Wednesday 1 May 2024
Historical Investigation
Historical Investigation
- Historical Investigation is the process of investigating in order to understand historical events.
The inquiry process’ of Historical Investigations include posing questions, locating and
analysing sources and using evidence from sources to develop an informed explanation about
the past. Historical Investigation’s include a plan of the investigation, a summary of the
evidence, an evaluation of sources, an analysis, a conclusion, and a bibliography or list of
sources. Historical Investigations come in many forms; written, visual, oral and physical
evidence. In conclusion, historical investigations nd evidence and establish facts on past
events that took place.
Historical Inquiry
- Although similar to a Historical Investigation, a Historical Inquiry is a more cyclical process.
Historical Inquiries begin with the asking of a historical question. This is then followed by
locating and analysing historical sources to establish historical evidence. Historical Inquiry’s are
required to identify, contextualise, and critically analyse historical evidence, while considering
the relevance of chronology, causation, and perspective. Historical Inquiries are usually done
after Historical Investigations as they serve a di erent purpose; a Historical inquiry serves to
clarify or seek answers to speci c historical questions or doubts.
Contestability
- Contestability occurs when particular interpretations about the past are open to debate, often
as a result of a lack of evidence or a lack of di erent perspectives, with debate often remaining
intractable. An example of historical contestability would be the Egyptian Pyramids; A Historian
would say that the Egyptian pyramids were built by humans, while a conspiracy theorist could
say that the pyramids were built by aliens. Contestability explains why history is not about
absolute truth; rather, it is about conclusions that can be supported by evidence. As the
evidence changes, so do the interpretations, creating more and more contestability. Simply,
historical contestability is the act of questioning historical events in order to nd the truth.
Constructing Modern History
- Constructing Modern History is the studying and exploration of the di erent types of histories;
including narrative history, biography, social and cultural history. The primary reason for
constructing Modern History is to make informed and logical explanations of historical events
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while highlighting a true representation of those historical events. The e ects of such
representations is that it might bear some personal biases or evidence-based biases.
Cause and Effect
- The term 'cause and e ect' is used to identify chains of events and developments over time.
This suggests that there can be multiple causes and e ects of an event, that they are related,
and that they can be variously immediate or longstanding. All historical events are a result of
one or more causes, and the event leads to one or many e ects, which can be the cause of
another historical event. To simplify, for every action in history there is an equivalent reaction;
every cause results in an e ect.
Continuity and Change
- While historical change records a change in history, historical continuity focuses on what stays
the same. Historical continuity is essential to historians as by recognising what stays the
same, they are able to nd commonalities among cultures, places, or ideas and as a result,
determine why some things have not changed over time. Historical change is important for the
same reason; historians need to understand why things have changed, and the impact these
changes had on the people and other natural aspects. Historians can determine and
accurately result in highlighting historical events by comparing them to other historical events
to determine what information they can use and what information di ers and why it does so.
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