Political history

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Political history or political history is a sub-discipline of historical studies that puts the state and the politically active people at the center of its consideration. In some older research, the term event history was also used (albeit in a rather derogatory way) . In recent research, political history has been expanded to include new methods and questions.

In the historicist historiography of the 19th century political history was the predominant direction of research. The developments in society and culture are mostly considered secondary. Actions of statesmen and stateswomen and governments , diplomacy and international relations , wars and battles were thus the fundamental themes of political history.

The first exception to this was Karl Lamprecht 's conception of cultural history . Lamprecht's conception of a universal history , with its periodization according to the cultural ages, was resolutely opposed by the most important German historians at the end of the 19th century. In addition to methodological objections, such as those in the so-called method dispute in historical science and the like. a. are made by Georg von Below , Max Lenz and Felix Rachfahl , it is the priority, the view favored by the " Neorankeans " that political or state history must have primacy over cultural, economic and social history .

In the 20th century, various currents made the classic political history of pre-eminence in dispute, including the French Annales school since the 1930s, the West German structural history of the 1950s, the historical social science since the 1970s and the new cultural history ( New Cultural History ) since the 1990s . The term "history of events" ( French histoire événementielle ) was used disparagingly by historians of the Annales school in order to set themselves apart from the "classical" history of the 19th century.

In recent political history, however, various aspects of these criticisms have entered and have given rise to efforts towards a “new political history”. In modern historiography, the necessity of political history is no longer denied; on the contrary, it seems to be gaining in attractiveness again, in some cases considerably expanded to include new questions and methods.

In recent German research, the methodology of the so-called cultural history of politics or politics has aroused great interest and is intensively discussed. Both political action and the social and cultural prerequisites for it are considered. In this context, an attempt is made to cover all fields of politics, taking cultural and social historical research approaches into account : Political action is also interpreted as social action and symbolic action is taken into account. However, there is still no agreement on the definition.

literature

  • Peter Borowsky / Rainer Nicolaysen : Political History . In: Hans-Jürgen Goertz (Ed.): History. A basic course . Reinbek 2007 (3rd edition), pp. 527-540.
  • Christoph Cornelißen : Political History . In: ders. (Ed.): History sciences. An introduction . Frankfurt 2009 (4th ed.), Pp. 133–148.
  • Heinz Duchhardt : Political History . In: Michael Maurer (Ed.): Outline of the historical sciences in seven volumes . Vol. 3, Sectors . Stuttgart 2004, pp. 14-71.
  • Ute Frevert : New Political History . In: Joachim Eibach / Günther Lottes (eds.): Compass of historical science. A manual . Göttingen 2006 (2nd ed.), Pp. 152–164.
  • Ute Frevert / Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (ed.): New political history. Perspectives of a historical political research . Frankfurt / New York 2005.
  • Michael Gal: International Political History. Old and new ways . In: Archives for cultural history . 2017, 99 (1), pp. 157-198 ( online ).
  • Michael Gal: International Political History. Concept - Basics - Aspects . Norderstedt 2019.
  • Hans-Christof Kraus / Thomas Nicklas (ed.): History of politics. Old and new ways . Munich 2007.
  • Hans Mommsen : Political History . In: Klaus Bergmann u. a. (Ed.): Handbuch der Geschichtsdidaktik . Seelze-Velber 1997 (5th edition), pp. 197-200.
  • Rudolf Schlögl : Political and Constitutional History . In: Joachim Eibach / Günther Lottes (eds.): Compass of historical science. A manual . Göttingen 2006 (2nd edition), pp. 95–111.
  • Luise Schorn-Schütte : Historical political research. An introduction . Munich 2006.
  • Hans-Ulrich Thamer : Political history, history of international relations . In: Richard van Dülmen (Hrsg.): The Fischer Lexicon History . Frankfurt 2003 (3rd ed.), Pp. 38–55.
  • Siegfried Weichlein : Political History . In: Stefan Jordan (Hrsg.): Lexikon Geschichtswwissenschaft. A hundred basic terms . Stuttgart 2010, pp. 238-241.
  • Tobias Weidner: The history of the political in discussion . Göttingen 2012.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Ute Frevert, Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (Ed.): New Political History: Perspectives of a Historical Political Research. Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 7ff.
  2. ↑ Overviews with further literature: Thomas Mergel, Kulturgeschichte der Politik , Version: 2.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte; Tobias Weidner: The history of the political in discussion . Göttingen 2012.
  3. ↑ Cf. also introductory Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (Ed.): What does cultural history of the political mean? Berlin 2005.