Following are the questions that came in Board Papers (Textuals and Non-textual)
Chapter 1 . Historiography : Development in the West
Choose the correct option from the given options and complete the sentences.
(1) It may be said that ……………… was the founder of modern historiography. (July ’19; March ’20; Nov. ’20) (Textual)
(a) Voltaire (b) René Descartes (c) Leopold Ranké (d) Karl Marx
Ans. Voltaire
(2) ………… wrote the book entitled ‘Archaeology of Knowledge’. (Sept. ’21) (Textual)
(a) Karl Marx (b) Michel Foucault (c) Lucien Febvre (d) Voltaire
Ans. Michel Foucault
Identify the wrong pair in the following, correct it and rewrite. (March ’19; Sept. ’21) (Textual)
(1) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – ‘Reason in History’
(2) Leopold von Ranké – ‘The theory and Practice of History’
(3) Herodotus – ‘The Histories’
(4) Karl Marx – ‘Discourse on the Method’
Ans. Wrong Pair : Karl Marx – Discourse on the Method.
Correct Statement : Discourse on the Method was written by Rene’ Descartes.
Explain the following concepts.
Annales School (July ’19: Nov. ’20: Sept. ’21) (Textual)
Ans. At the onset of the twentieth century a new school of historiography arose in France, which is known as ‘Annales School’. Annales school gave a new direction to history writing. It was recognised now that history is not only about the political events, kings, great leaders and accordingly politics, diplomacy and wars but also about the climate, local people, agriculture, trade, technology, means of communication, social divisions and their collective psychology, etc. in the historical times. The Annales School was started by French historians.
Explain the following with its reason.
Foucault called his method, ‘the archaeology of knowledge’. (Nov. ’20) (Textual)
Ans. (i) Foucault , in his book, ‘Archaeology of Knowledge’, argued that the prevailing practice of arranging historical events in a chronological order is not right. (ii) He drew attention to the fact that archaeology does not strive to reach the ultimate historical truth but attempts to explain various transitions in the past. (iii) Foucault felt that explaining the transitions in history is more important. (iv) Thus, he called his method, ‘the archaeology of knowledge’.
Answer the following in 25-30 words.
Why is Voltaire said to be the founder of modern historiography? (March ’19 – ’20) (Textual)
Ans. (i) Voltaire opined that along with objective truth and chronology of historical events considering social traditions, trade, economy, agriculture, etc. was also equally important in historiography. (ii) It gave rise to the thought that understanding all aspects of human life is important for history writing. (iii) Thus, it is said that Voltaire was the founder of modern historiography.
Answer the following in detail.
Explain Karl Marx’s ‘Class Theory’. (March ’19; July ’19) (Textual)
Ans. (i) Human relationships are shaped by the fundamental needs of people and the ownership as well as nature of prevalent means of production to meet those needs. (ii) The accessibility of these means to different strata of the society may not be equal. (iii) This inequality causes a division of the society into classes, leading to class struggle. (iv) According to Marx, human history is the history of class struggle, as the class that owns the means of production economically exploits the rest of the classes.