Historian

Professional Division, discusses the issue of professional and ethical misconduct in the field of history. Hoffer analyzes the four cases of Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin, and notes that developments within the field of history have affected historians. Such cases of falsification and plagiarism were not surprising, but, in fact, “predictable, perhaps even inevitable,” influenced by the “always contested evolution of historical writing in America” (ix). Therefore, Hoffer has two goals…

II. What is History? History is a record of events and times, especially in connection with the human race. Everything in the universe has a history. It is critical to inquire about the particular brand of history being used as a framework in either written pieces or conversation. Traditional history, or rather the discipline of history, was founded by Leopold von Ranke. Ranke believed that its was a historian’s job while studying the past to be somewhat detached from it. This is necessary…

Throughout history, there have been world events that have happened that we learn about in school, by watching documentaries, reading books at the library, and even flipping through a newspaper or magazine. But how do we know for a fact that the information we are learning is historically correct? Although a majority of what we read is the truth, there are people who change history from what really happened to what they want the world to believe happened. And even if there are truthful articles…

American Author Project: Elizabeth Kostova Although there were many people who tried to re-create Bram Stoker’s Dracula, only Elizabeth Kostova was able to really capture the true essence – albeit 113 years after the original was written in the first place. Even though nobody can compare to the Bram Stoker original, Elizabeth Kostova did entirely get the ideas written down in such a way that it was easy to tell she paid attention to the tiniest of details. Elizabeth Kostova is important to…

Interpretation of the past is an immense task left mostly to historians, who themselves have differing views and methods among each other. In From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods, Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier provide a history of the methodical and theoretical changes that historians have embraced and rejected. Many of these transformations were inspired by other disciplines as well as a reflection of social and political climates. Howell and Prevenier explain the…

Re-Thinking History by Keith Jenkins is a book that takes a critical look at writing history and how historians have individual approaches to history and the past. Jenkins creates a debate about theories, the definition of history, the question of truth, bias, and history as a science or as an art. He asks similar questions as John Tosh and John H. Arnold. All three challenge previous historians and theories. Jenkins even asks readers what method and ideology would they choose to follow, that of…

of the book, Grafton takes the reader backward in time to explore the various changes in history that influenced the development of the footnote. Grafton chose this unique chronology in order to help him reveal to the reader “where, when, and why historians adopted [the footnote’s] distinctive form of narrative architecture.” In choosing a non-linear chronology, Grafton is not constrained by the need to show the evolution of the footnote from a single, “primitive” form to the modern form used…

also urges against the ‘us vs them’ mentality created by mythistory. McNeill explains “The result is mythistorical: the past as we want it to be, safely simplified into a contest between good guys and bad guys, ‘us’ and ‘them’” (McNeill 80). If a historian writes history in this manner, then one group at all times falls short and is made out to look like villains for years to come. An example of this was Columbus’ story, the Colonialist were depicted as noble Christian saviors, and the Natives…

posed in the title of his book, “Why Study History?” He answers this question in eight chapters that talk about the different aspects of history. In chapter one, Fea talks about the role of historians as “revisionists.” Though history can be revealed through simple facts, it is meaningless without a story. Historians try to identify the story behind the facts by following the five C’s: change, context, causality, contingency, and complexity. In chapter two, Fea proposes reasons for why we are…

“The Strange Death of Silas Deane” The object of historians is to tell the facts of the past without changing the details or changing the perspective of the past. Historians serves as couriers between the old times and the modern times. The transition between the past and to the present can create a misconception of what really happened. For example, the death of Silas Deane. Silas Deane wasn’t overwhelmingly popular but served the United States as diplomat. Silas Deane was very determined to…