What distinguishes the historian from the collector of historical facts is generalization.
Interpretation
Historians analyze and interpret historical events, while collectors simply gather facts.
In this quote, Edward Hallett Carr emphasizes that historians go beyond merely collecting data about past events; they actively engage in the process of interpreting and generalizing these facts to derive meaningful insights. This ability to generalize is what distinguishes historians, as it requires a deeper understanding of context, causality, and the broader implications of history, making it a discipline of thought rather than just a compilation of information.
In practice
In a lecture on the importance of historical analysis, I might say, 'As Edward Hallett Carr noted, what distinguishes the historian from the collector of historical facts is generalization.'
History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger's slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him.
History is the long struggle of man, by exercise of his reason, to understand his environment and to act upon it. But the modern period has broadened the struggle in a revolutionary way. Man now seeks to understand, and act on, not only his environment, but himself; and this has added, so to speak, a new dimension to reason and a new dimension to history.
It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.
Poland was the racial laboratory of the Nazis. This is where they started to put their abhorrent theories into practice.
Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.
It's not right to think about all of Jewish-German history as shrouded by the smoke of the crematorium.
Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.
The history of exploration across nations and across time is not one where nations said, 'Let's explore because it's fun.' It was, 'Let's explore so that we can claim lands for our country, so that we can open up new trade routes; let's explore so we can become more powerful.'
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