TARGET 10+2 Total Questions ~180
HISTORIOGRAPHY SAMPLE
targetlecturerhistory@[Link]/9682688097
I have tried to arrange these notes as per the requirement of the syllabus of JKPSC
10+2 Exam and have come up with these after intensive study of different resources,
so these notes should be of special help to you.
I have used these sources to compile notes for history
Hayden White – Metahistory
R.G. Collingwood – The Idea of History
Romila Thapar – Past Before Us (for Indian historiography)
Heading 1: Meaning and Scope of History (20 MCQs)
Q. “History is past politics, politics is present history” was said by—
a) Lord Acton
b) Seeley
c) Hegel
d) Carr
**Answer: b) Seeley**
Q. Who emphasized the importance of oral traditions in history?
a) Thompson
b) Collingwood
c) Ranke
d) Voltaire
**Answer: b) Collingwood**
`Q. Which of the following best highlights the scope of history?
a) Study of past only for entertainment
b) Study of myths and legends only
c) Study of change, continuity, and human experience
d) Study of kings and battles only
**Answer: c) Study of change, continuity, and human experience**
Heading 2: Objectivity and Subjectivity (40 MCQs)
Q. Which statement best explains the problem of subjectivity in history?
a) Facts exist without interpretation
b) Historians select and interpret facts through their perspective
c) Sources are always neutral
d) Archives never reflect bias
**Answer: b) Historians select and interpret facts through their perspective**
Q. Which of the following is an example of subjectivity?
a) Use of archaeological evidence
b) Use of statistics
c) Selection of facts guided by ideology
d) Use of multiple sources
**Answer: c) Selection of facts guided by ideology**
Q. Who emphasized that “facts do not speak for themselves”?
a) Collingwood
b) Carr
c) Ranke
d) Hobsbawm
**Answer: b) Carr**
Q. Which of the following challenges the idea of “absolute objectivity”?
a) Different historians give different interpretations of the same event
b) Facts exist independently of perspective
c) Sources are always neutral
d) Language has no impact on meaning
**Answer: a) Different historians give different interpretations of the same event**
Heading 3: Causation (20 MCQs)
`Q. Religious interpretation of causation was stressed by—
a) Augustine
b) Ranke
c) Marx
d) Carr
**Answer: a) St. Augustine**
Q. Which concept explains why the French Revolution occurred in 1789, not earlier?
a) Long-term cause
b) Structural cause
c) Immediate cause
d) Contingency
**Answer: c) Immediate cause**
Q. Which is the best example of contingent causation?
a) Decline of feudalism
b) Death of Alexander the Great at young age
c) Growth of capitalism
d) Rise of nationalism
**Answer: b) Death of Alexander the Great at young age**
Positivist, Marxist, Annales, Subaltern Historiography (50 MCQs)
Q. Which historiographical school emphasizes quantification and statistical methods?
a) Subaltern
b) Positivist
c) Annales
d) Marxist
**Answer: b) Positivist**
`Q. Which of the following best describes a major limitation of positivist historiography?
a) Overemphasis on class struggle
b) Neglect of structural and long-term processes
c) Assumption of complete objectivity in historical facts
d) Exclusive focus on oral traditions
**Answer: c) Assumption of complete objectivity in historical facts**
`Q. Marxist historiography differs from economic determinism because—
a) It denies the role of class struggle
b) It emphasizes economic factors as the sole cause
c) It allows interaction of economy with politics, culture and ideology
d) It studies only the elite class
**Answer: c) It allows interaction of economy with politics, culture and ideology**
`Q. Who is associated with the concept of *la longue durée*?
a) Braudel
b) Marx
c) Ranke
d) Collingwood
**Answer: a) Fernand Braudel**
`Q. Which Subaltern historian wrote *Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial
India*?
a) Ranajit Guha
b) Shahid Amin
c) Gyanendra Pandey
d) Dipesh ChakrabartyS
**Answer: a) Ranajit Guha**
Q. “History of mentalities” (*histoire des mentalités*) was emphasized by—
a) Annales school
b) Subalternists
c) Marxists
d) Positivists
**Answer: a) Annales school**
Postmodernism and History (50 MCQs)
`Q. Who is often regarded as the intellectual founder of Postmodernism?
a) Derrida
b) Lyotard
c) Foucault
d) Ranke
**Answer: b) Lyotard**
`Q. Which of the following is a key critique of postmodern historiography?
a) Overemphasis on chronology
b) Reliance on positivism
c) Relativism and denial of historical objectivity
d) Exclusive focus on economic structures
**Answer: c) Relativism and denial of historical objectivity**
`Q. Hayden White is best known for emphasizing—
a) Historical empiricism
b) Narrative and literary structures in history
c) Marxist materialism
d) Positivist methods
**Answer: b) Narrative and literary structures in history**
`Q. Which postmodern concept undermines the idea of a single coherent history?
a) Structuralism
b) Fragmentation of narratives
c) Historical materialism
d) Objectivity
**Answer: b) Fragmentation of narratives**
`Q. According to Derrida, “texts have multiple meanings” because—
a) Authors are biased
b) Language is unstable and endlessly interpretable
c) Facts are always objective
d) Historical context fixes meaning
**Answer: b) Language is unstable and endlessly interpretable**
`Q. Which thinker linked madness and prisons to power structures in society?
a) Derrida
b) Lyotard
c) Foucault
d) White
**Answer: c) Foucault**
