Leopold von Ranke

This famous German phrase translates to 'how it essentially was,' and it became Ranke's ultimate standard for historical scholarship. He argued that historians should abandon moralizing and focus strictly on objectively reconstructing the past based on facts. To achieve this, he insisted on using primary sources, particularly original state documents and diplomatic archives.

Ranke specialized heavily in European political and diplomatic history from the 16th to the 19th centuries. He wrote extensive, multi-volume works on the Reformation, the Papacy, and the Ottoman Empire. His first major book, Histories of the Latin and Germanic Nations, published in 1824, focused heavily on the powers of Southern Europe.

Ranke effectively turned history from a branch of literature and philosophy into an academic, empirically driven discipline. He developed the historical seminar system at the University of Berlin, where he trained a generation of students to critically evaluate primary sources in archives. His rigorous source-criticism method became the foundation of modern university history departments worldwide.

No, Ranke's approach was strictly top-down, focusing heavily on states, diplomacy, and the 'Great Men' of history. He believed that the state was the primary engine of historical change and viewed the evolution of European powers as the central narrative of the past. It wasn't until the 20th century that historians like the Annales School began to shift focus away from Ranke's elite-driven political history.