Potential shortcomings in the production of history

Many historians believe that the production of history is embedded

with bias because events and known facts in history can be interpreted in a
variety of ways. Constantin Fasolt suggested that history is linked to politics by
the practice of silence itself.[49] He also said: “A second common view of the
link between history and politics rests on the elementary observation that
historians are often influenced by politics.”[49] According to Michel-Rolph
Trouillot, the historical process is rooted in the archives, therefore silences, or
parts of history that are forgotten, may be an intentional part of a narrative
strategy that dictates how areas of history are remembered.[23] Historical
omissions can occur in many ways and can have a profound effect on historical
records. Information can also purposely be excluded or left out accidentally.
Historians have coined multiple terms that describe the act of omitting historical
information, including: “silencing,”[23] “selective memory,”[50] and erasures.
[51]
 Gerda Lerner, a twentieth century historian who focused much of her work
on historical omissions involving women and their accomplishments, explained
the negative impact that these omissions had on minority groups.[50]
Environmental historian William Cronon proposed three ways to combat bias
and ensure authentic and accurate narratives: narratives must not contradict
known fact, they must make ecological sense (specifically for environmental
history), and published work must be reviewed by scholarly community and
other historians to ensure accountability.[51]

Areas of study
Particular studies and fields

These are approaches to

history; not listed are histories
of other fields, such as history
of science, history of
mathematics and history of
philosophy.

 Ancient history: the study of

history from the beginning
of human history until the
Early Middle Ages.
 Atlantic history: the study
of the history of people
living on or near the
Atlantic Ocean.
 Art history: the study of
changes in and the social
context of art.
 Comparative history: the
historical analysis of social
and cultural entities not
confined to national
boundaries.
 Contemporary history: the
study of recent historical
events.
 Counterfactual history: the
study of historical events as
they might have happened
in different causal
circumstances.
 Cultural history: the study
of culture in the past.
 Digital history: the use of
computing technologies to
do massive searches in
published sources.
 Economic history: the use
of economic models fitted
to the past.
 Intellectual history: the
study of ideas in the context
of the cultures that produced
them and their development
over time.
 Maritime history: the study
of maritime transport and all
connected subjects.
 Material history: the study
of objects and the stories
they can tell.
 Modern history: the study of
Modern Times, the era after
the Middle Ages.
 Military history: the study
of warfare, historical wars,
and Naval history, which is
 sometimes considered to be
a sub-branch of military
history.
 Oral history: the collection
and study of historical
information by utilizing
spoken interviews with
people who have lived past
events.
 Palaeography: the study of
ancient texts.
 People's history: historical
work from the perspective
of common people.
 Political history: the study
of politics in the past.
 Psychohistory: the study of
the psychological
motivations for historical
events.
 Pseudohistory: studies about
the past that fall outside the
domain of mainstream
history (sometimes
equivalent
to pseudoscience).
 Social history: the study of
the process of social change
throughout history.
 Women's history: the
history of female human
beings. Gender history is
related and covers the
perspective of gender.
 World history: the study of
history from a global
perspective, with special
attention to non-Western
societies.
Periods
Main article: Periodization
Historical study often focuses on events and developments that occur in
particular blocks of time. Historians give these periods of time names in order to
allow "organising ideas and classificatory generalisations" to be used by
historians.[52] The names given to a period can vary with geographical location,
as can the dates of the beginning and end of a particular
period. Centuries and decades are commonly used periods and the time they
represent depends on the dating system used. Most periods are constructed
retrospectively and so reflect value judgments made about the past. The way
periods are constructed and the names given to them can affect the way they are
viewed and studied.[53]
Prehistoric periodisation
The field of history generally leaves prehistory to archaeologists, who have
entirely different sets of tools and theories. In archaeology, the usual method for
periodisation of the distant prehistoric past is to rely on changes in material
culture and technology, such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, with
sub-divisions that are also based on different styles of material remains. Here
prehistory is divided into a series of "chapters" so that periods in history could
unfold not only in a relative chronology but also narrative chronology.[54] This
narrative content could be in the form of functional-economic interpretation.
There are periodisations, however, that do not have this narrative aspect, relying
largely on relative chronology, and that are thus devoid of any specific meaning.
Despite the development over recent decades of the ability through radiocarbon
dating and other scientific methods to give actual dates for many sites or
artefacts, these long-established schemes seem likely to remain in use. In many
cases neighbouring cultures with writing have left some history of cultures
without it, which may be used. Periodisation, however, is not viewed as a
perfect framework, with one account explaining that "cultural changes do not
conveniently start and stop (combinedly) at periodisation boundaries" and that
different trajectories of change need to be studied in their own right before they
get intertwined with cultural phenomena.[55]
Geographical locations
Particular geographical locations can form the basis of historical study, for
example, continents, countries, and cities. Understanding why historic events
took place is important. To do this, historians often turn to geography.
According to Jules Michelet in his book Histoire de France (1833), "without
geographical basis, the people, the makers of history, seem to be walking on
air."[56] Weather patterns, the water supply, and the landscape of a place all
affect the lives of the people who live there. For example, to explain why the
ancient Egyptians developed a successful civilization, studying the geography
of Egypt is essential. Egyptian civilization was built on the banks of the Nile
River, which flooded each year, depositing soil on its banks. The rich soil could
help farmers grow enough crops to feed the people in the cities. That meant
everyone did not have to farm, so some people could perform other jobs that
helped develop the civilization. There is also the case of climate, which
historians like Ellsworth Huntington and Ellen Churchill Semple cited as a
crucial influence on the course of history. Huntington and Semple further
argued that climate has an impact on racial temperament.[57]
Regions

 History of Africa begins with the first emergence of modern human beings

on the continent, continuing into its modern present as a patchwork of
diverse and politically developing nation states.
 History of the Americas is the collective history of North and South
America, including Central America and the Caribbean.
o History of North America is the study of the past passed down from
generation to generation on the continent in the Earth's northern and
western hemisphere.
o History of Central America is the study of the past passed down from
generation to generation on the continent in the Earth's western
hemisphere.
o History of the Caribbean begins with the oldest evidence where 7,000-
year-old remains have been found.
o History of South America is the study of the past passed down from
generation to generation on the continent in the Earth's southern and
western hemisphere.
 History of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast
continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the
globe.
 History of Eurasia is the collective history of several distinct peripheral
coastal regions: the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and
Europe, linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe of Central Asia
and Eastern Europe.
o History of Europe describes the passage of time from humans inhabiting
the European continent to the present day.
o History of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct
peripheral coastal regions, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East
linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe.
 History of East Asia is the study of the past passed down from
generation to generation in East Asia.
 History of the Middle East begins with the earliest civilizations in the
region now known as the Middle East that were established around
3000 BC, in Mesopotamia (Iraq).
  History of India is the study of the past passed down from generation
to generation in the Sub-Himalayan region.
 History of Southeast Asia has been characterized as interaction
between regional players and foreign powers.
 History of Oceania is the collective history of Australia, New Zealand and
the Pacific Islands.
o History of Australia starts with the documentation of the Makassar
trading with Indigenous Australians on Australia's north coast.
o History of New Zealand dates back at least 700 years to when it was
discovered and settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Māori
culture centred on kinship links and land.
o History of the Pacific Islands covers the history of the islands in the
Pacific Ocean.
Military
Main article: Military history
Military history concerns warfare, strategies, battles, weapons, and the
psychology of combat.[58] The "new military history" since the 1970s has been
concerned with soldiers more than generals, with psychology more than tactics,
and with the broader impact of warfare on society and culture.[59]
Religious
Main article: History of religion
The history of religion has been a main theme for both secular and religious
historians for centuries, and continues to be taught in seminaries and academe.
Leading journals include Church History, The Catholic Historical Review,
and History of Religions. Topics range widely from political and cultural and
artistic dimensions, to theology and liturgy.[60] This subject studies religions
from all regions and areas of the world where humans have lived.[61]
Social
Main article: Social history
Social history, sometimes called the new social history, is the field that includes
history of ordinary people and their strategies and institutions for coping with
life.[62] In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s
among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments. In two
decades from 1975 to 1995, the proportion of professors of history in American
universities identifying with social history rose from 31% to 41%, while the
proportion of political historians fell from 40% to 30%.[63] In the history
departments of British universities in 2007, of the 5723 faculty members, 1644
(29%) identified themselves with social history while political history came
next with 1425 (25%).[64] The "old" social history before the 1960s was a
hodgepodge of topics without a central theme, and it often included political
movements, like Populism, that were "social" in the sense of being outside the
elite system. Social history was contrasted with political history, intellectual
history and the history of great men. English historian G. M. Trevelyan saw it as
the bridging point between economic and political history, reflecting that,
"Without social history, economic history is barren and political history
unintelligible."[65] While the field has often been viewed negatively as history
with the politics left out, it has also been defended as "history with the people
put back in".[66]