific aspects into the study of

society and is currently known as the founder of sociology. Charles Beard represented a

less objective approach to history than the Rankean school which paved the way for

social history. Marwick correlates this with the Einstenian revolution in physics with the

emphasis on relativity.

Marwick spends a chapter of The Nature of History dealing with historical “problems”,

trying to disentangle the actual events from the historiography. First he examines the

Magna Carta which he believes was created with limited intentions but with the

premature death of King John came to mean much more. The symbolic nature of the

Magna Carta as a sign of freedom, would have been created out of another event, had the

Magna Carta not occurred (p. 291). Marwick seems to rely on an inevitability of history.

Physicists need years of study to understand the math necessary to fully comprehend the

theory of relativity. However, history does not require any advanced skills. History is

open to any man. This lack of specialized knowledge allows history to be more

accessible to the public. However there must be guidelines for the study of history.

History must not degenerate into the mere presentation of ‘facts’; it must have “cohesion

and coherence” (p. 323). Marwick believes the writing of a history textbook is a
demanding occupation which must present competing hypothesis. Marwick, however,

describes the student’s using the textbooks as “surviving” the ordeal (p. 214).

By looking at the changing nature of history, Marwick feels the study progressing.

Whereas Ranke was interested in the history of the state, today we have “greater breadth

and sophistication” with the introduction of many new angles to view the past such as the

history of technology and urban history (p. 266). Marwick wonders if there is a paradigm

shift from a numerical approach to a literary approach underway as he wrote the book

(published in 1970). Although Marwick suspects a cynic would accuse a historian of

creating job security with the endless views of the past, he insists it is imperative based

on the philosophy, science, and new materials of the age. History, according to Marwick,

must be for everyone and not remain locked behind the walls of academia.