CHAPTER 1

HISTORY AND HISTORICAL RESEARCH

DEFINING HISTORY
 HISTORY IS….
• A recitation of unrelated facts that do not contribute to a larger story.
• An agreed upon set of facts or a forever-fixed story that is never
subjected to changes and updates
• A simple acceptance of what is written about a historical topic, event,
or person
• A simple historical chronology of famous dates, incidents, and people
• A strict reliance solely on the past with no examination of how the
past has influenced the present or how it may influence the future
• About one absolute truth, one particular perspective, or one set of facts
and figures.
• A chronological storytelling in its finest form; it sequentially weaves
together many related historical and contemporary events and ideas
that are linked to a larger story.
 DEFINITIONS OF THE NATURE OF
HISTORY
• Interpretative
• Revisionist in scope
• Constant process of questioning
• Integrative of many disciplines
• Inclusive
• Incorporates historiography
• Relevant
 WHY STUDY HISTORY?

• To ourselves
• Identity
• Critical skills
• To our communities
• Vital places to live and work
• Economic development
• To our future
• Engaged citizens
• Leadership
• Legacy
 HISTORY DIFFERENTIATED

• History vs. past

• Past – involves everything that ever happened since the dawn of time
• History – a process of interpreting evidence or records from the past in a
thoughtful and informed way
• History vs. prehistory
• History – the record of significant events that happened in the past
• Prehistory – the period of human activity prior to the invention of writing
systems
• History vs. the other disciplines
• In the past hundred years or so, the ways that we study, write and teach history
have changed dramatically, often because of influence from other disciplines
 HISTORY DIFFERENTIATED

• History, historicity, and historiology

• History – a narrative account used to examine and analyze past events.
• Historicity – the authentication of characters in history, as opposed to legend
or myth
• Historiology – the writing of history, and the understanding of how the
interpretation of historians change over time
• History vs. herstory
• History –(Greek – istoria, historia – meaning “inquiry”, knowledge acquired
by investigation) etymologically unrelated to the possessive pronoun his.
• Herstory – histor written from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of
women or told from a woman’s point of view.
 DEFINING HISTORICAL RESEARCH

• Historical research - comprises the techniques and guidelines

by which historians use primary sources and other evidence,
including the evidence of archaeology, to research and then to
write histories in the form of accounts of the past.
• Historical approach – employed by researchers who are
interested in reporting events and/or conditions that occurred
in the past
 PURPOSES OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH

• To describe and examine events of the past to understand the

present and anticipates potential future effects
• To reach insights or conclusions about past persons or
occurrences
• To help people learn from past failures and successes
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HISTORICAL
RESEARCH
• Focuses exclusively on the past
• Not a mere accumulation of facts and data or even a portrayal
of past events
• Involves process of collecting and reading
• Deals with discovery of data
• Analytical
• Variety of foci
• Records and evaluates the accomplishments of individuals
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
• Advantages
• permits the investigation of topics that could be studied in no other way
• The historical method is well suited for trend analysis
• The research is not physically involved in the situation under study
• No danger of experimenter-subject interaction
• Documents are located by the researcher, data is gathered and
conclusions are drawn out of sight
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
• Disadvantages
• Controlling for many of the threats to internal validity is not possible in
historical research
• The researcher cannot control for threats to internal validity
• Limitations are imposed due to the content analysis
• Researchers cannot ensure representation of the sample
• There is bias in interpreting historical sources
• Interpreting sources is very time consuming
• Availability of sources of historical materials may be problematic
• There is lack of control over external variables
 STEPS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH

• Identifying a topic/subject and defining the problem or

hypothesis to be investigated
• Searching for sources of data and other relevant source
materials
• Summarizing and evaluating the sources the researcher is able
to locate
• Analyzing, synthesizing and interpreting the evidence obtained
and then drawing conclusions about the problem or hypothesis
 THEORIES OF HISTORY

• Cyclical view of history

• Herodutus
• Thucydides
• Petrach
• Machiavelli
• Arnold Toynbee and Oswald Spengler
• Linear view of history
• Augustine
• Voltaire
• Marxist
• H.G. Wells
 THEORIES OF HISTORY
• The great god view of history
• Sumerians
• Babylonians
• Egyptians
• Greeks
• Romans
• Great man view of history
• Thomas Carlyle
• Sir Walter Scott
• William E.B. Du Bois
 THEORIES OF HISTORY

• The best people view of history

• Plato
• Aristotle
• Hitler
• Great mind view of history
• Anaxagoras
• Aristotle
• G.W.F. Hegel
• 18th century rationalists
 THEORIES OF HISTORY

• The human nature view of history

• Thucydides
• David Hume
• E.B. Tylor
• Economic view of history
• Karl Marx
• Gender history
• Joan Kelly
• Post-modern view of history
• Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault
• Other views of history
• Friedrich Nietzche
• Michel Foucault
 QUIZ

1. a person who studies the events of the past

2. a type of qualitative research which involves examining past
events to draw conclusions and make predictions about the future
3. An object made by humans, especially one of historical interest
4. Any view that stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual
in the interpretation of experience
5. Events that occurred before the existence of written records in a
given culture or society
 QUIZ

6. History considered or presented from a feminist viewpoint or

with special attention to the experience of women
7. Information about the past gathered from interviews with people
8. Information in raw or unorganized form (such as alphabets,
numbers, or symbols) that refer to, or represent, conditions, ideas, or
objects
9. Something that proves a belief; something that indicates what
happened
10. The act of producing a work that attempts to depict an accurate
representation of the real past
 QUIZ

11. The belief that history was determined by laws, and the belief that
understanding people and cultures requires an understanding of their
historical events
12. The doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to
culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute
13. The order in which things happen; the arrangement of event in time
order
14. The study of the methods of historians in developing history as an
academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a
particular subject
15. The study of what happened in the past; a record of past events.