Historiography
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'''Historiography''' is the study of the way history is and has been written. In a broad sense, history refers 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 describe a body of historical writing. For example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "medieval history written during the 1960s".
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 concerned historians since Thucydides, many trace the modern study of historiography to Edward Hallett Carr|E. H. Carr's 1961 work ''What is History?'' (ISBN 0333977017). Carr challenged to the traditional belief that the study of the historical method|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.
Historiography is often political in nature. For example, much 1960s historiography focused on the exclusion of the roles of women, minorities, and labor from written histories of the USA. According to these historiographers, historians in the 1930s and 1940s had 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.
Basic issues studied in historiography
Some of the common questions of historiography are:
Who wrote the source (primary or secondary)?
For primary sources, we look at the person in his or her society, for secondary sources, we consider the theoretical orientation of the approach for example, Marxist or Annales School, ("total history"), political history, etc.
What is the authenticity, authority, bias/interest, and intelligibility of the source?
What was the view of history when the source was written?
Was history supposed to provide moral lessons?
What or who was the intended audience?
What sources were privileged or ignored in the narrative?
By what method was the evidence compiled?
In what historical context was the work of history itself written?
Issues engaged in so-called critical historiography includes topics such as:
What constitutes an historical "event"?
In what modes does a historian write and produce statements of "truth" and "fact"?
How does the medium (novel, textbook, film, theatre, comic) through which historical information is conveyed influence its meaning?
What inherent epistemological problems does archive-based history contain?
How does the historian establish their own objectivity or come to terms with their own subjectivity?
What is the relation of historical theory to historical practice?
What is the "goal" of history?
What ''is'' history?
Foundation of Important historical Journals (Selection)
1859 Historische Zeitschrift (Germany)
1876 Revue Historique (France)
1895 American Historical Review (USA)
1914 Mississippi Valley Historical Review/Journal of American History (Beginning 1964) (USA)
1916 The Journal of Negro History
1929 Annales. Économies. Sociétés. Civilisations
1952 Past & present: a journal of historical studies (Great Britain)
1953 Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (Germany)
1956 Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Nigeria)
1960 Journal of African History (Cambridge)
1960 Technology and culture : the international quarterly of the Society for the History of Technology (USA)
1975 Geschichte und Gesellschaft. Zeitschrift für historische Sozialwissenschaft (Germany)
1982 Subaltern Studies (Oxford University Press)
1986 http://www.stiftung-sozialgeschichte.de/ new title since 2003: Sozial.Geschichte. Zeitschrift für historische Analyse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts. (Germany)
1990 http://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichte/LHOMME/(Austria) +
1993 http://www.historische-anthropologie.uni-goettingen.de/
Styles of Historiography
Annales School|''Annales'' School
Big History
Deconstruction
Diplomatic history
Feminist History
Gender History
Historiophoty
Historiosophy
History from below
History of ideas
Marxist historiography|Marxist analysis
Metahistory
Microhistory
Numismatics
Oral history
Paleography
Political history
Postmodernism
Prosopography
Psychohistory
Revisionism
Social history
Universal History
World History
Relevant Literature
'''Philosophy of history''':
Frank Ankersmit (ed), ''A New Philosophy of History'', 1995, ISBN 0226021009
E. H. Carr, ''What is History?'' 1961, ISBN 039470391X
R.G. Collingwood, ''The Idea of History'', 1936, ISBN 0192853066
Geoffrey Elton, ''The Practice of History'', 1969, ISBN 0631229809
Richard J. Evans ''In Defence of History'', 1997, ISBN 3579108642
Keith Jenkins, ''Rethinking History'', 1991, ISBN 0415304431
Arthur Marwick, ''The Nature of History'', 1970, ISBN 0333109414
John Tosh, ''The Pursuit of History'', 2002, ISBN 0582772540
W.H. Walsh, ''An Introduction to Philosophy of History'', 1951.
Hayden White, ''The Content of Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation'', 1987, ISBN 0801841151
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ''The Past Within Us: Media, Memory, History'', 2005, ISBN 1859845134
'''Broad histories of historical writing''':
Michael Bentley (ed.), ''Companion to Historiography'', Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0415285577
Michael Bentley, ''Modern Historiography: An Introduction'', 1999 ISBN 0415202671
Ernst Breisach, ''Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern'', 1994, ISBN 0226072789
Peter Burke, ''History and Social Theory'', Polity Press, Oxford, 1992
Mark T. Gilderhus, ''History and Historiographical Introduction'', 2002, ISBN 0130448249
Susan Kinnell, ''Historiography: An Annotated Bibliography of Journal Article, Books and Dissertations'', 1987, ISBN 0874361680
Arnaldo Momigliano, ''The Classical Foundation of Modern Historiography'', 1990, ISBN 0520078705
'''Regional or thematic''':
John Ernest. ''Liberation Historiography: African American Writers and the Challenge of History, 1794-1861''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004
Marc Ferro, ''Cinema and History'', Wayne State University Press, 1988
Ranajit Guha, ''Dominance Without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India'', Harvard UP 1998
Gerda Lerner, ''The Majority Finds its Past: Placing Women in History'', New York: Oxford University Press 1979
Peter Novick, ''That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession'' 1988, ISBN 0521343283
Roland Oliver, ''In the Realms of Gold: Pioneering in African History'', University of Wisconsin Press 1997
Christopher Saunders, ''The making of the South African past : major historians on race and class'', Totowa, N.J. : Barnes & Noble, 1988
Bonnie G. Smith, ''The Gender of History: Men, Women, and Historical Practice'', Harvard UP 2000
'''Teaching History'''
James W. Loewen, ''Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong'', Touchstone Books 1996
'''Journals'''
http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/index.html''History and Theory''
http://www.cisi.unito.it/stor/home.htm
See also
Chinese historiography
Historiography and nationalism
Historiography of science
Historical method
List of historians
List of historians by area of study
Philosophy of history
Plot
Primary source - documents, correspondence, diaries
Secondary source - interpretations, written history
Tertiary source - encyclopedias, almanacs
External links
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/Bibliographies/feminist-historiographyhttp://www.galilean-library.org/int18.htmlintroduced at The Galilean Library
http://www.galilean-library.org/tucker.html explained in an interview with Aviezer Tucker at the Galilean Library
http://www.africawithin.com/schomburg/negro_digs.htmby Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
http://concepts.essential-facts.com/Historiography_and_Historical_methods.htmlhttp://www.history-journals.de/journals/hjg-subject-his.html
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