Historiography

  • the study of how history is studied and interpreted

Historical evidence

artifacts

remains

Document sources

academic approaches to source documents

  • OPVL
    • International Baccalaureate (IB) terminology
O Origin primary or secondary source? authentic and reliable?
P Purpose why was the source created? what was the authors purpose
V Value how / why this source is used to understand history
L Limit problems with value, reliability, authenticity of source

Primary source

Secondary source

Academic sources

  • when academics write about history, these are not sources so much as interpretations and evaluations of other sources.
  • that is what a book on "history" does:
    • it evaluates events, people, places, and sources
    • it interprets them
    • it synthesizes them into a presentable format
  • limitations on academic sources
    • academics have their own point of view and may process historical information according to it
    • academics can pick and choose their own sources in order to confirm their preconceived biases on historical events and actors
    • academics may have a specialty that biases or limits their interpretation of history

Macro or "Big View" history

Micro history


Ancient World Historians

External Links: Ancient historiography from livius.org