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historical method

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“Historical method.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/historical%20method. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.

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Faculty of Philosophy   Historical Methodology

Students of historical methodology explore historical records and sources of various different types. The degree programme prepares them for the complex and challenging task of conducting fundamental and contemporary research across historical disciplines.

Auxiliary, or methodological historical sciences are those disciplines and methods which help historians evaluate and analyse historical source materials. The most commonly recognised historical methodologies include: Palaeography (study of historical handwriting), diplomatics, the study of documents, records and archives, chronology (establishing the dates of past events), the study of publications, epigraphy (study of ancient inscriptions). genealogy (study of individuals and families), historical geography, heraldry (study of weapons), codicology (the study of handwritten documents), numismatics (the study of coins), sphragistics (study of seals), and the study of new media (historical E-literacy).

Special Features and Characteristics

Long-term cooperation agreements mean that representatives from numerous important cultural and scientific institutions in Heidelberg, in the region, and across the federal state, are regularly involved in the courses offered across the degree programme. Such actors play a critical role in ensuring that specialist topics with relevance to professional practice are integrated in teaching and learning. Such institutions include the University Library and the University Archives, the Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg. Further afield, across the region and state more widely, the department collaborates with the Worms town archive, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe and the UNESCO world heritage site, Kloster Lorsch. Beyond this, the department collaborates with the German Historical Institute Paris. Students are strongly encouraged to complete work placements during the course in order to gain insight into potential areas of employment. Students are also given the opportunity to develop their practical skills by participating in various field trips.

International research and access to high quality research literature is essential for the effective study of historical methodologies. Students are therefore advised to spend a semester or a year abroad during the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology. This is not, however, a compulsory component of the academic programme. The exchange programmes organised by the Department of History (e.g. Erasmus programmes, European Liberal Arts Network) supports students should they wish to study abroad. Heidelberg University cooperates with a number of universities across the world at which students might spend a period of study. Lectures and courses attended abroad, and any credits gained, may be recognised by the Department.

• Department of History (DE)

The targeted focus on research throughout the course ensures that students of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology become familiar with the basic principles of carrying out independent, academic work. The course is enriched and informed by the experiences of researchers in the specialist research unit 933, “material text cultures”. Lectures and seminars resulting from projects conducted at the Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage (HCCH) also form part of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology. 

Heidelberg University focusses on research in the following areas: 

• Paleography and codicology 
• Diplomatics

Occupational Areas

Graduates of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology are qualified to work independently in a range of sectors, or to continue on to study at Master’s level. Graduates might pursue a career in any of the following fields: 

• archiving 
• historical museums and exhibitions 
• universities and research institutes 
• adult education and continuing education 
• media and communications 
• cultural institutions 
• publishing and libraries 
• journalism and specialist journalism 
• academic work 
• administration and public service 

Many of these fields require students to complete a Master’s degree programme before entering employment. Certain professions require that students gain a doctorate. The Master’s degree programme is therefore designed to meet the needs of students looking to apply for doctoral study, as well as those wishing to enter employment.

Degree variants

Bachelor 25%

I am particularly interested in working with original source material that, at first glance, do not always appear to be comprehensible or even legible. The academic programme in Historical Methodology conveys the necessary skills and knowledge to appropriately deal with records and inscriptions.

Lena von den Driesch, 25, Historical Methodology, 5th semester Bachelor

Further Interesting Subjects

Global History

Latin / Classical Philology

Medieval Studies

Research Methodologies for the Creative Arts & Humanities: Historical research

Historical research.

Definition:

“ Historical method refers to the use of primary historical data to answer a question. Because the nature of the data depends on the question being asked, data may include demographic records, such as birth and death certificates; newspapers articles; letters and diaries; government records; or even architectural drawings.

The use of historical data poses several broad questions:

1. Are the data appropriate to the theoretical question being posed?

2. How were these data originally collected, or what meanings were embedded in them at the time of collection?

3. How should these data be interpreted, or what meanings do these data hold now?"

See Tuchman: The historical method (2004)

• Moore, T. Australia's Bohemian tradition (2010)
• Goodall, H. A history of aboriginal communities in N.S.W., 1909-1939 (2007)
• Kuskens, G. The grandest improvement in the country... (2006)

ECU Library Resources - Historical Research

• The critical historian
• Deconstructing history
• The discourse of musicology
• Empirical musicology: aims, methods, prospects
• Fact and relevance : essays on historical method
• Fortunes of history
• Framing public memory
• The historian as detective : essays on evidence
• The historical method of Herodotus
• Modern methods for musicology
• On "what is history?"
• Research methods for history
• Historical Research Method Library Guide

Further Reading

• Evidence and proof in documentary research
• Historical Methods
• << Previous: Grounded theory research
• Next: Longitudinal analysis >>
• Action Research
• Case studies
• Constructivism
• Constructivist grounded theory
• Content analysis
• Critical discourse analysis
• Ethnographic research
• Focus groups research
• Grounded theory research
• Historical research
• Longitudinal analysis
• Life histories/ autobiographies
• Media Analysis
• Mixed methodology
• Narrative inquiry research method
• Other related creative arts research methodologies
• Participant observation research
• Practice-based & practice-led research
• Qualitative research
• Quasi-experimental design
• Social constructivism
• Survey research
• Usability studies
• Theses, Books & eBooks
• Subject Headings
• Academic Skills & Research Writing
• Last Updated: May 23, 2024 10:35 AM
• URL: https://ecu.au.libguides.com/research-methodologies-creative-arts-humanities

Edith Cowan University acknowledges and respects the Noongar people, who are the traditional custodians of the land upon which its campuses stand and its programs operate. In particular ECU pays its respects to the Elders, past and present, of the Noongar people, and embrace their culture, wisdom and knowledge.

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Historical analysis.

• Edited by: Richard Thorpe & Robin Holt
• In: The SAGE Dictionary of Qualitative Management Research
• Chapter DOI: https:// doi. org/10.4135/9780857020109.n50
• Subject: Business and Management , Communication and Media Studies , Marketing , Social Policy and Public Policy , Social Work , Sociology
• Show page numbers Hide page numbers

Historical analysis is a method of the examination of evidence in coming to an understanding of the past. It is particularly applied to evidence contained in documents, although it can be applied to all artefacts. The historian is, first, seeking to gain some certainty as to the facts of the past. Establishing the facts also gives the researcher a chronology [dialogic] . The second task is to seek to establish cause and effect between those facts in order to understand why things happened. It is important to remember that while the past is the immensity of everything that has happened, history is what we know of the past [hermeneutics] .

Historical analysis is not only applicable to archive-based research. Any management research where the researcher is using documentary evidence, however recent, should bear in mind the principles of historical analysis [oral history] .

The modern concept of historical analysis stems from the move to a scientific approach to history advocated by Ranke and the German school of historians in the mid-nineteenth century. The focus was moved to the rigorous analysis of documents as the material for the re-creation of the past, the perceived historical patterns and an explanation of them. In addition, the emphasis was placed on understanding the context of the past. This understanding should be informed, but not overwhelmed, by the preoccupations of the present, either of society as a whole or of the specific historian (Jeremy, 2002). Classic studies using historical analysis are Chandler (1990) and North (1990).

In a business context, there is a wealth of documentary evidence retained as a matter of routine in archives or current files, which is a prime source of research material [content analysis; narrative research] . However, its interpretation is subject to the same rules of analysis as any other form of historical document. The key rules, adapted for the business context, are as follows.

• When was the document written? Was it contemporary with the event being described, some time after the event or in anticipation of it? The closer the document is to the past event, both temporally and physically, the more reliable it should be.
• Where was it produced? Was it in that part of the organization closely connected with the events under review? A divisional report may have an immediacy of detail, but where the division is seeking to protect or enhance its own reputation, a report may differ significantly from a more dispassionate account prepared by a central function with a wider perspective.
• By whom was it produced? What was his/her position in the organization; what was her/his expertise and motive? A senior manager may produce a more wide-ranging account than a junior manager whose preoccupation and expertise run only to the immediate involvement. Equally, a senior manager may use more diffuse, diplomatic language than a junior professional.
• For whom was it produced and for what purpose? A report issued to a superior may differ from an action memo to a subordinate in its account of events. Is the document seeking to make a case for a specific course of action, or excusing a mistake, or in anticipation of a performance review, either the author's own or that of the document's recipient? In each case the same author is liable to select a very different series of facts involved in a single event, the selection dependant on the story he/she is wishing to tell.
• What is the form of the document? A formal report to the Board is more likely to be the product of careful thought, structured in such a way that it is defensible by the author when reviewed by experienced critics. An informal memo [Page 109] between peers is less likely to be carefully drafted, but for that very reason may be a more accurate reflection of reality than a politically sensitive report. 6. What is not said in the document? The author may consider certain things as so obvious that they do not need to be said, she/he may merely have overlooked them as she/he did not think them significant or she/he may be ignorant of them. The reason for the absence may influence the reliability of the author or reflect some more fundamental fact. For example, the absence of any mention of the impact of a strategy on employees may be significant in understanding industrial relations at that time. In each case an understanding of the wider context of the document is essential to make an assessment of its contribution.

These questions are specifically addressed to text, but they can, with modification, be applied to maps, statistical tables and other records, or even artefacts, in order to determine their evidential value (Marwick, 2001).

In the latter part of the twentieth century the poststructuralist [postmodernism; semiotics] concern with the problems of language put a new emphasis on discourse analysis (q.v.). In particular, the role of power and politics in the selection of language by an author has come to the fore in the interpretation of discourse. There is an emphasis on the location of the author in the hierarchy of the organization if the influence of power on the author's language is to be understood. It has been argued that this is simply a sociologist's belated recognition of what has been understood by historians for centuries (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 2000: 206).

At a more extreme level, there is a postmodernist view that each reading of a discourse could produce a new interpretation; deconstruction (q.v.) (or interpretation) of the text did not lead to understanding meaning, only to an endless deferral of meaning (Munslow, 1997). There is an implication that no history, in the sense of a truthful account of the past, can therefore be written and some postmodernists claimed that therefore any account of the past can be valid. In the light of the reaction to controversial histories, and in particular to those denying the Holocaust, there has been a withdrawal from this extreme view and a return to an assessment of the evidential value of the discourse. However imaginative an interpretation of the past, it must be constrained by the undeniable empirical evidence (Jordanova, 2000).

Theoretical concerns with the validity of positivist research and the inevitably subjective interpretation of documents have raised the question whether truthful history could ever be written. The prevailing view among historians currently is that while we cannot achieve a wholly accurate picture of the past [realism] , nevertheless with scrupulous care in relation to the analysis of sources, the account, even if it is partial and provisional, can be claimed to be the historical truth. ‘The stories we tell will be true stories, even if the truth they tell is our own, and even if other people can and will tell them differently’ (Evans, 1997: 249).

Hermeneutics

Individualism

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