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A historian is an individual who studies history and who writes on history.^[1] The person may be an authority (or expert) over history,<ref name="wordnetprinceton" /> but this is not a requirement. Most generally, historians are the writers, compilers and narrators of history.^[2] Historians are concerned with the continuous, systematic 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 degrees in the discipline.^[3] Some historians, though, are recognized by equivalent training and experience in the field.<ref name="HermanAM" /> 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. The professional association of historians in the United States is the American Historical Association, founded in 1884.

Historical analysis

Main articles: Historical method and Historiography

The process of historical analysis is a difficult one, involving 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, in order to ensure that these narratives will start from the beginning of the world. These prefaces are usually of much less historical interest. 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, as revisionist history, the dismissal of earlier historical accounts through reviewing newly discovered sources and recent scholarship or through parallel disciplines such as archaeology.

Developments prior to the twentieth century

Although references are often made to the ancient writers such as Herodotus, the so-called father of history, or Tacitus (c. 56–c. 117) as historians, their works do not meet the modern standards of impartiality and objectivity. Many of the historians of the past have been called upon to write histories either to furnish a king or a ruling class with a lineage, thereby offering it legitimacy, or to give a people a cultural heritage and sense of identity (see aetiology). This meant that the works of these historians openly mixed oratory, poetry and literature in a way which is incompatible with the contemporary concern for impartiality and objectivity. This does not necessarily devalue their work but does require that their efforts be considered within their cultural context.

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. At about the same time, 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 with its origins and results. But, as it was mainly within living memory and Thucydides himself was alive at the time of many of the events, there was less room for myths and tall tales.

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.

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, though, it mixes fact and legend but was often quoted by later Islamic historians. Al-Jahiz was a famous Arab scholar and historian. Hamdani was an Arab historian and 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 grand 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 turn of the twentieth century, Western history remained notoriously biased toward the so-called "Great Men" school of history concerning wars, diplomacy, science and politics. This point of view was inherently predisposed toward the study of a small number of powerful men within the socio-economic elite. A pronounced shift away from crude Whiggish analyses has started, in favor of a more critical and precise perspective. For example, a common myth is that Thomas Edison alone invented the electric light bulb; a traditional American history might highlight Edison's story at the expense of all others. In contrast, a modern history of Edison mentions all his predecessors and competitors, 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 unrecognized in historiography. Formerly neglected topics have become the subject of academic study, such as the history of popular culture, mass culture, sexuality, geographical culture and the lives of ordinary people. Historians also started investigating the histories of ideas surrounding various categories of people, such as women's studies (including an entire branch of women's history), racial minorities (like African-American history) or disabled people (e.g., a historian's study of the construction of ideas about disabled people and the results thereof, perhaps in a specific historical setting, such as Nazi Germany).

Education and profession

Many historians are employed at universities and other facilities for post-secondary education.^[4] In addition, it is common, although not required, for many historians to have a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in their chosen areas of study.<ref name="blsgov" /> 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 a undergraduate history degree also may become involved with administrative or clerical professions and a undergraduate history degree is often used as a "stepping stone" to further studies such as a law degree.

In popular culture

There has always been a class of "super historians"^[5], who can present their own views to a wider audience. This includes the likes of Leopold von Ranke, Arnold J. Toynbee, Walter Scott, and Richard Wagner.<ref name="BarkerJ" /> But with the advent of television and associated history programmes, there has been an expansion in the popularity of history. Modern examples of "super historians" from this rise in popularity may include Simon Schama or David Starkey.

See also

General:Historiography, Phi Alpha Theta, Social scientist

List of historians: List of historians by area of study

References

Citations and notes

Bibliography

Listed by date

External links

General information