Historicism is a form of awareness which is socially motivated by the views of the past. It is regarded as a modified approach in the historical framework of studying the past. In its nature historicism is an intellectual movement widely viewed as having emerged in the 19th century Germany and finding various intentions and spread all over the Western world. Definitions of historicism propagated by various historians are important in exhuming the solid meaning of historicism. It is also important to construct the strengths and weaknesses of historicism in the context of its significance in the study of past. Above all it is fundamental important to highlights etymological origins of historicism as a way of creating solid flow of this study.

Historicism derives from the German word Historismus which refers to fundamental premise that the autonomy of the past must be respected[footnoteRef:2]. An underlying notion is that each age is a unique manifestation of human spirit with its own culture. The motive behind this can be expressed as a need to eliminate problems of anachronism, a historical inaccuracy in which elements from one historical period (usually the present) are inserted into earlier one such as use of modern language or attitudes in historical films and dramas[footnoteRef:3]. This can be regarded as a strength of historicism in terms of its endeavors of contextualizing past and its original elements as means of creating a free distorted past understanding. However this disband the intimacy of the past and present which is regarded as the essence in the historical framework. [2: J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History 4th Edition, p8.] [3: ibid, p9.]

Historicism is said to be more than an antiquarian rallying cry. This might be due to its nature of developments like during the enlightenment period, an era characterized by critical and rational type of history. In fact historians like Leopold von Ranke suggested historicism as a shape in creation against the present minded devaluation of the past[footnoteRef:4]. In that note historicism is regarded as an aspiration to re-create the past. [4: Ibid, p20.]

It is important to highlight the weaknesses associated with Germany historicism. In this point, it is said that German historicism was closely associated with a school of political thought, best represented by Hegel which endowed the concept of elitist history[footnoteRef:5]. This intention said to be one its weakness with regards to Annales School which challenge political and diplomatic history[footnoteRef:6], as way of creating total historical past in this context. In that same note, though Von Ranke is being applauded for a plausible definition of historicism (which points it out as a strictly empirical approach to historical scholarship which demanded an outmost value to understand the past through its own values[footnoteRef:7]), he is being criticized for overemphasizing on the use of archival sources in his form of historicism, thereby agitating for political thought historicism which is therefore one of its merits. [5: Ibid, p117.] [6: I. Sarelieva, Cultural History: Disciplinary Borderlands in The Time of Boarder Scrapping] [7: GG Iggler and HP Liebel, Rise German Historicism, p16.]

Historicism as an idea is founded upon the principle that the truth of the past is by humanism and not by nature[footnoteRef:8]. In other words history is made by humans thereby it reflects human intentions. In that note historicism suspends out the influence of divine or supernatural matters which therefore creates a tangible form of historical past. This therefore supports the view that history is a science of its own and that it enjoys autonomy and sovereignty in the realm of historical facts. However this is being challenged by Von Rankes understanding which draws in the influence of gods in the historical past as a prominent feature which should not be ignored[footnoteRef:9]. [8: R Kroner, History and Historicism,p131] [9: J. Tosh, The Pursuit of History 4th Edition, p47.]

Karl Popper [footnoteRef:10]defined historicism as an ideological theory of human nature to explain how history had developed and determined its destiny[footnoteRef:11]. In that line, historicism has to do with explanation or evaluation of the past by means of history. According to Hegel, in order to understand past society and its human activities, one has to grasps its history and forces that shaped it[footnoteRef:12]. These forces might include culture though there is inconclusive debate about which shapes which between culture and humanity. In that note, historicism holds that historical knowledge is relative to the standpoint of the historian in the integrated system of understanding pasts and its motives or developments. This therefore creates a rich understanding of the past in the present via future though this is not directly mentioned under historicism. This is due to the fact that historicism in its nature strongly emphasize closely scrutiny to the past through every element which detailed to its development. [10: K Popper, The Poverty of Historicism] [11: ED Lee and RN Beck, The Meaning of Historicism, p569.] [12: D Smith and J Scruggs, etal. Anthropological Theories]

Vico argued that under historicism all researches must focus on those historical events that were motivated by human agency, so that the study of the sources will provide documentary evidence of the ideas, plans, actions and intended developmental consequences of the past in its own terms[footnoteRef:13]. This therefore means that historicism as a theory presupposes an attitude to the past requiring a certain historical sensibility through which historians cultivate their own intuition in order to make sense of the past rather than impose their current view on it. However Vicos contribution does not quite clearly outlines whether the events are major or minor. However in a broader sense, the accountability of both is vital. [13: A Budd,The Modern Historiography Reader: Western Sources, p514.]

Furthermore, Oakeshott describes historicism as the writing of past through an act of discover from fragmentary survivals like reconstructing a cultural context that conducting an experiment under laboratory conditions[footnoteRef:14]. In that notion, Benedetto and Collingwood agreed that historicism in its nature proves historical past to be an act of thought within rational structures[footnoteRef:15]. This outlines a strength of historicism in the suspension of the radical subjectivism. [14: P Hamilton, Historicism, p154] [15: R Kroner,,History and Historicism, p136.]

Historicism can be understood as a pre occupation with devotion to the past and with everything old and antiquarian[footnoteRef:16]. In that notion, historicism represents not only the development of cultural world view but it also authorizes a metaphysical reading of history which both determines and undermines modern and past thought. This intellectual revolution is greatly confined to the evolutionary activity carried out in the Enlightenment by enlightenment thinkers[footnoteRef:17]. This therefore overshadows the influence of great historians like Herodotus whose contributions existed before this mentioned era as their writings were so influential in the development of historicism[footnoteRef:18]. [16: PH Reil, The Germany Enlightenment and The Rise of Historicism, p8.] [17: Ibid, p2.] [18: P Hamilton, Historicism 2nd Edition, The New Critical Idiom,]

Despite the fact that historicism is regarded as a strong approach to the study of the past through its contents, it has been subjected to limitations such that its attitude it represents Western world and ignores other forms of historicism existed beyond Western. In that matter historicism has become very conditioned and its conclusions are based on historical study of Western culture[footnoteRef:19]. [19: GG Iggers, Historicism: The History and Meaning of Term, p133.]

Historicism is also criticized for its in ability to grasp actual productivity. It is said that the past recorded by history is no longer productive. In that notion historicism is referred as the dead that buries the dead as to recall the past is not call it to life again[footnoteRef:20]. However this statement tends to undermine the broad understanding of history that is history repeats itself. In that case the past determines the present, thus it is being taken as naive to ignore the past as suggested. [20: R Kroner, History and Historicism, p134. ]

The study is also criticized for discovers only past thought and does not yield bases for prediction and cause in natural scientific sense of recording all events and deeds that actually happened as not all human past activities get registered. In that case its limitation has led to the rise of New Historicism which suggests that historical literature should be studied and interpreted with the context of both the history of the author and the history of critic[footnoteRef:21]. [21: D Smith and J Scruggs, etal. Anthropological Theories]

In conclusion it can be said that, historicism as mechanism or ideological approach in the study of historical past is determined by the influence of Germany understanding and that its understanding can be extracted through exploration of various definitions and phenomena under its study. It is also clear through this discussion that historicism is succumbed to strengths and weaknesses depending on the expression of scholarly views, above all historicism through its contributions remains a major historical development of the Enlightenment era.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBudd A,The Modern Historiography Reader: Western Sources, Routledge, New York, 2009.Hamilton P, Historicism, Routledge Prints, New York, 2001Hamilton P, Historicism 2nd Edition, The New Critical Idiom, Routledge, New York, 1996.Iggers GG, Historicism, The History and Meaning of the Term, Journal of History of Ideas, Vol 56 No.1 (Jan 1995) (pp129-152).Iggers GG and Liebel HP, Rise of German Historicism, 18th Century Studies Vol 5 No4 (Summer 1972) pp587-603.Kroner R, History and Historicism, Journal of Bible and Religion Vol 14 No3 (August pp131-134), Oxford Press University.Lee ED and Beck RN, The Meaning of Historicism, Oxford Press University, 1954.Popper K, The Poverty of Historicism, Routledge, London, 2002.Reil PH, The Germany Enlightenment and The Rise of Historicism, University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1975.Sarelieva I, Cultural History: Disciplinary Borderlands in The Time of Boarder Scrapping, Humanities, 2013.D Smith and J Scruggs, etal. Anthropological Theories, University of Alabama.Tosh J, The Pursuit of History 4th Edition,Pearson Education Limited, United Kingdom, 1984.