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What do historians do?
What do historians do? In this free course you will explore some of the ways that historians work to develop our understanding of the past. You will learn about three aspects of the historian’s craft through three topic areas: landscapes, infant health and criminal justice. Through the activities in the course, you will experience a wide range of historical evidence and understand its importance for historians in constructing new knowledge.
This OpenLearn course
is an example of postgraduate-level study and gives some insight into the study
of history you might undertake if you were to study the MA in History (A883/4).
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- appreciate how historians develop research ideas from different starting points
- understand some of the choices and processes involved in researching the past
- have a critical awareness of the wide range of sources historians use for evidence, beyond the textual to include visual, material and physical
- recognise that historians work within longstanding traditions of learning and knowledge construction.
First Published: 18/05/2023
Updated: 18/05/2023
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