What Is History

The Causes of History

What is History?

by E.H. Carr

Chapter Four: Causation in History

In chapter four of What is History?, E.H. Carr postulates the causes of history, stating that "the study of history is a study of causes." In essence, the cause of history is the why question that historians must ask when dealing with the historic fabric. In the classical tradition, many early historians rejected the necessity of causation, feeling that the event itself was essential enough to be studied. In the modern thread, Montesquieu, writing in the 18th century, commented that the causes of history are responsible for the movements in history (the rise and fall of civilizations, in the general sense). In the late 19th and 20th centuries, many historians have rejected the why in favor of a systematic narrative that approaches how history happened rather than why history happened. In response to this new tradition, Carr emphasizes three characteristics of causation that historians should follow: 1.) Assign several causes to the event (do not be limiting) 2.) Prioritize the causes (major-minor) and 3.) work through simplifications to provide a clean narrative.

The second part of chapter four deals with the determinist school of thought and the chance school of thought. The determinist school of thought states that all events are inevitable and beyond human control. The chance school states that history is a string of accidents and "might have beens.

What school should the historian follow? Is history preordained by events? Is history more accidental? A more appropriate question might be Does man make his times or do the times make the man?

I think that the why is the most important part of the historians craft. The why makes the history worth investigating, it tells us the importance of knowing about the past.