Explanation of historical inquiry and the discipline of history

1. Introduction to the Historical
Discipline

2. This presentation introduces
• The historical discipline, including the
kinds of questions that historians ask
• The variety of primary sources that
historians use
• How to analyze primary sources
• How to use secondary sources

3. Part One
The Historical Discipline

4. Why History?

5. A People Without a History Are Like Wind
in the Buffalo Grass
(Lakota Indians)
• Why is a people's memory of itself essential
to its identity?
• How is the absence of a people's collective
memory like the wind in the buffalo grass?
• What does this analogy tell us about the
Lakota Indians?

6. What Others Have Said
•History is more or less bunk. (Henry Ford)
•Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it. (Santayana)
•History is a people's memory, and without memory man is
demoted to the lower animals. (Malcolm X)
•History is a science, no less and no more. (J.B. Bury)
•History is an argument without end. (Peter Geyl)
•No single man makes history. (Boris Pasternak)

7. How is history different than
other disciplines?

8. Historians Want To Know
• What?
• Why?
• How?
• When?
• Who?

9. The Historian as Investigative
Reporter
• Study the data
• Conduct
interviews
• Hear all points
of view.

10. The Basic Steps of Historical
Analysis
• Identify a historical
problem or an interesting
historical topic.
• Find appropriate sources.
• Analyze the sources by
asking the right questions.
• Create analytical
narratives or histories
about the past.

11. The Big Questions
Historians Ask: Social
How did those originally excluded
from the political process (the
propertyless, women, African-
Americans, Latinos, Asians, gays &
lesbians) win their way into the
democratic system?

12. The Big Questions Historians
Ask: Political
What explains the
decline of new deal
liberalism after 1964?

13. The Big Questions Historians
Ask: Economic
What factors contributed to industrial
development in the Northern states during the
middle of the nineteenth century?

14. The Big Questions
Historians Ask:
Cultural
How have definitions of
success changed over time?

15. Part Two:
Types of Sources
• Primary Sources:
sources written or created
by the historical actors
• Secondary Sources:
findings of someone who
did not observe the event,
but who investigated
primary sources other
secondary accounts to
retell the event

16. Primary Sources
Written Visual Oral

17. Types of Written Primary
Sources
• Memoirs
• Diaries
• Letters
• Government
records
• Newspapers

18. Types of Visual Primary Sources
• Paintings
• Cartoons
• Photographs
• Films
• Television

19. Types of Oral Primary Sources
• Stories and Narratives
• Oral histories
• Anecdotes
• Jokes
• Folk songs
• Radio recordings
• Popular music

20. Part Three: Analyzing Primary
Sources
• Basic Questions to Ask All
primary sources
• The Time and Place Rule
• The Bias Rule
• Assessing the Quality of the
Primary Source
• Special Instructions for
Visual Sources

21. Questions to Ask All Primary
Documents
• Who created the
document?
• What is the nature of the
document?
• When was the document
created?
• Why was the document
created?
• What does the document
mean?

22. The Time and Place Rule
Usually, the closer in time and place a source and its creator were to
an event in the past, the better the source will be. Thus the best
primary sources might include some of the following:
• Direct traces of the event
• Accounts of the event, created at the time it occurred, by
firsthand observers and participants
• Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by
firsthand observers and participants
• Accounts of the event, created after the event occurred, by
people who did not participate or witness the event, but who
used interviews or evidence from the time of the event.

23. The Bias Rule
• Every piece of evidence and every source must be
read or viewed skeptically and critically.
• No piece of evidence should be taken at face
value. The creator's point of view must be
considered.
• Each piece of evidence and source must be cross-
checked and compared with related sources and
pieces of evidence.

24. Assessing the Quality of the
Primary Source
• Who created the source and why?
• Did the recorder have firsthand knowledge of the
event?
• Was the recorder a neutral party?
• Was the source meant to be public or private?
• Did the recorder wish to inform or persuade others?
• Was the information recorded during the event,
immediately after the event, or after some lapse of
time?

25. Special Suggestions for
Visual Sources
• Look for internal clues to
determine when the visual
source was created
• Look at the internal
evidence by dividing the
illustration into parts:
background and foreground,
individuals, objects, or
quadrants

26. Part Four:
How to Use
Secondary Sources

27. Types of Secondary Sources
• Textbooks
• Monographs (published books
on specific topics)
• Statistical tables
• Graphs
• Pictures and drawings
• Historical novels, short
stories, movies

28. Ways to Use
Secondary Sources
• As a collection of facts
• As a source of background material for a specific
time, a specific place, or a specific concept
• As an interpretation to stimulate your thinking

29. Questions To Ask
Secondary Sources
• What is the author's
thesis?
• Is the thesis relevant to
my research?
• How can I determine
the accuracy of the
secondary source?

30. How To Evaluate a
Secondary Source
• Currency
• Authority
• Scholarship

31. Questions to Consider When
Assessing a Secondary Source
• What is the author’s
evidence?
• Does the evidence
support the author’s
thesis?
• What are the author’s
biases? How much
do these biases
influence the author’s
interpretation?

32. Special Questions for
Internet Sources
• Who published this document?
• What credentials does the author claim to have?
• What is the author’s objective in producing the
document?
• How current is the site?
• Do traditional sources of information substantiate
information found in an Internet-based source?

33. Special Questions for
Journal Articles
• When was the article published?
• Who publishes the journal?
• What type of paper is it?
– Opinion paper?
– Empirical study?
– Literature review?
• What is the nature of the supporting evidence
• Is there a bibliography?
•

34. The End