Transcript Historical Research Research Methods & Data College of Advancing Studies Brendan Rapple Types of History  History in terms of nations very common  Sometimes regional history.

Historical Research
Research Methods & Data
College of Advancing Studies
Brendan Rapple
Types of History

History in terms of nations very common

Sometimes regional history is studied, e.g.
 Latin America; Eastern Europe; Middle East; South East Asia

A Civilization:
 Romans; 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
Topics are often Categorized
 Intellectual history; Cultural history; Social history; Economic history;
Religious history; Educational history
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.
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?

What caused fall of Roman Empire?
Facts


Battle of Waterloo was a fact
Made up of many smaller facts, i.e. facts as

Events
charges and retreats
heads smashed by cannon balls
orders shouted by officers

Objects
field 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 exemperor?
 the
depth of his love for Josephine?
 why
he wanted to be emperor?
How Sure Can We Be of "Facts“ or “Evidence”?

Historians who challenge generally accepted
historical facts are often termed:
 revisionist
 or
radical
 or leftist
 or new historians.
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.
Essential to Test and Evaluate Evidence

Free from bias?

Was source capable intellectually to provide a sound interpretation?

Is evidence (and the source’s interpretation) supported by evidence
from other sources?
Historian adds still another layer of
interpretation

She stresses or ignores certain data.

She organizes data into categories/patterns.
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
Very Different Treatments

Teaching of History in
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
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Palestinian Schools
Israeli Jewish Schools
Zulu Schools
Afrikaner Boer Schools
History often very Specialized

Today historians often have a methodological specialization:

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.

Cultural historians must have strong backgrounds in such subjects as
literary theory, anthropology, art history, or musicology.
Recent Developments in Historical Writing

Change from political to social history, from the public life of the nation
to the private life of citizens

Many studies of
 lives of women and children
 slaves
 ethnic groups
 factory workers
 the family, etc.

Thus, race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality have supplanted traditional
political, diplomatic and intellectual history.

There are now no more “people without a history” (Wolf, 1982).

“In reality, for the most part, these earlier historians were concerned
overwhelmingly with a decided minority of the population in terms of
class, ethnicity, region, and gender, and tended to confuse the
history of one group with the history of the nation”
(Lawrence W. Levine, Amer. Hist. Rev. June, 1989)
Change to More “Democratic” History was Resisted

“Today we must face the discouraging prospect that we all, teachers and
pupils alike, have lost much of what this earlier generation possessed, the
priceless asset of a shared culture. Today imaginations have become
starved or stunted . . . Furthermore, many of the younger practitioners of our
craft, and those who are still apprentices, are products of lower middle-class
or foreign origins, and their emotions not infrequently get in the way of
historical reconstructions. They find themselves in a very real sense
outsiders on our past and feel themselves shut out. This is certainly not their
fault, but it is true. They have no experience to assist them, and the chasm
between them and the Remote Past widens every hour . . . What I fear is
that the changes observant in the background and training of the present
generation will make it impossible for them to communicate and to
reconstruct the past for future generations.” (Carl Bridenbaugh, Amer. Hist.
Rev. Jan., 1963 – Bridenbaugh was President of the Amer. Hist. Soc.)
Among Some New Approaches
Cultural History:
 Many dimensions.
Quantitative History:
 Statistical methods

Voting records

Population analyses

Literacy counts, etc.
Feminist History:
 Feminist historians frequently question male-dominated assumptions
and data on women in other cultures.
Biological & Environmental History:
 Studies in nutrition, disease, such elements of the environment as
plants, animals, land, and the atmosphere.
Sources

Usually limited and indirect.

Historian is limited to what sources survive -- usually most
evidence has been destroyed.

A surviving building looks different in 2006 than it did in
1806.

For example, today it's in the "old style"; back then it may
have been very new.
Primary Sources

Manuscripts/Documents:
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, etc., etc.

Objects:
Relics, Coins, Stamps, Skeleton, Fossils, Weapons, Tools, Utensils,
Pictures, Furniture, Clothing, Coins, Food, Books, Scrolls

Also Art Objects:
Sculptures, Paintings, Pottery
Also Films, Photographs, Buildings

Oral Testimony also important as primary sources

Thus, “evidence” or “sources” includes many categories beyond
written texts.
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
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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
date 499 B.C.?
Internal Criticism

Evidence is genuine, but can we trust what it tells us?

Does document present a faithful/true report?
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Was document's author a competent observer?

Was she too sympathetic or too adversely critical?
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Was she pressured to twist or exclude facts?
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Was documentary record made long after events described?
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Does her story agree with that of other witnesses?
Secondary Sources


Not ORIGINAL sources
No direct physical connection to event studied

Examples include:
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history books
articles in encyclopedias
prints of paintings or replicas of art objects
reviews of research
Secondary Sources may Also Be Primary Sources

Note that some items that began their lives as secondary sources
may be used as a primary source for your research.

For example, a 1950's textbook discussing the Civil War and
Reconstruction would not be a primary source about the Civil War.

However, it could be a primary source regarding attitudes towards
African Americans during the Civil Rights Era.