Historical method facts for kids

The historical method are the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history.

Guidelines

Following Garraghan (in: A Guide to Historical Method, 168) puts six questions that should be answered as minimal standard for a sound historical method:

1. When was the source, written or unwritten, produced (date)?
2. Where was it produced (localization)?
3. By whom was it produced (authorship)?
4. From what pre-existing material was it produced (analysis)?
5. In what original form was it produced (integrity)?
6. What is the evidential value of its contents (credibility)?

• Gilbert J. Garraghan, A Guide to Historical Method, Fordham University Press: New York (1946). ISBN: 0-8371-7132-6.
• Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method, Alfred A. Knopf: New York (1950). ISBN: 0-394-30215-X.
• Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier, From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods, Cornell University Press: Ithaca (2001). ISBN: 0-8014-8560-6.
• C. Behan McCullagh, Justifying Historical Descriptions, Cambridge University Press: New York (1984). ISBN: 0-521-31830-0.
• R. J. Shafer, A Guide to Historical Method, The Dorsey Press: Illinois (1974). ISBN: 0-534-10825-3.

Related pages

• Historiography
• Scientific method