An
historian is an individual who studies and
writes about
history, and is regarded as an
authority on it. Historians are concerned
with the continuous, methodical narrative and
research of past events as relating to the human
race; as well as the study of all events in time. If the individual
is concerned with events preceding written history, the individual
is a historian of
prehistory. Although
"historian" can be used to describe amateur and professional
historians alike, it is reserved more recently for those who have
acquired
graduate degree in the
discipline. Some historians, though, are recognized by equivalent
training and experience in the field. "Historian" became a
professional occupation in the late nineteenth century at roughly
the same time that physicians also set standards for who could
enter the field.
History analysis
The process of historical analysis involves investigation and
analysis of competing ideas, facts and purported facts to create
coherent
narratives that explain "what
happened" and "why or how it happened". Modern historical analysis
usually draws upon other social sciences, including
economics,
sociology,
politics,
psychology,
anthropology,
philosophy and
linguistics. While ancient writers do not
normally share modern historical practices, their work remains
valuable for its insights within the cultural context of the times.
An important part of the contribution of many modern historians is
the verification or dismissal of earlier historical accounts
through reviewing newly discovered sources and recent scholarship
or through parallel disciplines like
archaeology.
Historiography in Antiquity
Traditionally,
Herodotus and
Thucydides have been regarded the founders of the
discipline of history, Herodotus usually being called
The
father of History.
Concerning
Herodotus (
5th century BC), one of the earliest nameable
historians whose work survives, his recount of strange and unusual
tales are gripping but not necessarily representative of the
historical record. Despite this,
The Histories of Herodotus
displays some of the techniques of more modern historians. He
interviewed witnesses, evaluated
oral
histories, studied multiple sources and then pronounced his
particular version.
Herodotus's works covered what was then the
entire known world of the Greeks, or at least
the part regarded as worthy of study, i.e., the peoples
surrounding the Mediterranean
. Herodotus was also known for visiting the
various battle sites he wrote about, including the battle of
Thermopylae
. About 25 years after Herodotus,
Thucydides pioneered a different form of history,
one much closer to
reportage.
In his work,
History of the
Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote about a single long
conflict that lasted 27 years between Athens
and Sparta
with its
origins and results. But, as it was mainly within living
memory and Thucydides himself was alive throughout the conflict and
a participant in many of the events, there was less room for myths
and tall tales. Moreover, he had the custom of including
transcriptions of speeches that were supposedly delivered by
historic figures, although, more commonly, they were made up by
Thucydides himself according to what he felt those people should
have said at the moment they delivered them..
Other noteworthy and famous greek historians include
Plutarch (2nd century AD), who wrote several
biographies, the
Parallel
Lives, in which he wanted assess the morality of its
characters by comparing them in pairs, and
Polybius (3nd century BC), who developed
Thucydides's method further, becoming one of the most objective
historians of classical antiquity. Polybius is also credited for
being the first historian to write a History of the World, and to
offer argued explanations and interpretations of history facts, and
not only a record of them. However, the most important historian of
the classical world was
Tacitus (late 1st
and early 2nd century AD). The foremost roman historian, he wrote
an extremely influential account on the first century roman
history, the
Annals;
because of his literary style –sober, elegant, and somewhat
obscure–, the thoroughness of his research –which seemingly
included studying roman imperial archives, and which was heavily
influenced by Thucydides–, and his apparent rigor –for he tended
not to support any character or subject, taking an impartial point
of view–, he was by far the most read and admired historian during
the
Middle Ages, the
Renaissance and the early
Modern Era; thus, his historian style has been
imitated all through the ages, and had a severe impact in
Edward Gibbon and
Montesquieu, usually considered as the first
modern historians.
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand
Scribes (太史令) of the Han Dynasty and is regarded as the father of
Chinese historiography because of his highly praised work,
Records of the Grand
Historian (史記), an overview of the history of China
covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to
Emperor Han Wudi (漢武帝). His work laid the foundation for later
Chinese historiography.
Li Chunfeng was
a Chinese historian who wrote the history of the Jin dynasty.
(漢武帝).
Ibn Abd-el-Hakem was an Egyptian
who wrote the
History of the Conquest of Egypt and North Africa
and Spain, which was the earliest Arab account of the Islamic
conquests of those countries. Much like Herodotus' works, it mixes
facts with legends, and was often quoted by later Islamic
historians.
Al-Jahiz was a famous Arab
scholar and historian.
Hamdani, an Arab
historian,was the best representatives of Islamic culture during
the last effective years of the Abbasid caliphate.
Ali al-Masudi was an Arab historian, known as
the “Herodotus of the Arabs.”
Ibn
Khaldun was a famous
Arab Muslim historian and was
the forefather of
historiography and
the
philosophy of history. He
is best known for his
Muqaddimah
"
Prolegomenon".
Much of the groundwork in creating the modern figure of the
historian was done by
Charles de Secondat,
baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755). His wide-ranging
Spirit of the Laws (1748) spanned
legal, geographical, cultural, economic, political and
philosophical studies and was greatly influential in forging the
fundamentally interdisciplinary historian. Referred to as "the
first modern historian",
Edward Gibbon
wrote his magnum opus,
The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (three
vols., 1776–1788). However, some authors such as Christiansen
regard ancient Greek author
Polybius as the
first historian of a modern kind, criticising sources and making
unbiased judgements based on presumed neutral analysis; indeed,
Livy used him as a source. Polybius, one of the
first historians to attempt to present history as a sequence of
causes and effects, carefully conducted his research—partly based
on what he saw and partly on the communications of eye-witnesses
and the participants in the events.
Twentieth-century developments
At the dawn of the twentieth century, Western history remained
oriented toward the "
great man
theory" of history concerning
war,
diplomacy,
science and
high politics. This point of view was
predisposed toward the study of a small number of powerful men
within a given socio-economic elite. More often than not, this has
been furthered by the traditional
whig
school of thought, which holds that history is "
protestant,
progressive... [and] studies the past with
reference to the present." This has been gradually been replaced
with a more critical perspective. For example, it is a common
misconception that
Thomas Edison alone
invented the
incandescent light
bulb; a traditional history might highlight Edison's invention
at the expense of all others. In contrast, a modern history of
Edison or the lightbulb mentions
Joseph Wilson Swan,
Heinrich Göbel,
A.N. Lodygin, and
Warren De la Rue in order to show that
Edison's activities were one part of a group of inventors and
rivals in the commercial deployment of the technology.
Since the
1960s, history as an academic
discipline has undergone several evolutions. These changes fostered
advances in a number of areas previously disregarded in
historiography. Formerly neglected topics have become the subject
of academic study, such as the history of
popular and mass culture,
sexuality,
cultural geography, and the
lives of ordinary people. Starting in the
1960s--and some would say earlier--
revisionist historians have attempted
to "set the record straight" by redefining the impression society
holds of the past. For instance, in his ground-breaking
Roll,
Jordan, Roll, historian
Eugene
D. Genovese focused not on
white Southern slaveholders--as more traditional historians have
done--but on the experiences of African Americans under
slavery--hence the subtitle, "
The World the Slaves Made".
Edward Said's Orientalism is another revisionist
classic, in which Said examines how and why Western societies so
quickly came to consider non-Western ones as inherently inferior.
One of the most popular revisionist works is
Howard Zinn's 1980 book,
A People's
History of the United States, where Zinn attempts to
discuss all those left out of "great man history": workers, slaves,
women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and leftist political radicals
and activists.
While revisionist history has resulted in the flowering of new
historical approaches and subjects, some historians are divided on
just how positive this change is. Most historians are pleased with
this proliferation of historical subjects and actors, such as the
growth of the history of sexuality and gender analysis--which
includes both
women's history and
the study of masculinity. Scholarship on various ethnic or racial
groups has grown, especially in American history: historians now
focus on the experience of blacks, Asians, and Hispanics in
America, as well as the lives of Irish, Italians, and other
Southern or Eastern European immigrants groups. That said, some
historians have complained of the fracturing and atomization of the
historical field. As historians examine increasingly smaller
subjects, few historians are willing (or able) to tackle all of the
various historiographies relevant to a broader interpretive or
analytic synthesis. Indeed, scholars have been calling for a "new
synthesis" in American history for a good decade now.
Education and profession
Many historians are employed at universities and other facilities
for post-secondary education. In addition, it is common, although
not required, for many historians to have a
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in
their chosen areas of study. During the preparation of their
thesis for this degree, many develop into
their first book, since regular publishing activities are essential
for advancement in
academia. There is
currently a great deal of controversy among academic historians
regarding the possibility and desirability of the
neutrality in historical
scholarship. The job market for graduate historians is relatively
limited. Historians typically work in libraries, universities,
archival centers, government agencies (particularly heritage) and
as freelance consultants. Many with an undergraduate history degree
also may become involved with administrative or clerical
professions and an undergraduate history degree is often used as a
"
stepping stone" to further studies
such as a
law degree.
See also
Notes
- " historian". Wordnet.princeton.edu. Accessed 28
June 2008
- Herman, A. M. (1998). Occupational outlook handbook: 1998-99
edition. Indianapolis: JIST Works. Page 525.
- Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of
History (New York: W.W. Norton, 1965), v, 3-4.
- bls.gov : Social Scientists, Other; This site
delineates the requirements for Social scientists that work for the
various levels of the US Government. (cf., The Ph.D. or an
equivalent degree is a requirement for most positions in colleges
and universities and is important for advancement to many top-level
nonacademic research and administrative posts.)
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