Historiography and Archives Flashcards
What are the two steps involved in collecting data from historiography?
- Survey the “lay of the land” (state of the art)
- Text analysis: Active & Critical reading
What does surveying the “lay of the land” entail?
Understanding what historians have said about the period of interest, identifying different schools of historiography, and compiling a list of relevant publications. The aim is to identify a good-enough sample of the existing literature rather than being exhaustive.
What are some shortcuts for surveying the “lay of the land”?
Utilise resources like journal articles, review articles, collections of survey articles (e.g., annualreviews.com), search engines (e.g., Leiden library, Google Scholar), library catalogues, recent books from university presses, bibliographical essays in books, handbooks, and collections. PhD dissertations and course syllabi can also be helpful.
What are the two aspects of text analysis in historiography?
Active reading involves looking for specific elements, while critical reading requires assessing these elements.
What should active and critical reading focus on?
- Overall Argument: What is the author’s main point and how does it relate to existing literature?
- Argument’s Structure: What are the specific claims and supporting evidence?
- Soundness of Argument: Are there contradictions or assumptions? Does the evidence support the argument?
What are the key considerations when using primary sources?
- Fundamental Questions: What happened and who were the key actors?
- Scholarly Problem: What are the debate’s terms and what evidence have historians used? Is there contradictory information?
- Accessibility: Start with easier-to-access sources like published collections of documents, published primary sources, online institutional archives, and newspaper archives.
How should primary source documents be read?
Begin by piecing together information (e.g., creating a timeline), understanding the key actors’ worldview and actions, and letting sources lead to new questions, actors, and sources. The goal is to develop a sense of the episode’s texture and complexity.
What is sample bias in historiography?
Sample bias arises because historical accounts (historiography) are always influenced by theoretical, personal, and political commitments. This makes it impossible to produce “neutral” accounts that simply report facts.
Why can’t we just rely on primary sources to avoid sample bias?
Even when using primary sources, we still need to create a narrative to interpret events. Moreover, it would be impractical (if not impossible) to conduct comparative work solely based on primary sources. Comparative case studies need to build upon existing research and historical accounts.
What is the challenge for social scientists using historiography as data?
The challenge is not finding accounts that present “the facts” (which don’t exist), but rather navigating different interpretations and biases.
What are Lustick’s four “best practices” to mitigate selection bias in historiography?
Be true to your school
explain variance in the historiography
use quasi-triangulation
practice explicit triage
What is the “be true to your school” best practice?
Acknowledge the existing historiographical landscape, choose publications from one school of thought for the Background Narrative, and be transparent about its theoretical, personal, and political commitments.
What is the “explain variance in the historiography” best practice?
Treat different publications within the chosen school as data points, highlight areas of convergence and divergence, and discuss reasons for discrepancies in interpretations or use of sources.
What is the “quasi-triangulation” best practice?
Construct the Background Narrative with facts corroborated by more than one school of historiography. To enhance persuasiveness, identify key empirical implications outside the chosen historiography and verify their consistency with existing historical accounts.
What is the “explicit triage” best practice?
Clearly indicate the source of each part of the Background Narrative and use footnotes to acknowledge alternative versions of facts, explaining reasons for rejecting them.
