by John Brant

Created on: March 17, 2010

When people read great histories, they will find common threads in all of them.  Even when two works on the same subject reach remarkably different conclusions about the meaning of events, they still have a common ground.  These threads that bind good historians together escape many writers, but if kept in mind, a writer can master them without much difficulty.

First, the writer must expunge as much of there personal bias as possible before beginning their work.  Bias can appear in two ways.  A writer can interject their own political views and a writer can measure the past by the standards of modern society.  Both will cause come through the writing and will prevent an understanding of how our forefathers thought and lived. 

Even before beginning research, an historian’s bias will cause him or her to view sources in a different light, using the historian’s values instead of trying to understand the values of the time.  Most professors will tell their students that no one can completely remove their bias, but by being as objective as possible, the student of history will often find as many surprises during their research as the people who read their work. 

In Richard Hofstadter’s The Age of Reform, he admits in his introduction that he began the work with preconceived notions of a modern liberal, and expected the Progressives to share his modern sentiment.  Instead, his research revealed the past Progressives to be conservative and often racist, prejudiced against immigrants and Catholics, and generally to defy the definition of liberal.  He reached that conclusion by approaching his research with an open mind, and allowing the evidence to change his preconceived beliefs.

The remaining rules also sound simple, but few seem to master them.  Research the object of study thoroughly.  Examine as many sources as possible, and choose ones that best represent the events, ideas, morals, and difficulties of the period.  Learn as much as possible about the subject, and then condense it to a form that will teach others in a work that they can mentally digest.

Lastly, the writing must interest the reader while following the rules of writing.  Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation will kill a reader’s interest and make the writer look uneducated, causing the loss of all credibility.  Write correctly, and write to appeal to an average reader.  Choose language that brings the subject to life, that brings color to a black-and-white past, and that truly captures the spirit of the people of the era. 

The most common method of conveying history to people is through writing.  The better the writing, the better the reading public understands of history.  The Pulitzer Prize Award for history is extremely prestigious, but I have never learned anything from one of the winners that I could not find in several other books.  The writing makes the difference; these prize winners rarely give new information, but they do write it well enough that people will read it and care about their past.

Learn more about this author, John Brant.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.