What is history (Notes)

Resource Description

Who are the historians?

• The identity of historians: biographical details, personal values and beliefs, philosophy of history, approaches to the construction of history, bias
• The context of historians: gender, class, ethnicity, time, place, social and economic structures/change, political constraints, official and unofficial status

What are the historical debates?

• Historical interpretations (including recent histiography) of the issue
• Popular interpretations and perspectives of the issue
• Changing approaches to the construction of the history of the issue

What are the purposes of history?

• The aims and purposes of specific historical debates
• Changing interpretations and perspectives of the aims and purposes of history
• Changing interpretations and perspectives of the role of history

How has history been constructed and recorded overtime?

• Changing methods of historians
• How historians work
• Forms of historical communication: written, oral, visual, audio-visual, multimedia
• Types of history:g. political, social, economic, military, academic, popular, constitutional, national, local, surveys, area and period studies, biographies, psychohistories

How have approaches to history changed overtime?

• The availability of the historical evidence
• The context of historians
• Changing interpretations and perspectives about approaches to the construction of history
• Changing philosophies of history