Unit 1.2 Notes

Question 1

What are the 9 qualities of a historian?

Answer 1

Accurate, patient, tenacious, unprejudiced, moral, honest, imaginative, versatile, and judgmental.

Question 2

What does good history writing require?

Answer 2

Careful cross-checking and editing at every step of the process.

Question 3

What must one do to discover the accurate account of history?

Answer 3

One must erase any preconceived notions as to how something happened.

Question 4

What’s a difficult quality of the historian?

Answer 4

The historian must sincerely want to know what has happened and what the event means, even if their conclusions do not agree with their personal preferences and opinions.

Question 5

Why must historians be imaginative?

Answer 5

Because however hard the historian seeks to discover every detail, they must still fill in the gaps where no direct evidence is available.

Question 6

What are 5 things a historian “should” be, to assist with research?

Answer 6

An archaeologist, an epigrapher, a numismatist, a statistician, and a linguist.

Question 7

What happens if a historian’s judgment is reliable?

Answer 7

They can help protect us from making the same mistakes made in the past.

Question 8

What are the two main types of sources?

Answer 8

Primary and secondary.

Question 9

Why are both types of sources necessary to the historian?

Answer 9

Primary: provides raw materials that can be analyzed and interpreted.
Secondary: give analysis and interpretations that have been made by others.

Question 10

Where does the historian gather their evidence from?

Answer 10

Whatever sources are available: libraries, archives, museums, and archaeological ruins are some of the best.

Question 11

What are the four different types of evidence?

Answer 11

Material remains, oral traditions, pictorial data, and written records.

Question 12

What are 4 examples of material remains?

Answer 12

Bones, tools, weapons, and pottery.

Question 13

What are 4 examples of oral traditions?

Answer 13

Myths, poetry, legends, and songs.

Question 14

What are 2 examples of pictorial data?

Answer 14

Drawings and maps.

Question 15

What are 6 examples of written records?

Answer 15

Ancient manuscripts, treaties, diaries, books, magazines, and newspapers.

Question 16

What is the historian’s process of data classification?

Answer 16

Divide into two main categories: archeological remains and written records. Date the data and analyze it for accuracy. Give an interpretation of the data and draw a synthesis or conclusion from the data.

Question 17

What’s wrong with historical geology?

Answer 17

It assumes “the present is the key to the past,” which is a false assumption, as it suggests that all processes of the past were operating at the same speed and in the same way as they are operating to day, which simply isn’t true.

Question 18

Other than historical geology, what are the other three methods for dating the earth that don’t actually work?

Answer 18

Salinity, sedimentation, and radioactive methods.

Question 19

Why are none of the present methods used for dating the age of the earth reliable?

Answer 19

Because, 1.) we don’t know the exact condition of the earth when it was made, and 2.) the speed of these processes is not constant; therefore, we have no absolute way to calculate the age of the earth or archeological remains, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, for the historian to date objects that have been unearthed.

Question 20

What is the data analysis process?

Answer 20

Testing the genuineness of the source; external criticism; testing the source against “outside information,” as historians have been misdirected through the centuries by unreliable evidence.

Question 21

What are the four ways the author’s meaning and the accuracy of a work can be determined?

Answer 21

Studying the language in which it is written, studying other reliable evidence that covers the same subject matter, finding out who wrote it, and determining whether the writer had any reason to make a false statement.

Question 22

What is 1st Samuel 16:7?

Answer 22

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Question 23

Simplified, what are the six steps of the historical method?

Answer 23

Collection, classification, dating, analysis, interpretation, and synthesis/conclusion.

Question 24

What is the data synthesis process?

Answer 24

The step where the historian has to determine what data is authentic, accurate, complete, and reliable, and how it should be presented.