Historiography Historiography Hungary Category="Historiography"Category="Historiosophy"Historiography can refer to two separate notions about the study of History. In a broad sense, it can refer to the Methodology and practices of writing history. In a more specific sense, it can refer to writing about rather than of History. As a meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past, this latter conception can relate to the former in that the analysis usually focuses on the narrative, interpretations, worldview, use of evidence, or method of presentation of other historians. The term can also be used of a body of historical writing, e.g. "medieval historiography."

Defining historiography

Conal Furay and Michael J. Salevouris define "historiography" as "the study of the way history has been and is written--the history of historical writing... When you study 'historiography' you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians." (The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide, 1988, p. 223, ISBN 0882959824)

Although questions of method have always concerned historians, the modern study of historiography can be said to have its beginnings with E. H. Carr's 1961 work What is History? (ISBN 0333977017) and his challenge to the traditional belief that the study of the methods of historical research and writing were unimportant. His work remains in print to this day, and is common to many postgraduate programs of study in both the United States and in Great Britain.

Much critical historiography in the 1960s focused, for example, on the exclusion of the roles of women, minorities, and labor from written histories of the USA. According to these historiographers, because historians in the 1930s and 1940s were themselves products of their times, their models of who was "important" to history reflected the cultural attitudes of that period, i.e. a bias towards well-connected white males. Many historians from that point onward devoted themselves to what they saw as more accurate representations of the past, casting a light on those who had been previously disregarded as non-noteworthy.

The study of historiography demands a critical approach that goes beyond the mere examination of historical fact. Historiographical studies consider the source, often by researching the author, his or her position in society, and the type of history being written at the time. Historiography that is considered controversial or extreme is often pejoratively labeled as Historical revisionism.

An example

A Primary source is an artifact of a particular point in time. In the 1850s, for example, many Slaveowners in the United States kept diaries and journals about their day-to-day activity. The historian Kenneth Stampp looked at these documents for information about the life of a slaveowner in the 1850s, and also derived information from them on the life of the slaves on the Plantation. He used the documents as primary sources. The book he created, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South, is a Secondary source, a work produced through the analysis of primary sources. If another historian argues that Stampp's history ignores the economic history of slavery, or that Stampp's work overly emphasizes one aspect of slave life, then this historian is using Stampp's book -- originally produced as a secondary source -- as a primary source, an artifact of study. This new work which criticizes a secondary source, is a work of historiography.

Basic issues studied in historiography

Some of the basic questions considered in historiography are:

Issues engaged in so-called critical historiography includes topics such as:

Some recent controversies

The use of particular styles of historiography has a great impact on the conclusions of historians and much controversial history stems from this problem. In recent American history writing, some controversies based on disputed historiography include whether dynastic Egypt was a black, African civilization; whether the Olmec civilization was founded by black Africans; the Periodization of European history; Rate of exploitation of African-Americans during and after Slavery; the role of whiteness in U.S. labor struggles; and the attitude of "good Germans" toward The Holocaust.

Foundation of important historical Journals (Selection)

Styles of Historiography

Literature

Philosophy of history:

Broad histories of historical writing:

Regional or thematic:

Teaching History

Journals

See also

External links