Introduction
Thinking Like a Historian
With history, knowing how to find an answer to the question that you are looking for is as important as the answer itself. History cannot just be about memorizing a set of facts, it must be a construction and EVALUATION of evidence-based arguments. There are three things that you must learn to do in order to ever really become successful at learning real history:
1. See that history is a subject driven by questions.
2. Understand historical evidence and be able analyze a variety of sources and apply them to the questions that you
have.
3. Develop or create and be able to defend evidence-based interpretations of the past.
2. Understand historical evidence and be able analyze a variety of sources and apply them to the questions that you
have.
3. Develop or create and be able to defend evidence-based interpretations of the past.
To be a good historian is like being a good detective. You've seen on TV where detectives look at a crime scene for evidence, talk to witnesses or people who may have information about the crime, and investigate the people who are determined to be suspects in the crime. Once this has been done, they then present a narrative (a story) of how they believe (interpretation), the crime occurred and who was involved. Historians do the exact same thing in order to be able to present a story of past events and people.
So while looking at evidence (the available information that proves if something is true) that is gathered through an investigation (a study or look into a topic to learn more information), we then put develop what WE believe is going on by interpreting (creating a storyline from the facts and investigation) the evidence that we gained from our investigation, which this time was a letter, and create what we believe the letter is all about. The fun part is when I read three letters, and you read the same three letters, and we look at the available evidence and investigate them, you and I may come up with two very different interpretations of the letters. At that point I must learn to defend (protect or prove) what my viewpoint of the letters is. Let me give you an example:
Let's say our assignment is; find out why Confederate General Robert E. Lee lost at the battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. The first thing that I want to do is to investigate what exactly the battle of Gettysburg was all about. I would look at books, magazine articles, Internet articles, photographs, newspaper articles, original letters, and so on. Once I am done investigating and gathering evidence, I will begin to put my work into a storyline and develop an idea or thesis that will become my interpretation of why Lee lost at Gettysburg. Once I am finished, I will then present my findings to the class. So let's pretend I did all of that and my premise or thesis (the main idea that I am trying to prove), is that Lee lost at the battle of Gettysburg because he failed to occupy key hills early on during the battle. Because of this, he did not command the high ground and was beaten by Union forces. Next, it would be your turn, and based on your information and facts, Lee lost at Gettysburg because he was outnumber by nearly 30,000 Union troops. Now once both our findings were read, we would take questions from the audience or even each other, at which time we have to defend why we reached the conclusion that we did concerning Lee's loss at Gettysburg.
If I realized that maybe your interpretation was a good one, I might go back and look again at my evidence and revise my storyline to say, "Lee lost at Gettysburg because he was unable to occupy key points on the battlefield because he did not have enough troops to defend them properly." So even if you and I came up with different conclusions on why Lee lost at Gettysburg, we may both be somewhat right and simply need to revise our original thesis. THIS STEP IS CRITICAL WHEN CREATING A NATIONAL HISTORY DAY TOPIC.
Sources
Sources are the most important building block in developing a thesis or conclusion to research. There are good sources and there are bad sources and you need to be able to understand which is which. Sources are where your information comes from when you do research. It is very important to do some investigative work about a source before you decide to use it or not. One of the things to watch out for is bias. Bias is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. The easiest example of bias that can give you is this: If a sports writer that is from Chicago is writing about the best team in baseball, and the argument is between who is better, the Chicago Cubs, or the St. Louis Cardinals, you can probably bet that he will bias and write an article that is more favorable to the Cubs.
There are two main kind of sources:
Primary Sources: Sources written by someone who was there (also known as contemporary sources). These could include letters, diaries, journals, newspaper articles, film, photographs, and many more. The key is that the source had to be created by someone who could have had first hand knowledge of the person or event. If you interviewed me to find out what it was like to watch the Twin Towers get attacked on 9/11, I would be a primary source because I watched live on television as it happened, but if you were interviewing me about the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, that would not be a primary source because I was not alive during that time 75 years ago. That doesn't mean necessarily that I could not be a source of information about Pearl Harbor because maybe I had written a history book about the attack, but either way, I could not be a primary source because I was not alive then.
Secondary Sources: Are sources written after the event occurred by someone who was not there or does not have firsthand knowledge of the event or person. If I wrote an article about the battle of Gettysburg which occurred on July 1-3, 1863, it would be a secondary source because I was not at the battle of Gettysburg over 150 years ago.
Primary and Secondary sources have nothing to do with which one is more important or which one was used the most, it's all about if the source is from the same time as the event you are writing about or if it was written later.
Primary Sources: Sources written by someone who was there (also known as contemporary sources). These could include letters, diaries, journals, newspaper articles, film, photographs, and many more. The key is that the source had to be created by someone who could have had first hand knowledge of the person or event. If you interviewed me to find out what it was like to watch the Twin Towers get attacked on 9/11, I would be a primary source because I watched live on television as it happened, but if you were interviewing me about the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, that would not be a primary source because I was not alive during that time 75 years ago. That doesn't mean necessarily that I could not be a source of information about Pearl Harbor because maybe I had written a history book about the attack, but either way, I could not be a primary source because I was not alive then.
Secondary Sources: Are sources written after the event occurred by someone who was not there or does not have firsthand knowledge of the event or person. If I wrote an article about the battle of Gettysburg which occurred on July 1-3, 1863, it would be a secondary source because I was not at the battle of Gettysburg over 150 years ago.
Primary and Secondary sources have nothing to do with which one is more important or which one was used the most, it's all about if the source is from the same time as the event you are writing about or if it was written later.
Chronological order in history is simply referring to the order in time that events occurred. The chronological order of events at Gettysburg would look like this:
July 1
Confederate and Union troops converge on Gettysburg. The battle begins in the afternoon with Confederate infantry running into Union cavalry west of Gettysburg. By late that evening Confederates had pushed the Union soldiers back through town, a distance of more than two miles. The Confederates won the first day.
July 2
Confederates attack the Union at Little Round Top south of Gettysburg at 4PM. Two hours later, the Confederates retreat having gained only half the ground they wanted to take.
July 3
Confederates attack at Seminary Ridge in the Union center. They are badly defeated and must withdraw from the battle by early that evening.
Historical events become a lot easier to understand once you can construct a timeline of events.
July 1
Confederate and Union troops converge on Gettysburg. The battle begins in the afternoon with Confederate infantry running into Union cavalry west of Gettysburg. By late that evening Confederates had pushed the Union soldiers back through town, a distance of more than two miles. The Confederates won the first day.
July 2
Confederates attack the Union at Little Round Top south of Gettysburg at 4PM. Two hours later, the Confederates retreat having gained only half the ground they wanted to take.
July 3
Confederates attack at Seminary Ridge in the Union center. They are badly defeated and must withdraw from the battle by early that evening.
Historical events become a lot easier to understand once you can construct a timeline of events.
Text - What is readable/visible, the information provided by the source.
Context - What was going on during the time period? What background information do you have that helps explain the information found in the source. If you know that your letter was written during the Civil War, it will you help you understand why the reader is writing about the death and destruction of a battle.
Subtext- What is between the lines? Ask questions about the following:
-Author: Who created the source, and what do we know about that person?
-Audience: For whom was the source created?
-Reason: Why was this source produced when it was?
Context - What was going on during the time period? What background information do you have that helps explain the information found in the source. If you know that your letter was written during the Civil War, it will you help you understand why the reader is writing about the death and destruction of a battle.
Subtext- What is between the lines? Ask questions about the following:
-Author: Who created the source, and what do we know about that person?
-Audience: For whom was the source created?
-Reason: Why was this source produced when it was?
Geography
You can't talk about history with any understanding without understanding geography. Geography is the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.
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Geography in many cases is will help with context (see above definition of context). Why was the land west of the Appalachian Mountains so hard for the British to defend against Native American attacks? If we look at geography we know that the land west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River is huge and would require an enormous amount of troops in order to be able to defend it. Furthermore the Native Americans had lived in that vast area for centuries and knew how to survive and travel in the wilderness, whereas the British troops were not familiar with the land or how to properly survive in it.
So if we know how large of an area and what type of an area that the area west of the Appalachian Mountains was, we can understand why the British passed the Proclamation of 1763 in order to prevent settlers from moving into territory they could not successfully defend.
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Maps
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Political maps - political maps show imaginary lines that separate manmade borders. For example, Missouri and Iowa share a border on a political map, but if you were located on that border, you would not see a white line that divided the two states because there isn't one, it is imaginary. A political map can show distinctions between city boundaries, county, state, countries, and so on. A map that shows the colonies with white lines separating them is another example.
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Physical maps - physical maps show geographic features of the earth's surface. Many times they have various colors to represent different types of geographical formations. Mountains might be dark brown, while smaller hills light brown or tan, followed by green for forested areas. They typically will not show boundaries such as states or counties, but they can be combined with a political map in order to show the geography of certain states.
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Topographical maps - These maps show elevation using lines. Lines that are close together represent a hill or mountain that is steep, lines further apart represent hills or mountains that go upward gradually. These types of maps are especially helpful for hiking or moving troops through an area.
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Road maps - Road maps are pretty self explanatory, they show roads represented by different colors. Many times four lane interstate highways are blue, state highways are black, and small gravel county roads are gray. These are very helpful when traveling. Today, most people use their road maps that are on their phones, but before cell phones we used actual paper maps to travel with.
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You should always know and understand where you are in the world as far as location. The following information is a breakdown of the area you live in and you will be required to know and understand it.
Town: Essex (we're using Essex because it has a city government). Towns are generally more populated than rural areas and have a city government like a city hall. They are usually led by mayor or city council, or both. Smallest form of government organization.
-Most towns are divided into wards, in which an alderman represents the people of that section of town.
Township: You live in Richland Township. Counties are divided into townships to help administer or take care of any issues that might come up such as bad roads or a ditch that is not draining and is flooding a field. Each township is represented by a commissioner. Each week commissioners that represent different parts of the county meet and discuss issues and solutions to problems.
County: You live in Stoddard County. Each state is divided into counties (in Louisiana they call them parishes). This helps to organize government funding and tasks. Counties do not have an overall leader, but they do have political offices that are associated with them such as sheriff, recorder, collector, and courts. The county offices are located in Bloomfield at or near the county courthouse.
State: You live in Missouri. The U.S. has fifty states, each with a capital and a governor to lead them. In Missouri, our capital is in Jefferson City, and Governor Mike Parsons is the leader.
Federal: The highest form of government organization in the U.S. is the federal government. It is located in Washington D.C. and led by the President, Donald Trump.
School District: Richland R-1. Where does the school district fit into to all this? It just depends. Most places have schools that basically service a single town (like Bloomfield), some schools represent a wider geographical area such as a township (like Richland), and others represent an entire county (most county schools are in northern and western Missouri).
-Most towns are divided into wards, in which an alderman represents the people of that section of town.
Township: You live in Richland Township. Counties are divided into townships to help administer or take care of any issues that might come up such as bad roads or a ditch that is not draining and is flooding a field. Each township is represented by a commissioner. Each week commissioners that represent different parts of the county meet and discuss issues and solutions to problems.
County: You live in Stoddard County. Each state is divided into counties (in Louisiana they call them parishes). This helps to organize government funding and tasks. Counties do not have an overall leader, but they do have political offices that are associated with them such as sheriff, recorder, collector, and courts. The county offices are located in Bloomfield at or near the county courthouse.
State: You live in Missouri. The U.S. has fifty states, each with a capital and a governor to lead them. In Missouri, our capital is in Jefferson City, and Governor Mike Parsons is the leader.
Federal: The highest form of government organization in the U.S. is the federal government. It is located in Washington D.C. and led by the President, Donald Trump.
School District: Richland R-1. Where does the school district fit into to all this? It just depends. Most places have schools that basically service a single town (like Bloomfield), some schools represent a wider geographical area such as a township (like Richland), and others represent an entire county (most county schools are in northern and western Missouri).
Know Your States
Click on the link and play the name the states game. When you are finished make sure to screen shot your score, you can practice all that you want before you send me your score. Most of you should have played this game last year (the half that had Mrs. Arnold). When you have finished, make sure that you email your screen shot to parnold@richland.k12.mo.us