- "Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline."
The study of historical methods and the writing of history.
Historical Methodology: The study of how historians collect, analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources to construct historical narratives.
Historiographical Schools: The different schools of thought and movements throughout history that have influenced how history is studied and interpreted.
Marxist Historiography: A theoretical approach that emphasizes the role of social and economic factors in shaping historical events and movements.
Feminist Historiography: A perspective that seeks to illuminate the role of gender in shaping historical events and narratives.
Postmodern Historiography: A theoretical approach that challenges the objectivity of historical truth and the notion of a singular historical narrative.
Critical Race Theory: A framework that seeks to understand racism and discrimination in historical contexts and how they continue to influence contemporary society.
Environmental Historiography: A perspective which explores the relationship between humans and the environment throughout history.
Intellectual and Cultural Historiography: The study of how ideas, beliefs, and cultural artifacts shape historical events and movements.
Oral History: The collection and analysis of personal, experiential narratives from members of a given society or group as a way of reconstructing history.
Comparative History: The study of the similarities and differences between different regions, cultures, and historical periods.
Marxist Historiography: This approach seeks to understand history in terms of class struggle and economic relations, focusing on the role of socioeconomic factors in shaping historical events.
Feminist Historiography: This approach seeks to understand history from a feminist perspective, focusing on the experiences of women and challenging traditional male-dominated accounts of history.
Whig Historiography: This approach sees history as the progressive development of civilization and scientific progress, with a focus on the growth of democratic institutions and individual rights.
Postmodern Historiography: This approach challenges the idea of objective historical truths, emphasizing the subjective nature of historical interpretation and questioning the authority of traditional historical narratives.
Psychoanalytic Historiography: This approach uses psychoanalytic theory to understand historical events, focusing on the emotions, impulses, and unconscious desires of historical actors.
Environmental Historiography: This approach studies the relationship between human societies and the natural environment, examining how environmental factors have shaped historical events.
Oral Historiography: This approach uses first-hand accounts of historical events obtained through interviews and oral histories, often focusing on the perspectives of marginalized or underrepresented groups.
New Historicism: This approach combines literary analysis with historical research to understand how historical events and cultural texts are interconnected and mutually influenced.
Comparative Historiography: This approach compares different historical events and societies, seeking to identify patterns and similarities across time and place.
Nationalist Historiography: This approach emphasizes the development of national identity and the contributions of a particular nation to world history.
- "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."