1. Why study History?

15. Historical generalization.


Generalisation is a process of framing principles, theories, and concepts by establishing relationships between facts. Generalisations can be drawn out from the facts through systematic analysis and interpretation. Though historians have different views regarding the role of historical generalisation, it is widely accepted as an inevitable part of historical research. In the words of Lord Acton “History is a generalized account of the personal stories of men united in bodies for any public purposes whatever”.In the development of historiography, several historians tried to find out general laws or principles in explaining the historical process. Thucydides synthesized historical facts in order to construct general principles based on morality and ethics. A generalization must be based upon a balanced approach. Theories are one of the prominent sources of generalisation in history. Many historical generalisations are driven by life experiences. Historians also derive generalisations from the study of the present. Also, derive generalisations from active data collection and its systematic analysis. In short, “All historians practice generalization anyway”.


There are two levels of generalisations: Lower and Higher.

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  A lower level generalisation is a descriptive statement about the past delivered by the historian after the verification of his various sources and its interpretation. Here, Generalizations are descriptive statements of relationships between two or more concepts. In the presentation of research work, a historian makes several general statements about the past, which he/she thinks are correct.
  
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  Higher-level generalisation aims to formulate general principles, theories, and concepts about the past by establishing relations with the facts. Empirical disciplines, like history use theory to generalize from many specific findings. Ideas are indispensable for generalizations.