Historical analysis

By Richard E. Beringer

Subjects: History, methodology, United States, Historiography, Methodology, History

Description: Responding to the rapidly increasing use of interdisciplinary approaches to evaluate historical events and ideas, this volume addresses itself to both historical methodology and modern historiography. It presents nineteen different methodological concepts and provides discussion and examples for each of them. When Beringer uses the term "methodology", he is referring, not to mechanical processes such as taking notes and constructing footnotes, but rather to intellectual processes such as selecting data, organizing research, and formulating conclusions. The concepts examined include such widely diverse procedures as the intellectual historian's Zeitgeist, the psychohistorian's use of Freud or Erikson, the sociologically-oriented historian's theories of class or status, and the quantifier's reliance upon correlation and regression. The discussion of each method includes the special insights it provides and the types of data to which it might be applied, along with some warnings about inherent pitfalls. This broad range of topics makes this text unique in its field.