Tips on how to study history

[Borodog]

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I am just about to start an undergraduate degree in history . . .
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If you have any further thoughts I would be interested to hear them.

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What are you going to do with your degree? History is an extremely difficult field to work in. There is very little demand for historians. So start thinking about what you're actually going to do with your life once you abandon history.

By the way, this is not just my advice, but my wife's too, and she has an undergraduate degree in history from UNC.

[patrick_mcmurray]

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I am just about to start an undergraduate degree in history . . .
<font color="white"> . </font>
If you have any further thoughts I would be interested to hear them.

[/ QUOTE ]

What are you going to do with your degree? History is an extremely difficult field to work in. There is very little demand for historians. So start thinking about what you're actually going to do with your life once you abandon history.

By the way, this is not just my advice, but my wife's too, and she has an undergraduate degree in history from UNC.

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Fair point!

[Le Sug]

More points to bear in mind - history is not an attempt to recreate the past, because that is impossible. The past can never be recreated - we can only study the evidence that is available to us. It is the map, not the territory. Ergo, one can never be wrong or right - one can only posit theories based on the evidence which will be adequately or inadequately supported. Use of primary materials is key. I aced my undergraduate degree and I never looked at a map . . . history is about people and events, because they are all that is ever recorded.

On a secondary note regarding agreeing with the tutor, it depends on your read (!) - some absolutely love to have students challenge accepted ideas and think for themselves - others take it personally. Good luck.

[patrick_mcmurray]

[ QUOTE ]
More points to bear in mind - history is not an attempt to recreate the past, because that is impossible. The past can never be recreated - we can only study the evidence that is available to us. It is the map, not the territory. Ergo, one can never be wrong or right - one can only posit theories based on the evidence which will be adequately or inadequately supported. Use of primary materials is key. I aced my undergraduate degree and I never looked at a map . . . history is about people and events, because they are all that is ever recorded.

On a secondary note regarding agreeing with the tutor, it depends on your read (!) - some absolutely love to have students challenge accepted ideas and think for themselves - others take it personally. Good luck.

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Thanks for your post.

1. Where did you do your degree?
2. Re maps: don't think I am confusing history with geography! Just think they could be useful eg given that the importance of different cities has changed over time, having some idea about movements of armies, etc.

[bobman0330]

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one can never be wrong or right - one can only posit theories based on the evidence which will be adequately or inadequately supported.

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Wow, I could not disagree with this more. Certainly you can never be PROVEN right or wrong, but that doesn't mean that your conjectures won't BE right or wrong, you'll just never know for sure.

It seems like an insignificant distinction, but I think a lot of bad history today arises from people who see history as a game with no right answer. As a historian, you should be daring and willing to ignore traditional views, but you should do so in a quest to get closer to the truth, not just to be outrageous for the sake of being outrageous.

[theBruiser500]

some good posts here. NT good post, btw i just read somewhere you are nothumb, cool. i love history and think that there is so much to see from it. history meshes well with everything, it is a great way to understand law, battles, war, obesity, art, evrerything.

also history is such a big subject, it covers poltiics, war,economic systems everything and understanding a subject is about making connections. there are so many connections to make that i think it takes a very long time to take in all the information. it will take readin ga book, then studying different subjects and coming back to the same book in a few years. tell us how your history studying goes

[Exsubmariner]

I always try to imagine myself in the time and place, sometimes even as the person that I am reading about. Some historical figures lend themselves to this better than others.

I have had occassion to participate in some reenactments. I highly recommend doing this if you get the opportunity. Very educational.

If you get the chance, study the technology of the time, what was available to eat, farming methods, trading relationships, diseases present. All of these things will give you clues about the background of decisions taken at the time.

[theBruiser500]

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I always try to imagine myself in the time and place, sometimes even as the person that I am reading about. Some historical figures lend themselves to this better than others.

I have had occassion to participate in some reenactments. I highly recommend doing this if you get the opportunity. Very educational.

If you get the chance, study the technology of the time, what was available to eat, farming methods, trading relationships, diseases present. All of these things will give you clues about the background of decisions taken at the time.

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exburmariner i think that's a really good idea, often times history books will off handedly mention some detail about their lifestyle about farming, or household furniture or whatever and i won't understand what it is, and it won't go into any detail. but it seems obscure enough that it's hard to find further information on. what do you think of that?

[NT!]

It's always hilarious to me that people don't know I'm nothumb. I signed my posts 'NT' for like 2 years before I had it changed, had the same avatar, etc.... I guess I'm just not the celebrity some of you are. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

NT

[theBruiser500]

no you are nothumb that's why i'm so happy to have found you, no exaggeration either i got a big smile when i found out NT was you : )