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.