Questions tagged [historiography]
Tag for questions on the study of history itself, such as methodologies or techniques.
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What are the opinions of modern historians on the methodology of ḥadīth transmission and ‘Ilm al-Rijāl used by medieval Islamic scholars?
In the Islamic tradition of ḥadīth sciences (a.k.a. ‘Ilm al-Ḥadīth), a typical ḥadīth consists of the maṭn (the content of the ḥadīth) and the sanad (chain of transmitters). Ḥadīth transmitters in the ...
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Why did so many places only had writing after being conquered by a major empire? [closed]
I have been realizing that this is a recurring pattern in much of history. Many places only had their first written accounts after being conquered by a major empire. Much of Europe (such Spain, France,...
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Is "Lenin’s Testament" authentic?
Context
In 1922, the Communist Party was firmly in control of the USSR (or at least the Russia part of it), and Vladimir Lenin was the undisputed leader of the Party. Lenin was seriously ill and had ...
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In what respect could Italian Renaissance be considered a phase of romanticism?
In what respect could Italian Renaissance be considered a phase of romanticism?
It is stated in this quotation that Italian Renaissance is a phase of romanticism:
It is arguable that the Romantics ...
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How reliable and accurate is the Nuremberg Chronicle?
A certain book publisher (taschen.com) is doing a winter sale, where one of the books on sale is the Weltchronik - 1493 (aka the Nuremberg Chronicle). However, I cannot find any criticism of the work, ...
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When was The Tale of Sinuhe first REdiscovered?
I have found a website that gives the details of all of the sources of The Tale of Sinuhe, but I can't figure out what the actual date of discovery was for each of those sources (in order to find the ...
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How do we know when Nero was born?
If I go onto Wikipedia, I can see an answer of when he was born. But I can't really follow the sources. How do historians know when Nero was born?
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Had anyone envisioned a "wipeout" scenario for Japan in the Pacific for World War II? [closed]
By "anyone," I mean experts such as military or political leaders contemporaneously, or professional historians in retrospect.
By "wipeout," I mean a scenario in which Japan sinks ...
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What is the source for exact years of the Hittite/Egyptian state of war?
The following is an excerpt of a critique on "Reason to Believe":
Critic: Under these conditions, were the Ten Plagues and a total crush of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea waters to happen,...
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How can we be confident that Tacitus really wrote his Histories and Annals?
How can we be confident that Tacitus really wrote any of the works attributed to him, namely his Histories and Annals?
The background here is that when we discuss the historicity and/or accuracy of ...
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Why did some regions end their prehistory much before others?
I would like to know why some places developed writing and thus started to have documented history much later than others, and why did some regions developed civilization way before others. For ...
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Examples of failed leftist movements without support today [closed]
By support I mean popular support, whether in polls or any means of trying to gauge the views of the average citizen.
It seems like almost every major historical movement spearheaded by the left ...
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Is there a formal ontology for documenting historical timelines?
Is there a common process/system/platform that researchers use to document historical timelines?
For example:
If I wanted to track the history of some organization. I would want to track things like:
...
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What are the main primary sources for the life and times of Shah Ismail I?
The Encyclopaedia Iranica seems mostly to base its account on Khvandamir, Hasan Beg Rumlu and to a lesser extent Khonji. Which of these (or any other primary source) has the most extensive treatment ...
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What is the correct publication date for Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War?
At Archive.org: Thucydides - The Peloponnesian War I found a digital edition of the subject work as translated by Rex Warner (9 March 1905 – 24 June 1986) with a purported publication date of 1916.
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How should an amateur learn about ancient texts? [closed]
I would like to learn about ancient texts. To set a more concrete goal, let's say that I would like to know of the existence and the most relevant facts about the most important texts produced all ...
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Do historians distinguish between observable events vs. higher-level claims? [closed]
Modern genealogists classify information granularly, with one categorization determined by the source type (original record versus derivative copy) and another categorization determined by the ...
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How to understand the geography of Napoleon's military campaigns?
I am currently reading Napoleon The Great by Andrew Roberts and I am facing a few issues. While I can understand when Roberts describes Napoleon's life, I am having a hard time understanding the ...
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How can I properly learn the history of a country whose language I don't speak or read?
I was trying to learn some history of the Middle East; however, I thought to myself that most relevant sources about it are in Arabic, a language I don't know how to read or write, and you must rely ...
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How do I learn more about untitled artworks on the internet? (like this specific Basquiat painting)
Since many of Basquiat's works are untitled, I'm having a hard time finding more historical details on the internet about specific paintings he made. For example, how can I learn more about this ...
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What is a major historical event historians are deeply divided over?
I am teaching a middle school history class and need an example of a historical event that has legitimate historians highly divided into at least two camps.
My goal is demonstrate that, though ...
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What do these lines from The Decline of the West, mean? [closed]
the means to identify dead forms is mathematical law, the means whereby to understand living forms is analogy.
What does this mean? When I looked it up I got a history textbook and it was talking ...
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Will we ever be able to understand history with 100% accuracy [closed]
First of all, I am not a historian or anything of the like, but this question was bothering me for quite some time.
As far as I understand, the current methodology historians use to explain our ...
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Do historians use Rig Veda as a reliable source of historical event?
Rig veda is the oldest text in Hinduism, it is as old as 1500 BCE.
It contains many historical reference so, do historians use the historical accounts mentioned in the Rig Vedas as reliable sources of ...
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What are the best primary textual sources I could point to regarding the existence of Julius Caesar? [closed]
I recently got in a discussion with a man claiming that there is more reliable historical proof of the existence of Jesus Christ than of Julius Caesar.
On face value, this claim seems ridiculous — ...
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Has anyone (other than Churchill) indicated that the Germans might have won a negotiated peace in World War II?
I have long believed that it was possible for the Germans to get to a strong position that might have led to a "stalemate" and hence a negotiated peace in World War II/ The main ways were: 1)...
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How different schools of historiography characterise a colony?
The title pretty much resembles the question - I'd like to compare what criteria different schools of historiography (including national and historical) use to determine whether a country/territory is ...
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What do historians do when limited sources are available? [closed]
Although my area of history is focusing on 1980s and 1990s, in general, when you're studying an era of history or a particular topic and there are little to no sources available (for example, areas of ...
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Has historical revisionism ever led to problems in history?
Just came across a post from a Jesuit claiming
Historical revisionism is one of the worst, and dangerous, mistakes
one can make.
It appears to be with regards to the latest news of Jesuits in US ...
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Does history use hypothesis testing using statistical methods?
To what extent does the study of history use hypothesis testing? By Hypothesis testing I mean the usage of p-values and significance levels to dictate how an actual event differs from the event by ...
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Is it true that the term "Byzantine" is less present in historians of Protestant tradition? [closed]
Trying to answer the question Why did the term "Byzantine Empire" enter common usage instead of "Eastern Roman Empire" or "Roman Empire", I find a presentation by the ...
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How long does a generation last?
Question:
Generetion, as a time period, is a widespread concept (or perhaps an idea) in History, in Social Sciences, and also in common language. Do historians have some sort of consensus on the time ...
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Where can I obtain the full "British Statistical Blue Books" of British colonies in Africa?
I'm a poli sci grad student looking to access the full British statistical blue books which catalog statistics for British colonies. Does anyone know where I can obtain access to them, preferably free ...
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When did it become popular to drop the A.D. in dates?
Since when did it become popular to shorthand years from 2020 A.D. to 2020? I haven't seen anything after a google search, and in fact I wonder if it was even popular to use A.D., ever. I don't recall ...
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Is there a term for the principle of preferring earlier statements over later statements made by historical eye witnesses?
Back when I was majoring in History in college, one professor explained to the class that when a person made multiple statements about a time or event they lived through or were involved with, and ...
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What criteria are used to determine the popularity of Medieval European rulers?
It is relatively common to see certain monarchs described as "popular" while others are "unpopular". It confounds me as to what specific evidence has been used to determine this, ...
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Are there alternatives to tripartite periodisation of history?
Human history is usually divided in three parts, ancient history, medieval (or post-classical) history and modern history (sometimes divided in early and late modern), as can be seen in the wikipedia ...
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How are historical nutrition data gathered?
In the book 'Sapiens', Yuval N. Harari mentions that after the Agricultural Revolution child mortality soared because of malnutrition. While I can see how eating only carbohydrate-based products leads ...
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Is there a term historians use for an unknown person? [closed]
History documentaries (especially about the ancient past) often use representative actors to illustrate the narration. This usually happens when describing events where the participant's names are ...
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Is there a name for the critical method of assessing historical narratives via the consultation of primary sources?
In natural science, an educated guess at scientific fact is called a hypothesis. Hypotheses are rigorously tried by experiments conducted repeatedly under carefully controlled conditions. This is ...
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Why was the Gilgamesh flood tablet such a sensation?
In 1872 George Smith translated the famous Flood Tablet (tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh), causing a sensation due to its striking similarity to the story of Noah'...
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How were ancient Indian mathematical texts found to modern scholarship?
Unlike e.g. Greco-Roman or Chinese texts, which were written on relatively durable writing material, most ancient Indian literature was done on palm-leaf manuscripts, which typically don't survive ...
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Are the historical sources from the ancient history trustable?
Are the historical books of Herodot or Polybius or any other historian from ancient history usually correct? Did they add some 'drama' in their books or did they desire to gain favor of those of high ...
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How to build historical maps?
Is there an online tool that allows one to create a historical map given a time period and region/country of interest? I have found this question, What are good online sources for historical maps?, ...
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How does history as a scholarly discipline or disciplinary practice justify its existence as a social practice?
The discipline of history as emergent in the 19th century in its scholarly practice or intellectual discipline exists as a social phenomena in many contemporary societies.
Contemporary societies ...
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How widely accepted are Tolstoy's views on history within the academic community?
Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is a historic fiction and part essay in which Tolstoy regularly expresses his views on how events happen. More specifically, Tolstoy says that the actions of great men such ...
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Who were the social elites of the European middle ages?
I have recently been reading into the European Middle Ages, where one of the challenges is the limited sources available. I have often seen seen this described as a source bias towards the elite ...
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Which 'evidence' is there for a claim that 'Chinese discovered America in 636'?
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics is a branch of the Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management. On its own website it has a history timeline with a few curious dates:
catálogo ID:...
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How do archaeologists date cave paintings?
Imagine I get hold on 15000 yr old pigments and I draw an iguana next to a bison at "Altamira Caves"... how does one know that that drawing wasn't made 15000 years back? Would people then start saying ...
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How and in what ways has our understanding of the historical method improved since the publication of E. H. Carr's "What is History" in 1961?
This is partially answered in this question, but that only characterizes the modern consensus on what history is able to answer - it does not go into depth about how that modern consensus has evolved. ...
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