William Stubbs: The Study Of History

William Stubbs had transformed the study of history to a continuous and research driven university discipline. It is important to note that the study of history was not created by Stubbs as it was present for centuries. However through Stubbs’s work the subject of history began to have an impact for academic studies and future historians. The legacy of Stubbs can be seen through the introduction of the Constitution History of England. Stubbs’s articulates a warning to his audience before reading the history of the Constitution of England as it lists what history was and what it is now to become. Previously history was a topic that was based on a romantic atmosphere and the setting was picturesque with stories of hero’s and fame. Nevertheless, …show more content…
At the beginning of the twentieth century history had just entered in university curriculum and there is a first time that history wants to be scientific. During the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century the prestige of science was the highest point in modernity and that science represented the highest accomplishments of humanity. As a result every subject wanted to be scientific, since history had entered into academia, Burry wanted to separate history from the broad category of literature. What J.B Burry explored in the lecture address provide an explanation what they meant by history as a science. Burry similarly describes Stubbs continuity as “vital importance of citizens to have true knowledge of the past […] that their influence of present and future may be exerted in right directions”. This similar language can be seen Stubbs introduction of the Constitution History of England discussing the scientific component of history that regularly develops a series of cause and consequence. Furthermore, Burry explores what it meant history as a science. Bury explains scientific history need to be trueful and it is acquire through discovery, collection, classification and the interpretation of facts. With the explanation of a scientific history solidifies how historical research methods are methlogical, documentary and objective …show more content…
Bisson’s work was based on an introductory survey of an undergraduate course of Harvard’s core curriculum which creates an area for Bisson’s attempt to test his historical ideas. The significance of Bisson new teaching style offers a major contrast to Joseph Strayer’s modern research graduate seminar. Furthermore, the historical institutions become larger and more diverse as previously before with Joseph Strayer. Many examples of Bisson giving acknowledgement to the Andrew W Mellon and Rockefeller foundations, the Rockefeller study center at Bellagio Italy, Mellon Emeritus Faculty Fellowship and Dean and Students of Christ Church in Oxford and in particular professor Wickham who gives a line by line critical analysis before publication for one another. Since Stubbs’s The Constitutional History of England in the 1870’s history as a academic discipline has undergone a dramatic transformation from a romantic atmosphere to a scientific interpretation that develops through a series of cause and consequences. In the aftermath of Stubbs there was a development of a meta-historical discourse that historians work started to shift and historians build onto to each other work. In particular, Thomas Bisson provided a different narrative from previous historians such as Bury, Cam and Strayer in which Bisson challenges the concept of continuity in history