What Does the Historian Do?
• The historian tries to identify facts about the past and then to come to conclusions about the past.
• She/he objectively and systematically
• finds,
• interprets,
• evaluates,
• and synthesizes evidence.
History is a Representation of the Past
• But representations may be hindered by • lack of ability of historian
• lack of evidence
• historian’s biases
• historian’s interpretation
• sheer desire to present a false picture
Types of History
• History in terms of nations very common
• But many other kinds of history too!
Sometimes Regional History is Studied
• e.g.
– Latin America
– Eastern Europe
– Middle East
– South East Asia
It’s more Fundamental Sometimes
• e.g. a Civilization
• Romans,
• Greeks,
• Europeans during the Middle Ages,
• Moslem Civilization of North Africa,
• Native American Civilization of South America.
Sometimes it’s Periods
– Renaissance
– Reformation
– 30 Years War
– The Enlightenment
– The Dark Ages
More Specific Topics
• Columbus discovering or rediscovering America
• The Vietnam Conflict
• Watergate
• Salem Witch Trials
• Battle of Leningrad
• Battle of Agincourt
Topics are often Categorized
– Intellectual history
– Cultural history
– Social history
– Economic history
– Religious history
– Educational history
• or, indeed, the history of any discipline
Many of these can be Subdivided
• The HISTORY OF WOMEN as a category of cultural or social history
• Historical analysis may be directed toward an individual, an idea, a movement, or an institution.
• However, none of these can be studied IN ISOLATION.
• Ignatius of Loyola cannot be studied apart from the
Counter-Reformation and the whole area of Religious
Teaching Orders.
Sometimes Questions can be very Broad
• What caused societal revolutions in China, France, Russia?
• How have major social institutions, like medicine, developed and changed over two centuries?
• How have basic social relationships, like feelings about the value of children, changed over the centuries?
• Is race declining in significance compared to social class as a major division in the U.S.?
• Why did South Africa develop a system of greater racial separation as the U.S. moved toward greater racial integration?
How Sure Can we Be of "Facts?"
• Historians who challenge generally accepted historical facts are often termed:
– revisionist
– or radical
– or leftist – or new historians.
Example of Revisionist Historian
• Michael Katz contended that one of the primary rationales for education in mid-19th century MA was to serve the economic interests of the controlling classes and to frustrate democratic aspirations.
Facts
• Battle of Waterloo was a fact
• Made up of many smaller facts, i.e. facts as
• Eventscharges and retreats
heads smashed by cannon balls
orders shouted by officers
• Objectsfield guns
Food depots
Corpses
• Also by IDEAS and VALUES held by each of the combatants.
• And each of these facts as event, object, idea can be further subdivided.
NAPOLEON
• We may be reasonably sure of
• his place of birth
• his date of birth
• the physical scene at Waterloo
• But what of
– the morale at the battle?
– the frustration leading to death of ex-emperor?
– the depth of his love for Josephine?
– why he wanted to be emperor?
Interpretation
• Historians rely on records of events that were made by others, e.g.
– journalist
– court reporter
– diarist
– photographer
• These recordings involve interpretive acts.
• They involve certain biases, values, and interests of those who recorded them, i.e. they attended to some details and omitted others.
• Thus, interpretation exists even before historian enters the picture.
Historian adds still another layer of interpretation
• She stresses or ignores certain data.
• She organizes data into categories/patterns.
Historians Often interested in Causation
• What caused fall of Roman Empire?
• What caused American Civil War?
• What caused emancipation of slaves?
– These are not easy questions to answer!!
History often very Specialized
• Historians who study the Depression of the 1930s need to have quite a sophisticated knowledge of economics.
• Historians who study social mobility in the U.S. should be trained in aspects of social science.
• Historians who study farming in Central America must have a strong knowledge of agricultural techniques.
Also Very Important
• Statistical Techniques
• Languages
SOURCES
• Usually limited and indirect.
• Historian is limited to what sources survive -- usually most evidence has been destroyed.
• A surviving building looks different in 1997 than it did in 1790.
• For example, today it's in the "old style"; back
then it may have been very new.
Primary Sources
• EXAMPLES:– George Washington's uniform.
– Book-keeping records of a 1920s tobacconist.
– Anasazi rock drawings.
– Handwritten letter of a 18th century engraver.
– Log book of the Exxon Valdez.
Primary Sources Often Original Documents
• e.g. Manuscripts• Charters
• Laws
• Archives of official minutes or records
• Letters
• Memoirs
• Official publications
• Wills
• Newspapers and magazines
• Maps
• Catalogues
• Inscriptions
• Graduation records
• Bills, lists, deeds, contracts
Often Objects• Relics• Coins• Stamps• Skeleton• Fossils• Weapons• Tools• Utensils• Pictures• Furniture• Clothing• Coins• Food• Books• Scrolls
Also Art Objects
e.g.
• Sculptures
• Paintings
• Pottery
Also
• Films
• Photographs
• Buildings
Primary Sources often Oral Testimony
• for example– Jimmy Carter on Iran hostages
– Residents of South Boston on the busing period
– Your grandfather on his boyhood on a Utah farm
Secondary Sources
• Not ORIGINAL sources
• No direct physical connection to event studied
• Examples include: • history books
• articles in encyclopedias
• prints of paintings or replicas of art objects
• reviews of research
Secondary Sources Sometimes Categorized As:
• Intentional Documents• e.g. biographies, memoirs and yearbooks
composed deliberately to present record of past.
• Unpremeditated Documents • e.g. novels, paintings, everyday objects, letters
not intentionally created to be utilized for historical evidence at a later date.
Preliminary Sources
• e.g. an index to secondary and primary sources.
• Such sources include Bibliographies, Databases, Encyclopedias etc.
External Criticism
• Check if the evidence is authentic/genuine.
• Researcher must discover frauds, forgeries, hoaxes, inventions.
• Chemical analysis of paint, ink, paper, parchment, cloth.
• Carbon dating of artifacts.
Ask Such Questions As
• Was the knowledge the source aims to transmit available at the time?
• Is it consistent with what is already known about author/period?
• What about beautiful Greek coin just discovered and bearing the stamp of the date 499 B.C.?
Internal Criticism
• Evidence is genuine, but can we trust what it tells us?
• Does document present a faithful/true report?
• Historian must search out BIAS (both "unconscious" as well as "conscious")
• Was document's author a competent observer?
• Was she too sympathetic or too adversely critical?
• Was she pressured to twist or exclude facts?
• Was documentary record made long after events described?
• Does her story agree with that of other witnesses?
Presentism
• The interpretation of past events using concepts
and perspectives that originated in more recent
times.
Very Different Treatments
• Teaching of History in
• Palestinian Schools
• Israeli Jewish Schools
• Zulu Schools
• Afrikaner Boer Schools
Often a Western Cultural Bias
• Most research is conducted by westerners.
• Danger of western cultural bias and ethnocentrism.
Feminist History
• Feminist Historians frequently question male-
dominated assumptions and data on women in
other cultures.
Recent Developments in Historical Writing
• Change from political to social history
• Many studies of• lives of women and children
• slaves
• ethnic groups
• factory workers
• the family, etc.
Quantitative History
• e.g.
• Statistical methods
• Voting records
• Population analyses
• Literacy counts, etc.
