The Method of Historical Inquiry

Why Do We Study History?

1) Recall: History is what we choose to remember about the past. 2) Interpret: History involves explaining people and events.3) Application : Use what we know about the past to understand the present.4) Analyze: History involves figuring out complicated situations.5) Synthesize: History involves making sense out of jumble of facts.6) Evaluate: History involves making judgments about people and events

Method of Historical Inquiry

1.Observe some aspect of the universe.

2.Invent a theory that is consistent with what you have observed.

3.Use the theory to make predictions.

4.Test those predictions by experiments or further observations.

5.Modify the theory in the light of your results.

6.Go to step 3

The Scientific Method

Recall1. History is what we choose to remember about the past.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/travel/30footsteps.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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Recall

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lbdassociates.com/salphotos/SAL%2520Photos/NYC/twin%2520towe

History is what we choose to remember about the past.

2. Our common experience binds us together.

Recall

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Interpretation

1. History involves explaining people and events.

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http://www.arts-info.co.uk/Images/AssassinationofPresidentLincoln.jpg

2. Historians read between the lines.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06grav.html

The Ghost Ships of Coney Island Creek

History can illustrate ideas.

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Application

Use the past to understand the present.

The past must engage in dialogue with the present.

Use personal experiences to make sense of the past.

Examine situations in the past.

Applying what you know

Analysis

History involves figuring out complicated situations.

Break the event down into its parts: Which parts can you identify? Which battle was the turning point of the Civil War?

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Examine each part. How are the battles related?

Try to create a time line of events: Which are causes? effects?

Synthesis

History involves making sense out of a jumble of facts.

You can search for patterns.

You can predict: Could World War II have been avoided?

You can make generalizations: broad statements that summarize.

You can speculate: Guessing at reasons for outcomes.Speculation means guessing about

the past.

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Synthesis: Creating A New Idea

Draw your own conclusions: Dropping the atomic bomb - justified or unjustified?

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Evaluation

History involves making judgments about people in events.

Example: You can examine all sides of the Civil Rights issue.

You can debate the pros and cons of integrating the schools.

You can describe the strengths and weaknesses of the President's policy.

You can examine the advantages and disadvantages of the strategy of non-violence.

Evaluation

You can examine the advantages and disadvantages of the strategy of violence.

You can judge whether a person, policy, or event measured up to a high standard.

Example: To what extent did Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. measure up to the standard of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Golden Rule?

Why Study History?

The supreme purpose of history is a better world.Herbert Hoove

History is a vast early warning system ~ Norman Cousins

Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years. ~ Will Duran

History belongs to the winner. ~ Anon.

"History is for human self-knowledge. Knowing yourself means knowing, first, what it is to be a person; secondly, knowing what it is to be the kind of person you are; and thirdly, knowing what it is to be the person you are and nobody else is. Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do; and since nobody knows what they can do until they try, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is." R. G. Collingwood

With a partner, discuss and give your own interpretation of the quotations.

after several minutes of discussion, the groups will present their interpretations to the class.

"I know of no way of judging the future but by the past."

(Patrick Henry)

"The present contains nothing more than the past, and what was found in the effect was already in the cause." (Henri

Bergson)

"We are tomorrow's past." (Mary Webb)

Write your own quotation or saying that reflects your view on history or the importance of the past. You can add illustrations if you wish.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” — Thomas Jefferson

Why Study History?

1) The Colonial Period2) The American Revolution3) Westward Expansion4) The Coming of the Civil War5) The Civil War6) Reconstruction7) the Industrial Revolution8) The Progressive Period9) World War I10) Economic Expansion11) The Great Depression12) World War II13) the Cold War14) The Post Cold War Period

Creating a Time Line 1. The Cold War

2. World War 2

3. The American Revolution

4. The Post cold war Period

5. The Progressive Period

6. The Colonial period

7. The Great Depression

8. World War 1

9. The coming of the Civil War

10.Economic Depression

11.The Industrial Revolution

12.The Westward Expansion

13.Reconstruction

14.The Civil War