Historical Studies Introductory Handbooks and the matter of the usefulness of knowledge

Abstract

What is the purpose of History? The question can be read as one about the meaning (of the historical process) or usefulness (of the historical studies), because the terms themselves are ambiguous. In Europe, since the middle of the 19th century there has been a kind of book aimed at the education of professional historians. In some of these titles the question about the uses of History was a highlighted one. The matter of this paper is how the main point of the historical purpose was developed in some historical studies introductory handbooks used in Brazil throughout almost fifty years, from the 1940s to the 1990s. The sources of this research are those books, wrote by authors such as Bernheim, Bauer, Langlois and Seignobos, Bloch, Halphen, Hours, Marrou, Commager, Borges, and Cardoso, only to mention some of the most influent ones. The analysis of the speeches indicates the historical sense itself of the historical studies as well as shows that those books could become the place for the diversity of ideas and ideals concerning this branch of knowledge and the human action in time.

Keywords: historiography, handbooks, universities.