Historical Research

People are sometimes confused when it comes to historical research, because it is done in two level of focus. It is done as an activity in itself, and it is done as a sub-part of a larger or separate work. In the Discipline of History, there is a great deal of material on the process of historical research under the heading of "historiography". The principles outlined in that body of procedure are the same ones used in "historical studies" done elsewhere, but the extent and focus of the work are considerably more in formal large scale historical studies done within the discipline of history.

In business, for example, a historical study might be done on what previous owners had used the premises one is about to purchase, in order to find out if there is a bad association with the location in the public perception, but when that is done, the person gets on with doing business. When one is starting work in a new congregation, one might do a historical study to understand what has gone on before in the life of the congregation, who the key players were, and what the central issues seem to be according to the official record. That is, historical studies can be done in support of other endeavors, even though they are not done as a main line of work for one's lifetime. What is being considered here is the "historical research" done as a sub-part of a separate endeavor.

A brief overview of this sort of historical research is given in as part of an online course in educational research on the net, and an example of its use can be seen in a [PDF]study on cattle transport. An excellent PowerPoint presentation on how to carry out historical studies, and a [PDF]template and guideline for writing them up are also available.

A glimpse into the current discourse in Historiography as to what constitutes good historical studies can be seen in an [PDF]article dealing with the impact of post-modern thought von historical research by Kevin Brehony. As well, there is an excellent brief survey of just what constitutes factual evidence in Dan Greenberg's piece on "What are Facts?" done in the context of film history.

Further Resources

• The use of GIS in historical studies
• An example of the problem of documentation in the Eva Peron case
• A study dealing with the absence or distortion of records relating to the marginalized (Homosexuals in Paris in he Eighteenth Century)
• A profile of typical archive users and implications for online database construction
• A consideration of David Irving's challenge of holocaust "history" and related issues
• An excellent PowerPoint on historical studies from an agricultural context
• PowerPoint handout notes from a Sociology perspective