Examples of historical method in the following topics:
-
- Historical
method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which
historians use primary sources and other evidence (including the
evidence of archaeology) to research and write historical accounts of the past.
- Historians continue to debate what aspects and practices
of investigating primary sources should be considered, and what constitutes a
primary source when developing the most effective historical method.
- The
question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method
is so central that it has been continuously raised in the philosophy of
history as a question of epistemology.
- Primary sources may remain
in private hands or are located in archives, libraries, museums, historical
societies, and special collections.
- Traditionally, historians
attempt to answer historical questions through the study of written documents
and oral accounts.
-
- Nineteenth
century excavations at Hisarlik provided scholars with historical evidence for
the events of the Trojan War, as told by Homer in the Iliad.
- The
likely historicity of the Iliad as a
piece of literature, however, must be balanced against the creative license
that would have been taken over years of transmission, as well as the alteration of historical fact to conform with tribal preferences and provide entertainment
value to its intended audiences.
- He is referred to as "The Father of History" and is the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition in order
to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation arranged into a
historiographic narrative.
- Unlike Herodotus, Thucydides did not view his
historical accounts as a source of moral lessons, but rather as a factual
reporting of contemporary political and military events.
- Explain how epic poetry influenced the development of classical Greek historical texts
-
- Among modern scholars it is a matter of debate whether the Aztec narratives of Toltec history should be given credence as descriptions of actual historical events.
- While all scholars acknowledge that there is a large mythological part of the narrative, some maintain that by using a critical comparative method some level of historicity can be salvaged from the sources.
- Some researchers argue that the only historically reliable data in the Aztec chronicles are the names of some rulers and possibly some of the conquests ascribed to them.
-
- While various calendars were developed and used across millennia, cultures, and geographical regions, Western historical scholarship has unified the standards of determining dates based on the dominant Gregorian calendar.
- Methods of timekeeping can be reconstructed for the prehistoric period from at least the Neolithic period.
- The natural units for timekeeping used by most historical societies are the day, the solar year, and the lunation.
- Despite various calendars used across millennia, cultures, and geographical regions, Western historical scholarship has unified the standards of determining dates based on the dominant Gregorian calendar.
- Regardless of what historical period or geographical areas Western historians investigate and write about, they adjust dates from the original timekeeping system to the Gregorian calendar.
-
- Biases have been part of historical investigation since the ancient beginnings of the discipline.
- While more recent scholarly practices attempt to remove earlier biases from history, no piece of historical scholarship can be fully free of biases.
- Regardless of whether conscious or learned implicitly within cultural contexts, biases have been part of historical investigation since the ancient beginnings of the discipline.
- History as a modern academic discipline based on empirical methods (in this case, studying primary sources in order to reconstruct the past based on available evidence), rose to prominence during the Age of Enlightenment.
- The biased approach to historical writing is present in the teaching of history as well.
-
- The earliest comprehensive history of China is the Historical Records, written by Sima Qian, a renowned Chinese historiographer of the 2nd century BCE.
- However, evidence does suggest that the Xia developed agricultural methods and experienced considerable prosperity.
-
- The casting process itself was improved by a new technique, called the lost wax method of production.
- Representations of the real world, in the form of paintings of figures, portraits, and historical scenes, were common during the time.
-
- He thought that only knowledge of eternal truths – including the truths of mathematics and the foundations of the sciences – could be attained by reason alone while the knowledge of physics required experience of the world, aided by the scientific method.
- Since the Enlightenment, rationalism is usually associated with the introduction of mathematical methods into philosophy as seen in the works of Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza.
- Since the Enlightenment, rationalism in politics historically emphasized a "politics of reason" centered upon rational choice, utilitarianism, and secularism (later, relationship between rationalism and religion was ameliorated by the adoption of pluralistic rationalist methods practicable regardless of religious or irreligious ideology).
-
- Furthermore, current events and developments often trigger which past events, historical periods, or geographical regions are seen as critical and thus should be investigated.
- Finally, historical studies are designed to provide specific lessons for societies today.
- All events that are remembered and preserved in some original form constitute the historical record.
- These sources, known are primary sources or evidence, were produced at the time under study and constitute the foundation of historical inquiry.
- In general, the sources of historical knowledge can be separated into three categories: what is written, what is said, and what is physically preserved.
-
- The specifications for the 11th century odometer were written by Chief Chamberlain Lu Daolong, who is quoted extensively in the historical text of the Song Shi (compiled by 1345).
- Movable type enhanced the already widespread use of woodblock methods of printing thousands of documents and volumes of written literature, which were then consumed eagerly by an increasingly literate public.