Historians and their work is honestly a topic I never considered too deeply until recently. Now that I'm thinking of it, though - the amazing part is simply the sheer volume of the evidence they need to go through to make sense of the past. If the rest of us want to research a topic, we need only to go to the library and read what historians have painstakingly put together from primary sources, sometimes in other languages or in writing that is nearly inscrutable. Historians have a large and ever-changing job because they are always finding new pieces of writing, a new picture or painting, or new artifacts that have been in someone's family barn or attic for a hundred years. Each of those things might add a new piece of information to what we "know" about the culture of those who lived long ago. With each new piece of information comes a different puzzle piece, which requires the puzzle to be put together in a different way - perhaps pushing out another piece, perhaps adding to the size of the puzzle, or perhaps creating an entire new puzzle of its own.
Historians' work is essential because as we look back over the past, we can use the issues and solutions of long ago to assist us with the problems we face today.
This is a great analysis of how historians work. It's an ongoing challenge to read and understand the literature that has already been written about a topic, and then add a new twist by looking from a different perspective or from a different community or by finding new sources.
ReplyDeleteFor amusement's sake, I'll note that I wrote an undergraduate thesis on decorative bookbinding in Albany NY before 1840. The only person studying bookbinding at the time had looked at Philadelphia, New York, and Boston so I was able to take his way of working and apply it to a different community.
I never really thought of the importance of historians. i thought is was all just facts and also took for granted all the work that goes into creating a text through primary resources and research. with new materials being found we are able to disprove or prove things with more accuracy.
ReplyDeleteBridget,
ReplyDeleteI agree, historians do have a large and everchanging job searching for the perfect primary source. Well, for us finding primary source will not be painstaking....because we have the Library of Congress for most of our primary needs! Yeah!