What is history?
My original answer to this question was “History is made up of events from the past which have some significance today. History is ‘done’ by researching texts and artifacts from the past to paint a picture of what it was like back then, for us today”. Although this is not entirely untrue, there is so much more to it than just that.
From an outsiders point of view “doing” history seems pretty simple. At the beginning of the semester when we were asked to write down what it means to “do” history it almost seemed like a silly question. All of my preconceptions of the class came from my understanding of what history was in high school, where you aren’t encouraged to challenge information another historian has written. The textbooks are taught as definite truths and we aren’t introduced to the idea of human error or any sort of potential biases at all.
Understanding an event from history requires so much more understanding and knowledge than just researching some documents and writing a paper. To fully understand an event that happened in the past you must acknowledge the time and place that it happened, and cultural differences that we may have from the subjects of research. Growing up in the society that we have, we can’t help but have some cultural differences from the subjects we are researching. For example, duelling in Upper Canada was a widely accepted custom among high society during the 18th century. Whereas duelling would be looked at as truly barbaric and awful among Canadians today and we have to take ourselves away from the beliefs that our current society has taught us and try to understand history from the point of view of what it was like from the specific period you are studying.
Research starts by asking a question about a moment in history, gathering and analyzing as much evidence such as historical writing, artifacts from the time period and oral teachings as you can. There are many questions that you should be asking yourself when reading any document towards your research. How reliable is your source? What kind of information are they able to give you, or not give you? Did they have any sort of biases? Have you read things that contradict the work elsewhere? In research, there is plenty that can be learned by understanding why certain things are being left out of documents and by reading in between the lines of what is actually written for you. Sometimes what is not included can be just as important as what is written. In doing history you must be able to form your own interpretations on what you believed has happened in the past.
Critical thinking is the key to being able to “do” history. It is important to recognize your own biases as well as the ones of other historians whos work you are studying. Additionally, you should be able to find the cause and effect of events that have happened. The ability to figure out what caused an event in the past and how it has impacted our society today, and how it will continue to impact our society in the future. It is important that as a society we learn from our history and adapt to changing situations.
In conclusion, history is knowledge about societies, cultures, people and events that have had some sort of impact on society today. Critical thinking is essential but everybody has their own unique was of doing history so there really is no set definition of “doing” history.