What Ranke believed to be the proper attitude toward the study of history

The attitude that Ranke believed in the study of history is that the study of history must be based on the objective collection and study of archival materials, and then faithfully present the original appearance of history, and this kind of historiography he advocated is called "Rankean historiography".

Historical thought:

1) The core of Rank's historiography is objectivism - "writing straight from the facts". He believed that historians must maintain a transcendent and unbiased attitude of objectivity, and must not be biased for political or religious reasons. The fundamental task of the historian is to ascertain the facts of history and to reproduce in writing what happened in the past. Historians should never have a pragmatic agenda in their research, but should only pursue the truth, and should not criticize or criticize right and wrong.

2), Rank historiography historical research method is the principle of historical material above all. Historians want to find out the truth of historical facts, the only way is to exhaust the source, collect original information and scientific evidence: to examine those "eyewitnesses" is how to record the facts, to let the historical material itself to speak.

3) Ranke's view of history, which came to be known as historicism, centered on the idea of the individuality and uniqueness of history, the particularity of history.

4), History is the activity of emperors and generals. Historians can only use it as a basis for thematic studies to reproduce their activities, but not to make theoretical generalizations. He believes that history studies individual, specific and unique events. It is not the task of historiography but of philosophy to reveal the connections and causal relations between them. Thus, history is nothing but a disjointed scene of the activities of great men, and there is no necessary law in it.

5) Ranke, who was religious in his life, explained history in terms of mystical Christian theology: "In the whole course of history God is omnipresent and everywhere manifest. Every major event in history proves to be the will of God, and every pivotal moment proves that God is in charge."