- "Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline."
The information used to support or refute historical arguments including primary and secondary sources, artifacts, and other forms of data.
Primary Sources: Original documents, images, or artifacts created during the historical period being studied.
Secondary Sources: Interpretations, analyses, or evaluations of primary sources written by scholars or experts in the field.
Bias and Objectivity: Understanding how personal perspective, social context, and cultural background shape the interpretation of evidence.
Historiography: The study of how historians have interpreted and written about particular events or periods in history.
Chronology: The order and duration of events, including the use of timelines, dating systems, and periodization.
Interpretation: Defining and understanding the multiple meanings and possible interpretations of evidence.
Contextualization: Understanding the societal, cultural, and historical context in which evidence was created.
Corroboration: Finding supporting evidence from multiple sources to verify or refute a particular claim or interpretation.
Empathy and Imagination: Using creative and empathic methods to understand the experiences and perspectives of historical actors.
Source Criticism: Evaluating the reliability, credibility, and authenticity of primary and secondary sources.
Evidence-Based Argumentation: Constructing a logical and reasoned argument based on the available evidence.
Historical Methodology: Examining the theoretical and practical approaches to the study of history, including the methods used to collect, analyze, and interpret evidence.
Physical Evidence: This includes objects, buildings, structures, tools, weapons, clothes, and any other physical objects that may provide clues about the past.
Written Evidence: This includes books, letters, inscriptions, diaries, records, and any other written materials that may provide information about the past.
Oral Evidence: This includes interviews, testimony, legends, folktales, and any other oral accounts that may provide information about the past.
Visual Evidence: This includes paintings, drawings, photographs, films, and any other visual documents that may provide information about the past.
Archaeological Evidence: This includes artifacts, bones, shells, pottery, and any other material remains that may provide information about the past.
Anthropological Evidence: This includes cultural practices, language, customs, beliefs, and any other aspects of human culture that may provide information about the past.
Statistical Evidence: This includes surveys, census data, polls, and any other numerical data that may provide information about the past.
Geological Evidence: This includes rocks, fossils, and any other geological features that may provide information about the past.
Legal Evidence: This includes court records, contracts, deeds, and any other legal documents that may provide information about the past.
Environmental Evidence: This includes climate data, vegetation, animal populations, and any other environmental factors that may provide information about the past.
- "The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic by using particular sources, techniques, and theoretical approaches."
- "Scholars discuss historiography by topic—such as the historiography of the United Kingdom, that of WWII, the pre-Columbian Americas, early Islam, and China—and different approaches and genres, such as political history and social history."
- "Beginning in the nineteenth century, with the development of academic history, there developed a body of historiographic literature."
- "The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups and loyalties—such as to their nation state—remains a debated question."
- "The Histories of Herodotus, the founder of historiography."
- "The Roman statesman Cato the Elder produced the first Roman historiography, the Origines, in the 2nd century BCE."
- "Sima Tan and Sima Qian in the Han Empire of China established Chinese historiography, compiling the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian)."
- "Medieval historiography included the works of chronicles in medieval Europe, Islamic histories by Muslim historians, and the Korean and Japanese historical writings based on the existing Chinese model."
- "Figures such as Voltaire, David Hume, and Edward Gibbon, who among others set the foundations for the modern discipline."
- "There has been a shift away from traditional diplomatic, economic, and political history toward newer approaches, especially social and cultural studies."
- "From 1975 to 1995 the proportion of professors of history in American universities identifying with social history increased from 31 to 41 percent."
- "The proportion of political historians decreased from 40 to 30 percent."
- "Of 5,723 faculty in the departments of history at British universities, 1,644 (29 percent) identified themselves with social history and 1,425 (25 percent) identified themselves with political history."
- "Since the 1980s there has been a special interest in the memories and commemoration of past events—the histories as remembered and presented for popular celebration."