Although events in history occurred over a long span of time and development, history first became an academic subject a little more than 100 years ago (McNeill 12). Since then, a plethora of controversies appeared regarding how historians, scholars, and intellectuals should examine and analyze history. Among the initial methods of studying history was the scientific research method, or scientific source criticism, which fundamentally extracts valid, legitimate facts from a diverse range of historical sources. Throughout time, however, the facts derived from this method of historical study gradually altered, leading to a new method of historical study: using facts and combining them with opinions and goals to constitute personal interpretations. As Oscar Handlin zealously asserts, historians and scholars should provide a strict examination of history based on a chronological study of known and verifiable facts as opposed to using verifiable facts as the basis for their own interpretation, influenced by their own group, experiences, beliefs, and personal motives. Through implementing a strict examination of history, historians can successfully detect and eradicate bias in their writings, allow the government as well as individuals to gain an insight into the past in order to secure and progress the future, and grasp the magnitude of truth.…
[1] What do historians create with the history they account? History is a story that never ends. The events of the present in essence have already happened in the past. Historians try to make sense of the present by deconstructing the past. Only through analysis of the past can one understand the present. I remember playing cowboys and Indians as a child. I would always play the part of the cowboys, and consequently the cowboys always won. At the end of my day 's adventure I went to my parents to tell them of my conquest against the Indians. I made certain to include every detail of the battle -- from first charge to last saber stroke. History was made that day in my backyard with the green figurinesoldier on horsebackwhose defeat of the Indian nemesis forces was both courageous and honorable.…
This task is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents and is based on the accompanying documents (1–6). Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes of this question. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document.…
Use your research to write a testimonial about the individual’s importance in history. What influence did he or she have on his or her time and place, or on history in general? Describe both negative and positive influences as appropriate.…
When Richard Nixon was elected to the White House in November 1968, the external situation of the United States during the Cold War, has worsened over the years. The nuclear threat was still present. The country was sinking more and more in the Vietnam War in 1968 exceeding the 500,000 men in the field. The political horizon is blocked and the room for maneuver restricted American.…
History is a subject that will remain constant even if we were, by some remarkable turn of fate, to fall short of events to appreciate. The previous century alone will remain of indisputable value to historians for the simple reason that there will always be new interpretations of historical events from every generation, and within each generation from remarkably different individuals with varying contexts. Due to this wonderful circumstance, a variety of intriguing perspectives emerge and spurs further an even greater quest for the truth.…
Like a physicist’s pursuit of a unified theory to explain the universe, a historian searches for a theory that can explain all parts of history without being subject to biases of time, date, and location. I would give this chapter a 9/10 rating; by using examples not from Jacksonian-age America, but from specific historians, authors Davidson and Lytle profoundly demonstrate how theories are merely hypotheses that cannot become laws until they are proved time and time again that they are true. Like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, a historical theory cannot be proven wrong until it a specific example is found where the theory does not work. What we saw with Turner’s frontier thesis was a theory that did not work, so historians from 1893 to now have spent their lives testing their own theories based off of the weaknesses in Turner’s. “Jackson’s Frontier—and Turner’s” was a great model of how a historian’s theory can be impacted by the influences of the times they live in, and how a unified historical theory can not be achieved like a scientific one may be because no two humans think the same; consequently, no historical event can be repeated in the same way a scientist demonstrates an experiment in the lab—history must be intensely discussed and researched, and theories must be made,…
What sources were used in this article? How does this provide advantages and limitations to this study in history?…
History is the procedure used to analyze what was significant about chosen events, individuals, and advancements from the past. Historians utilize distinctive arrangements of criteria to help them make judgements about essentialness. All theories have to base on data. To make the country become better, people needs the data from the past to guide their country to the bright future. The old said: “the one who controls the past controls the future.”…
Analyze, synthesize and interpret history. The nature that current history is contemperoary history …. For ex. The first proffesionalists believed history was a science…. White men believed history was made by other elite men. As times changed, historians began to see that history was a struggle and view of bottom up history…. Before top down.…
Compare and contrast Inga Clendinnen’s interpretation of the purpose of history with the views of at least two other historians you have studied. Make a judgement about the value of these viewpoints…
This question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ point of view. Write an essay on the following topic that integrates your analysis of the documents. Do not simply summarize the documents individually. You may refer to relevant historical facts and developments not mentioned in the documents, although you are not required to do so.…
…histories have sought to challenge the monotone voice of traditional history, not only to find a place for other viewpoints and stories, but also to make historians realise how much they unthinkingly take for granted….…
Margaret Conrad, the President of the Canadian Historical Association, embodies a traditional historian who has “spent a decade or more mastering a discipline” and thus “sits awkwardly” at the thought that “anyone can be historian.” Indeed, as Conrad argues, in this Age of Wikipedia anyone and everyone can own history. This democratisation of history, which has been galvanised by post-modernism, has troubled traditional historians, exemplifying the conflict between academic and popular history. Ultimately, the only way to overcome such a conflict, is for the historian to be “involved in the wider world where many people have a curiosity about the past and a passion for historical research…”…
Historians might disagree, too, as a result of the methods they use to explore their subjects. One scholar might choose to examine slavery by using psychological techniques; another might reach different conclusions by employing quantitative methods and making use of a computer. Because history is an unusually integrative discipline—that is, because it employs methods and ideas from many different fields of knowledge, ranging from science to the humanities, from economics to literary criticism—the historian has available an enormous range of techniques,…