what is a historical perspective essay

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Understanding Historical Perspective

Historical perspective.

All historians bring to their works their own historical perspective. That perspective might be determined by his or her political bent or by the use of social theories in the analysis.

Every historian’s ideas are somewhere on the political spectrum. Historians may be described as conservative, liberal, or anywhere in between.  Rarely do scholars acknowledge their political perspective in their works; however, that does not mean that a perspective does not exist.  For instance, these historians differ significantly in their political views of Columbus and his world:

“The Spain that Christopher Columbus and his crews left behind just before dawn on August 3, 1492, as they sailed forth from Palos and out into the Atlantic, was for most of its people a land of violence, squalor, treachery, and intolerance.  In this respect Spain was no different from the rest of Europe.” David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 57. “Columbus personified the modern spirit.  A modest capitalist, he invested some of his own money in the venture.  When his tiny vessels dipped below the horizon in 1492, they carried with them a transcendent faith in the individual–and a passion for wealth, power, and glory.” Thomas Greer, A Brief History of Western Man, 2nd ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972), 210.

Some historians’ works are informed by social theories.  These theories most frequently include Marxism and feminism.   The use of the specific vocabulary of a theory, such as “patriarchy” and “exploitation,” often indicate an author’s use of that social theory in his or her analysis.

For instance, feminist works often discuss patriarchy and the subordination of women:

“Historically, the generative capacity of women has been the material basis for their subordination and oppression. Men, ruling classes, and states have sought to manipulate this capacity to suit their economic and political needs at various periods. This study presents one example, that of a planter class attempting to control the reproductive capacity of slave women in order to further its economic interests.” Rhoda E. Reddock, “Women and Slavery in the Caribbean: A Feminist Perspective,” Latin American Perspectives 44 (Winter 1985): 76-77. “The purpose of this article is to suggest that the burdens shouldered by slave women actually represented in extreme form the dual nature of all women’s labor within a patriarchal, capitalist society: the production of goods and services and the reproduction and care of members of a future work force.” Jacqueline Jones, “‘My Mother Was Much of a Woman’: Black Women, Work and the Family under Slavery,” Feminist Studies 8 (1982): 236.

Marxist works frequently describe relationships in terms of class structure and capital:

“In the Old South extensive and complicated commercial relations with the world market permitted the growth of a small commercial bourgeoisie.  The resulting fortunes flowed into slaveholding, which offered prestige and was economically and politically secure in a planter-dominated society. ” Eugene Genovese, “The Slave South: An Interpretation,” Science and Society 25 (1961): 323. “Similarly in Cuba slave mothers returned to work about six weeks after childbirth, at which time the child was turned over to the plantation nursery . . . . This illustration lays bare the realities of marriage and the nuclear family.  In this period in Caribbean history, this form of social organization did not meet the needs of capital.”  Rhoda E. Reddock, “Women and Slavery in the Caribbean: A Feminist Perspective,” Latin American Perspectives 44 (Winter 1985): 68-69.

See  here  for more tips on analyzing historiographically.

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1.2: What is Historical Analysis?

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• Stephanie Cole, Kimberly Breuer, Scott W. Palmer, and Brandon Blakeslee
• University of Texas at Arlington via Mavs Open Press

The principal goal of students in history classes and historians in practice is to master the process of Historical Analysis . History is more than a narrative of the past; the discipline cares less for the who, what, where, and when of an event, instead focusing on how and why certain events unfolded the way they did and what it all means. History is about argument, interpretation, and consequence. To complete quality historical analysis—that is, to “do history right”–one must use appropriate evidence, assess it properly (which involves comprehending how it is related to the situation in question), and then draw appropriate and meaningful conclusions based on said evidence.

The tools we use to analyze the past are a learned skill-set. While it is likely that the history you enjoy reading appears to be centered on a clear and direct narrative of past events, creating that story is more difficult than you might imagine. Writing history requires making informed judgments; we must read primary sources correctly, and then decide how to weigh the inevitable conflicts between those sources correctly. Think for a moment about a controversial moment in your own life—a traffic accident perhaps or a rupture between friends. Didn’t the various sources who experienced it—both sides, witnesses, the authorities—report on it differently? But when you recounted the story of what happened to others, you told a seamless story, which—whether you were conscience of it or not—required deciding whose report, or which discrete points from different reports—made the most sense. Even the decision to leave one particular turning point vague (“it’s a he said/she said unknowable point”) reflects the sort of judgment your listeners expect from you.

We use this same judgment when we use primary sources to write history; though in our case there are rules, or at least guidelines, about making those decisions. (For precise directions about reading primary sources, see the sections on “Reading Primary Sources” in the next chapter). In order to weigh the value of one source against other sources, we must be as informed as possible about that source’s historical context, the outlook of the source’s creator, and the circumstances of its creation. Indeed, as they attempt to uncover what happened, historians must learn about those circumstances and then be able to evaluate their impact on what the source reveals. Each actor in a historical moment brings their own cultural biases and preconceived expectations, and those biases are integral to the sources they leave behind. It is up to the historian to weave these differences together in their analysis in a way that is meaningful to readers. They must compare differences in ideologies, values, behaviors and traditions, as well as take in a multiplicity of perspectives, to create one story.

In addition to knowing how to treat their sources, historians and history students alike must tell a story worth telling, one that helps us as a society to understand who we are and how we got here. As humans, we want to know what caused a particular outcome, or perhaps whether a past actor or event is as similar to a present-day actor or event as it seems, or where the beginnings of a current movement began. (“What made Martin Luther King, Jr. a leader, when other activists had failed before him?” “Were reactions to the Civil Rights Movement similar to those of the current Black Lives Matter movement?” “How similar is the Coronavirus pandemic to the 1918 flu pandemic?” “Who were the first feminists and what did they believe?”) Even small aspects of larger events can help answer important questions. (“How did the suffrage movement (or Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, or the gun rights movement, or …) play out in my Texas hometown?”)

The very essence of historical analysis is about analyzing the different cause-and-effect relationships present in each scenario, considering the ways individuals, influential ideas, and different mindsets interact and affect one another. It is about figuring out what facts go together to form a coherent story, one that helps us understand ourselves and each other better. But such understandings, or indeed what exactly counts as “coherent,” can change with each generation. That’s where you and your interests as a student of history come in. Of key importance to the discipline is that our analysis of an event or individual is tentative or impermanent. The job of historians is to study the available evidence and construct meaningful conclusions; therefore, when new evidence and perspectives (including yours!) present themselves it may very well alter our understanding of the past.

As the section on historiography pointed out, a significant part of historical analysis is integrating new understandings of past events and actors with history as it already written. We don’t want to “reinvent the wheel” or simply retell the same story, using the same sources. Even as scholars provide new perspectives or uncover new evidence, revising what was thought to be known, they cannot simply ignore previous historical writing. Instead they need to address it, linking their new understanding to old scholarship as a part of building knowledge. Sometimes the linkage is a direct challenge to past explanations, but more likely new historical writing provides a nuance to the older work. For example, a scholar might look at new evidence to suggest a shift in periodization (“actually the rightward shift in the Republican Party began much earlier than Ronald Reagan’s campaigns”) or the importance of different actors (“middle-class Black women were more critical in the spreading of Progressive reforms in the South than we once thought”). Because historians are concerned with building knowledge and expanding scholarship, they choose their subjects of research with an eye toward adding to what we know, perhaps by developing new perspectives on old sources or by finding new sources.

For another view on historical thinking, this one offered by the American Historical Association, see “What does it mean to think historically?”

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

19 Standards of Historical Writing

In this chapter, you will learn the basic expectations for writing an undergrad history research paper. At this point in your college career, you’ve likely had a great deal of instruction about writing and you may be wondering why this chapter is here. There are at least three reasons:

• For some of you, those lessons about writing came before you were ready to appreciate or implement them. If you know your writing skills are weak, you should not only pay close attention to this chapter, but also submit early drafts of your work to the History Tutoring Center (at UTA) or another writing coach. Only practice and multiple drafts will improve those skills.
• Those of you who were paying attention in composition courses know the basics, but may lack a good understanding of the format and approach of scholarly writing in history. Other disciplines permit more generalities and relaxed associations than history, which is oriented toward specific contexts and (often, but not always) linear narratives. Moreover, because historians work in a subject often read by non-academics, they place a greater emphasis on clearing up jargon and avoiding convoluted sentence structure. In other words, the standards of historical writing are high and the guidelines that follow will help you reach them.
• Every writer, no matter how confident or experienced, faces writing blocks. Going back to the fundamental structures and explanations may help you get past the blank screen by supplying prompts to help you get started.

As you read the following guide, keep in mind that it represents only our perspective on the basic standards. In all writing, even history research papers, there is room for stylistic variation and elements of a personal style. But one of the standards of historical writing is that only those who fully understand the rules can break them successfully. If you regularly violate the rule against passive voice verb construction or the need for full subject-predicate sentences, you cannot claim the use of sentence fragments or passive voice verbs is “just your style.” Those who normally observe those grammatical rules, in contrast, might on occasion violate them for effect. The best approach is first to demonstrate to your instructor that you can follow rules of grammar and essay structure before you experiment or stray too far from the advice below.

Introductions

Introductions are nearly impossible to get right the first time. Thus, one of the best strategies for writing an introduction to your history essay is to keep it “bare bones” in the first draft, initially working only toward a version that covers the basic requirements. After you’ve written the full paper (and realized what you’re really trying to say, which usually differs from your initial outline), you can come back to the intro and re-draft it accordingly. However, don’t use the likelihood of re-writing your first draft to avoid writing one. Introductions provide templates not only for your readers, but also for you, the writer. A decent “bare bones” introduction can minimize writer’s block as a well-written thesis statement provides a road map for each section of the paper.

So what are the basic requirements? In an introduction, you must:

• Pose a worthwhile question or problem that engages your reader
• Establish that your sources are appropriate for answering the question, and thus that you are a trustworthy guide without unfair biases
• Convince your reader that they will be able to follow your explanation by laying out a clear thesis statement.

Engaging readers in an introduction

When you initiated your research, you asked questions as a part of the process of narrowing your topic (see the “Choosing and Narrowing a Topic” chapter for more info). If all went according to plan, the information you found as you evaluated your primary sources allowed you to narrow your question further, as well as arrive at a plausible answer, or explanation for the problem you posed. (If it didn’t, you’ll need to repeat the process, and either vary your questions or expand your sources. Consult your instructor, who can help identify what contribution your research into a set of primary sources can achieve.) The key task for your introduction is to frame your narrowed research question—or, in the words of some composition instructors, the previously assumed truth that your inquiries have destabilized—in a way that captures the attention of your readers. Common approaches to engaging readers include:

• Telling a short story (or vignette) from your research that illustrates the tension between what readers might have assumed before reading your paper and what you have found to be plausible instead.
• Stating directly what others believe to be true about your topic—perhaps using a quote from a scholar of the subject—and then pointing immediately to an aspect of your research that puts that earlier explanation into doubt.
• Revealing your most unexpected finding, before moving to explain the source that leads you to make the claim, then turning to the ways in which this finding expands our understanding of your topic.

What you do NOT want to do is begin with a far-reaching transhistorical claim about human nature or an open-ended rhetorical question about the nature of history. Grand and thus unprovable claims about “what history tells us” do not inspire confidence in readers. Moreover, such broadly focused beginnings require too much “drilling down” to get to your specific area of inquiry, words that risk losing readers’ interest. Last, beginning with generic ideas is not common to the discipline. Typical essay structures in history do not start broadly and steadily narrow over the course of the essay, like a giant inverted triangle. If thinking in terms of a geometric shape helps you to conceptualize what a good introduction does, think of your introduction as the top tip of a diamond instead. In analytical essays based on research, many history scholars begin with the specific circumstances that need explaining, then broaden out into the larger implications of their findings, before returning to the specifics in their conclusions—following the shape of a diamond.

Clear Thesis Statements

Under the standards of good scholarly writing in the United States—and thus those that should guide your paper—your introduction contains the main argument you will make in your essay. Elsewhere—most commonly in European texts—scholars sometimes build to their argument and reveal it fully only in the conclusion. Do not follow this custom in your essay. Include a well-written thesis statement somewhere in your introduction; it can be the first sentence of your essay, toward the end of the first paragraph, or even a page or so in, should you begin by setting the stage with a vignette. Wherever you place it, make sure your thesis statement meets the following standards:

A good thesis statement :

• Could be debated by informed scholars : Your claim should not be so obvious as to be logically impossible to argue against. Avoid the history equivalent of “the sky was blue.”
• Can be proven with the evidence at hand : In the allotted number of pages, you will need to introduce and explain at least three ways in which you can support your claim, each built on its own pieces of evidence. Making an argument about the role of weather on the outcome of the Civil War might be intriguing, given that such a claim questions conventional explanations for the Union’s victory. But a great deal of weather occurred in four years and Civil War scholars have established many other arguments you would need to counter, making such an argument impossible to establish in the length of even a long research paper. But narrowing the claim—to a specific battle or from a single viewpoint—could make such an argument tenable. Often in student history papers, the thesis incorporates the main primary source into the argument. For example, “As his journal and published correspondence between 1861 and 1864 reveal, Colonel Mustard believed that a few timely shifts in Tennessee’s weather could have altered the outcome of the war.”
• Is specific without being insignificant : Along with avoiding the obvious, stay away from the arcane. “Between 1861 and 1864, January proved to be the worst month for weather in Central Tennessee.” Though this statement about the past is debatable and possible to support with evidence about horrible weather in January and milder-by-comparison weather in other months, it lacks import because it’s not connected to knowledge that concerns historians. Thesis statements should either explicitly or implicitly speak to current historical knowledge—which they can do by refining, reinforcing, nuancing, or expanding what (an)other scholar(s) wrote about a critical event or person.
• P rovide s a “roadmap” to readers : Rather than just state your main argument, considering outlining the key aspects of it, each of which will form a main section of the body of the paper. When you echo these points in transitions between sections, readers will realize they’ve completed one aspect of your argument and are beginning a new part of it. To demonstrate this practice by continuing the fictional Colonel Mustard example above: “As his journal and published correspondence between 1861 and 1864 reveals, Colonel Mustard believed that Tennessee’s weather was critical to the outcome of the Civil War. He linked both winter storms and spring floods in Tennessee to the outcome of key battles and highlighted the weather’s role in tardy supply transport in the critical year of 1863.” Such a thesis cues the reader that evidence and explanations about 1) winter storms; 2) spring floods; and 3) weather-slowed supply transport that will form the main elements of the essay.

Thesis Statement Practice

More Thesis Statement Practice

The Body of the Paper

What makes a good paragraph.

While an engaging introduction and solid conclusion are important, the key to drafting a good essay is to write good paragraphs. That probably seems obvious, but too many students treat paragraphs as just a collection of a few sentences without considering the logic and rules that make a good paragraph. In essence, in a research paper such as the type required in a history course, for each paragraph you should follow the same rules as the paper itself. That is, a good paragraph has a topic sentence, evidence that builds to make a point, and a conclusion that ties the point to the larger argument of the paper. On one hand, given that it has so much work to do, paragraphs are three sentences , at a minimum . On the other hand, because paragraphs should be focused to making a single point, they are seldom more than six to seven sentences . Though rules about number of sentences are not hard and fast, keeping the guidelines in mind can help you construct tightly focused paragraphs in which your evidence is fully explained.

Topic sentences

The first sentence of every paragraph in a research paper (or very occasionally the second) should state a claim that you will defend in the paragraph . Every sentence in the paragraph should contribute to that topic. If you read back over your paragraph and find that you have included several different ideas, the paragraph lacks focus. Go back, figure out the job that this paragraph needs to do—showing why an individual is important, establishing that many accept an argument that you plan on countering, explaining why a particular primary source can help answer your research question, etc. Then rework your topic sentence until it correctly frames the point you need to make. Next, cut out (and likely move) the sentences that don’t contribute to that outcome. The sentences you removed may well help you construct the next paragraph, as they could be important ideas, just not ones that fit with the topic of the current paragraph. Every sentence needs to be located in a paragraph with a topic sentence that alerts the reader about what’s to come.

Transitions/Bridges/Conclusion sentences in paragraphs

All good writers help their readers by including transition sentences or phrases in their paragraphs, often either at the paragraph’s end or as an initial phrase in the topic sentence. A transition sentence can either connect two sections of the paper or provide a bridge from one paragraph to the next. These sentences clarify how the evidence discussed in the paragraph ties into the thesis of the paper and help readers follow the argument. Such a sentence is characterized by a clause that summarizes the info above, and points toward the agenda of the next paragraph. For example, if the current section of your paper focused on the negative aspects of your subject’s early career, but your thesis maintains he was a late-developing military genius, a transition between part one (on the negative early career) and part two (discussing your first piece of evidence revealing genius) might note that “These initial disastrous strategies were not a good predictor of General Smith’s mature years, however, as his 1841 experience reveals.” Such a sentence underscores for the reader what has just been argued (General Smith had a rough start) and sets up what’s to come (1841 was a critical turning point).

Explaining Evidence

Just as transitional sentences re-state points already made for clarity’s sake, “stitching” phrases or sentences that set-up and/or follow quotations from sources provide a certain amount of repetition. Re-stating significant points of analysis using different terms is one way you explain your evidence. Another way is by never allowing a quote from a source to stand on its own, as though its meaning was self-evident. It isn’t and indeed, what you, the writer, believes to be obvious seldom is. When in doubt, explain more.

For more about when to use a quotation and how to set it up see “How to quote” in the next section on Notes and Quotation.”

Conclusio ns

There exists one basic rule for conclusions: Summarize the paper you have written . Do not introduce new ideas, launch briefly into a second essay based on a different thesis, or claim a larger implication based on research not yet completed. This final paragraph is NOT a chance to comment on “what history tells us” or other lessons for humankind. Your conclusion should rest, more or less, on your thesis, albeit using different language from the introduction and evolved, or enriched, by examples discussed throughout the paper. Keep your conclusion relevant and short, and you’ll be fine.

For a checklist of things you need before you write or a rubric to evaluate your writing click here

How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking in the Discipline Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Cole; Kimberly Breuer; Scott W. Palmer; and Brandon Blakeslee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Historical Methods & Theory

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What is a Historiographical Essay?

Historiographical essays, evaluating secondary sources, acknowledgement.

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A historiographical essay:

• Is based on a broad, less focused topic or theme, e.g., Reconstruction in the United States)
• Critically examines secondary sources written by historians
• Puts emphasis on the historian, the historian's bias and how the writing of a particular topic has changed over the years
• Examines and compares other historians' arguments in opposition to each other

The purpose of an historiographic essay is threefold:

• To allow you to view an historical event or issue from multiple perspectives by engaging multiple sources;
• To display your mastery over those sources and over the event or issue itself; and
• To develop your critical reading skills as you seek to answer why your sources disagree, and what their disagreement tells you about the event or issue and the very nature of history itself.

Selected Titles About Historiography

• What information is given about the author? Is the author an historian?
• Can you identify the historian's school of thought?
• Read the table of contents, preface and other introductry material. Does the author set up his/her thesis (or point of view) in these sections? Who is the intended audience? Is it written for historians or for a general audience?
• What is the date of publication? If the book or article is old, it will not highlight recent scholarship. Is this important? Is it a reflection of the histories of the time or does it deviate from the norm?
• What primary source material does the author use? What primary source material may have been available to the author at the time?
• Consider the bibliography. Do the sources listed indicate serious works that are relevant to your topic? You may want to consult works used by the author. 

All materials from: Historiography: Ramapo College,   https://libguides.ramapo.edu/HIST201rice

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• Source Criticism
• Perspective

How to determine a source's perspective

When analysing a source, it is helpful to know the perspective of the creator , as this helps you to accurately assess its reliability and relevance .

What is 'perspective'?

Perspective is the 'point of view' from which the creator of a source described historical events.

Every person sees and understands events differently depending on their age, gender, social position, beliefs, and values. Even modern historians have their own perspectives which can influence how they interpret the past. 

For example:

T wo groups of fans at a football match will see the same game differently. Fans of the winning side will have a positive view and will usually talk about how great their team's actions were. The fans of the losing side will be quite negative and may blame the result on referees or 'cheating' by the opposing team.

How can two groups have different opinions of the same event? The answer is 'perspective': they had a different point of view.

Perspective works the same in history. Two opposing in sides in war, or politics, or social struggles, will see the same event differently and, as a result, have different opinions.

As a result, they will talk about it with different language.

Please be aware! 

Different perspectives does not necessarily mean that one side is 'right' and the other is 'wrong'. It simply means that there is a different point of view.

However, if the difference in perspective causes someone to lie or have an unfair view of events or people, which becomes bias , which is a different source analysis skill . You can learn more about bias here .  

How do I determine a source's perspective?

The most important step in determining perspective is the know who the creator was.

To do this, take the time to discover the name of the author of the particular source.

Once you know their name, you can conduct some background research about them.

Once you have sufficient knowledge about the creator the source, you are able to determine what their perspective was. 

This can be as simple as identifying the creator’s:

            - nationality (e.g., American, Japanese, etc.)

            - profession (e.g., university professor, soldier, etc.)

            - political persuasion (e.g., conservative, Communist, etc.)

            - cultural background (Egyptian, European, etc.)

            - gender (male, female, etc.)

            - religious beliefs (Christian, Muslim, etc.)

            - educational background (e.g., what university they work for)

Identifying perspective in your writing:

The Gallic Wars  is written from the perspective of  Julius Caesar, who was a wealthy  Roman nobleman, military general, and politician.

Source 2 is written from the perspective of an American soldier who fought in the Vietnam War.

Herodotus was a Greek from Halicarnassus, so he provides a Hellenistic historian's perspective on the events.  

What do you do once you've identified the perspective?

Once you have successfully identified the perspective of the source creator, it allows you to do a few things:

1. Helps inform your source evaluation

Understanding the background of the creator allows you to more confidently evaluate the reliability of a source.

Someone writing from the perspective of an academic expert in the historical topic you're investigating is likely to be more reliable than a website written by an unknown author.

2. Helps to explain the source's opinion on a topic

When comprehending and interpreting the explicit and implicit meaning of a historical source, you are able to better understand the opinions held by the source's creator about a particular topic. As a result, the identification of the author's perspective can help you understand WHY they hold this opinion.

If a source expresses the opinion that American soldiers in the Vietnam War were "murderers", it helps to understand that it was written from the perspective of a Vietnamese farmer whose family was killed by American troops during the conflict.

Using perspective to explain a source's opinion:

Source A holds the opinion that European colonists were innocent of the murders of First Nations Australians, as it states that they were "noble explorers who sought an honest living" . However, it is important to understand that this source was written from the perspective of the British governor of New South Wales at the time, who had a personal stake in covering up any evidence of misconduct by British subjects.

Anthony Smythe believes that the English Civil War was "at its very core, a class conflict between the wealthy aristocracy and the middle classes of English society". This conclusion is based upon the fact that Smythe was a member of the Socialist Party and, as a result, has a tendency to view historical events in terms of power struggles between different social classes.

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• HISTORICAL THINKING CONCEPTS
• Establish Historical Significance
• Use Primary Source Evidence
• Identify Continuity and Change
• Analyze Cause and Consequence
• Take Historical Perspectives
• Understand Ethical Dimensions of History

Historical Perspectives

“The past is a foreign country” and thus difficult to understand. What could it have been like to travel as a young fille du roi to New France in the 17th century? Can we imagine it, from our vantage point in the consumer society of the 21st century? What are the limits to our imagination?

Understanding the foreignness of the past is a huge challenge for students. But rising to the challenge illuminates the range of human behaviour, belief and social organization. It offers surprising alternatives to the taken-for-granted, conventional wisdom, and opens a wider perspective from which to evaluate our present preoccupations.

Taking historical perspective means understanding the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past. At any one point, different historical actors may have acted on the basis of conflicting beliefs and ideologies, so understanding diverse perspectives is also a key to historical perspective-taking. Though it is sometimes called “historical empathy,” historical perspective is very different from the common-sense notion of identification with another person. Indeed, taking historical perspective demands comprehension of the vast differences between us in the present and those in the past.

© Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness

How to Write a Perspective Essay?

Understanding the Importance of Perspective Essays

A perspective essay is a powerful tool that allows individuals to express their thoughts and opinions on a particular topic from their unique standpoint. Unlike other types of essays, a perspective essay requires a deep understanding of the subject matter and the ability to convey personal experiences, observations, and beliefs effectively. By sharing different perspectives, individuals contribute to a diverse and inclusive society where ideas are valued and respected.

Choosing a Compelling Topic

When selecting a topic for your perspective essay, it's important to choose something that you are passionate about and have a strong opinion on. Whether it's a social issue, political ideology, or personal experience, your topic should resonate with your audience and make them eager to read your insights. Research the chosen topic thoroughly to ensure you have a solid foundation of knowledge to build upon.

Gathering Evidence and Conducting Research

Before diving into writing your perspective essay, it's crucial to gather relevant evidence to support your claims and arguments. Conduct thorough research using credible sources such as books, scholarly articles, and reputable websites. Take notes, highlight important information, and carefully analyze different viewpoints to strengthen your own perspective.

Structuring Your Perspective Essay

The structure of a perspective essay is similar to other types of essays. It consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The introduction should grab the reader's attention and provide a brief overview of the topic and your stance. The body paragraphs, which are the core of your essay, should present your arguments, supporting evidence, and counterarguments. Finally, the conclusion should summarize your main points and leave the reader with a thought-provoking closing statement.

Writing with Clarity and Coherence

When writing your perspective essay, aim for clarity and coherence. Use clear, concise, and precise language to articulate your ideas. Structure your paragraphs logically, ensuring a smooth flow of thoughts. Support your arguments with relevant examples, anecdotes, or statistics to engage your audience and strengthen your position. Remember to acknowledge and address opposing viewpoints respectfully, demonstrating open-mindedness and critical thinking.

Formatting and Stylistic Considerations

While the content of your perspective essay is crucial, don't overlook the importance of formatting and style. Use appropriate heading tags, such as H2 or H3, for each section and subsection to improve readability and assist search engines in understanding the structure of your content. Enhance the visual appeal of your essay by using bullet points or numbered lists to break down complex information into digestible chunks. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout the text to optimize your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

Editing and Proofreading

Once you've completed your perspective essay, take the time to review, edit, and proofread it carefully. Pay attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. Ensure your ideas flow smoothly and coherently. Remove any unnecessary repetition or tangential information. Consider seeking feedback from peers, teachers, or online communities to gain valuable insights and improve the overall quality of your essay.

Example Perspective Essay: The Power of Empathy

The following is an example of a perspective essay on the power of empathy:

Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is a remarkable human trait that holds immense power. In a world filled with turmoil and division, empathy acts as a bridge, fostering understanding, compassion, and connection. It enables us to step into someone else's shoes, see the world through their eyes, and recognize their struggles and challenges.

When we embrace empathy, we break down barriers and cultivate a sense of unity. It allows us to transcend our personal biases and preconceptions, opening our minds to a multitude of perspectives. Empathy promotes inclusivity and acceptance, nurturing a society where diversity is celebrated and everyone feels valued.

One powerful aspect of empathy is its ability to spark positive change. By understanding the experiences of others, we become motivated to take action and address social injustices. Through empathy, we recognize the need for equality, justice, and human rights. It fuels our determination to create a better world for ourselves and future generations.

In conclusion, writing a perspective essay is an opportunity to express your thoughts, opinions, and experiences in a unique and compelling way. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can confidently tackle the task of writing a perspective essay. Remember to choose a captivating topic, conduct thorough research, structure your essay effectively, and write with clarity and coherence. By sharing your perspectives, you contribute to the rich tapestry of ideas that shape our society.

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• 3. Historical Analysis and Interpretation

One of the most common problems in helping students to become thoughtful readers of historical narrative is the compulsion students feel to find the one right answer, the one essential fact, the one authoritative interpretation. “Am I on the right track?” “Is this what you want?” they ask. Or, worse yet, they rush to closure, reporting back as self-evident truths the facts or conclusions presented in the document or text.

These problems are deeply rooted in the conventional ways in which textbooks have presented history: a succession of facts marching straight to a settled outcome. To overcome these problems requires the use of more than a single source: of history books other than textbooks and of a rich variety of historical documents and artifacts that present alternative voices, accounts, and interpretations or perspectives on the past.

Students need to realize that historians may differ on the facts they incorporate in the development of their narratives and disagree as well on how those facts are to be interpreted. Thus, “history” is usually taken to mean what happened in the past; but written history is a dialogue among historians, not only about what happened but about why and how events unfolded. The study of history is not only remembering answers. It requires following and evaluating arguments and arriving at usable, even if tentative, conclusions based on the available evidence.

To engage in  historical analysis and interpretation  students must draw upon their skills of historical comprehension . In fact, there is no sharp line separating the two categories. Certain of the skills involved in comprehension overlap the skills involved in analysis and are essential to it. For example, identifying the author or source of a historical document or narrative and assessing its credibility (comprehension) is prerequisite to comparing competing historical narratives (analysis). Analysis builds upon the skills of comprehension; it obliges the student to assess the evidence on which the historian has drawn and determine the soundness of interpretations created from that evidence. It goes without saying that in acquiring these analytical skills students must develop the ability to differentiate between expressions of opinion, no matter how passionately delivered, and informed hypotheses grounded in historical evidence.

Well-written historical narrative has the power to promote students’ analysis of historical causality–of how change occurs in society, of how human intentions matter, and how ends are influenced by the means of carrying them out, in what has been called the tangle of process and outcomes. Few challenges can be more fascinating to students than unraveling the often dramatic complications of cause. And nothing is more dangerous than a simple, monocausal explanation of past experiences and present problems.

Finally, well-written historical narratives can also alert students to the traps of  lineality and inevitability . Students must understand the relevance of the past to their own times, but they need also to avoid the trap of lineality, of drawing straight lines between past and present, as though earlier movements were being propelled teleologically toward some rendezvous with destiny in the late 20th century.

A related trap is that of thinking that events have unfolded inevitably–that the way things are is the way they had to be, and thus that individuals lack free will and the capacity for making choices. Unless students can conceive that history could have turned out differently, they may unconsciously accept the notion that the future is also inevitable or predetermined, and that human agency and individual action count for nothing. No attitude is more likely to feed civic apathy, cynicism, and resignation–precisely what we hope the study of history will fend off. Whether in dealing with the main narrative or with a topic in depth, we must always try, in one historian’s words, to “restore to the past the options it once had.”

HISTORICAL THINKING STANDARD 3

The student engages in historical analysis and interpretation:

Therefore, the student is able to:

• Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas , values, personalities, behaviors, and institutions by identifying likenesses and differences.
• Consider multiple perspectives  of various peoples in the past by demonstrating their differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes, and fears.
• Analyze cause-and-effect relationships  bearing in mind  multiple causation including (a)  the importance of the individual  in history; (b)  the influence of ideas , human interests, and beliefs; and (c) the role of chance, the accidental and the irrational.
• Draw comparisons across eras and regions in order to define enduring issues as well as large-scale or long-term developments that transcend regional and temporal boundaries.
• Distinguish between unsupported expressions of opinion and informed hypotheses grounded in historical evidence.
• Compare competing historical narratives.
• Challenge arguments of historical inevitability  by formulating examples of historical contingency, of how different choices could have led to different consequences.
• Hold interpretations of history as tentative , subject to changes as new information is uncovered, new voices heard, and new interpretations broached.
• Evaluate major debates among historians  concerning alternative interpretations of the past.
• Hypothesize the influence of the past , including both the limitations and opportunities made possible by past decisions.

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Home » Student Resources » Historical Essay: What is it?

Historical Essay: What is it?

A history essay starts with an argument or position you first form in your thesis statement, and that you then add to and support with evidence arranged in the body of the essay. Your conclusion then needs to respond directly to your thesis statement.

• Social Sciences

What is a historical essay?

A history essay is not exactly the same as a regular essay. The parts are similar: It has an “ introduction ” which includes your “ thesis statement “, which is then supported by evidence you collect and put together in the “ body ” of the essay. You also need to sum things up in a “ conclusion ” that responds directly to your thesis statement.

While planning, researching, thinking about and writing your history essay, there are a few tips to remember (See tabs above).

History needs time

Historians like you need consider the “chronology” of events in time. In other words, you need to know what time period you are talking about, and you need to  make that clear to your reader . How long ago you are talking about? What came before and after the events you are describing? When was this all happening? What do you call that time period?

The pictures above (by RECITUS.qc.ca) are from a film on how to prepare for an exam by Timelining the different time “periods”.

History needs historical contexts

The “context” for your essay means what else is going on at the time. You should be clear about that in your introduction and keep it in mind throughout the essay. For example, what were the economic, political, social, territorial and cultural changes that were happening? How was the world was changing then? What major events surround the time you are writing?

The pictures above (by RECITUS.qc.ca) are from a film on how to prepare for an exam by Timeline-ing the different time “periods”.

Historians use documents

Try to use different “primary source” original documents from the time period. And when you use “secondary sources” written by other historians that you find in books, newspapers, on websites, etc., make sure you indicate that these are secondary sources. In both cases, make sure the reader understands who wrote those documents, and their point of view.

The above documents (photographs, posters, newspapers) were taken from three excellent websites that offer primary source documents:

• Library and Archives Canada
• McCord Museum, Montreal History Museum
• Google Newspaper Archives

Note that in some cases (like on Exams!) you may be given document files, from which you must get your information and decide on the topics of your essay. Remember to pay attention to headings for these historical documents, and consider closely which parts of the original document has been chosen for you.

Historians think like historians

Historians examine the causes and the consequences of events. This is more precise than just the context; these are the reasons why something happened, and the things that happened afterwards because of it.

Historians also try to determine what has changed and what has stayed the same, and again, they try to explain why.

And like you, they state their opinion. You can do the same in your essay, and you can state why your opinion differs or is the same as other writers.

When you are writing a history essay, try to remember these strategies. Another good source for strategies is The Historial Thinking Project at  http://historicalthinking.ca/

The above image (s) were taken from the McCord online exhibit entitled Urban Life through Two Lenses, specifically from the photographic pairing entitled “ View of the Montreal Habour ” (Public Domain)

• Historical Thinking Project
• McCord Museum

Related How To's

Historical Essay: Conclusion

Historical Essay: The Body

Historical Essay: Introduction

Historical Essay: Thesis Statement

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Coherence and Plausibility in Historical Writing

To make a coherent historical argument, it is first of all important to follow the conventions of good expository writing. You should ensure that you sustain your argument throughout your paper, referring back to it frequently and linking each piece of evidence to your larger thesis. State your argument clearly in the introduction, and sum things up again in your conclusion. This is not an exercise of listing off facts. Even when you are writing a review of another author's work, summary should represent a relatively small part of your paper. Your main goal should be to convince your reader of the validity of the particular historical argument that you are making.

Coherent writing in general also requires the use of signposts. These are small phrases and comments that make it clear to your reader exactly where you are going with your argument. Do not simply assume that your reader will see the logical connections between a bit of evidence and your thesis. Explain why this evidence demonstrates your point. Use explicit statements like: "this demonstrates," "proving that," "elucidates," "reveals the connections between" .... Other handy words for making links between one point and another include: "moreover," "consequently," "therefore," etc.

Most importantly, making a coherent and plausible historical argument requires historical perspective (as described above). This means constructing an argument that pays attention to the logic of cause and effect. It is not enough to simply list off events in order of their occurrence. You must explain how events came about. What particular social/economic/political circumstances contributed to the outcome of the event you are exploring? Who was the actor that set in motion a particular chain of events and what structural circumstances made this possible? (The former element is often referred to as "structure" while the later is called "agency".) You cannot just assume, for instance, that just because certain prominent figures wanted a given event to occur, they actually succeeded in bringing it about. This is particularly true of the various revolutions of Modern European History, which were often precipitated as much by economic turmoil and bad harvests as they were motivated by new political ideas. Both the agents of change and the structural circumstances of their actions must be clearly articulated to make a convincing historical argument.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, what is a perspective essay.

Hi everyone, I just came across a term 'perspective essay.' I haven't heard of this before, so can anyone give me a quick overview of what it is and how to write one? Thanks!

Hi there! A "perspective essay" refers to a type of paper that presents the writer's viewpoint or opinion on a specific topic as a form of personal reflection. The primary goal of a perspective essay is to show your unique perspective and establish a clear argument or position on the subject matter.

To write a perspective essay, follow these steps:

1. Choose a topic: Pick something you're passionate or knowledgeable about, as it makes for a more compelling read. Make sure the topic is not too broad, and it should be something that has room for debate or discussion.

2. Develop a thesis statement: This is the central point of your essay and should clearly state your perspective on the topic. Your thesis statement should be concise, well-defined, and easy to understand.

3. Organize your thoughts: Outline the structure of your essay before you start writing. This can help you ensure that your thoughts flow seamlessly from one point to the next and prevent you from drifting off-topic.

4. Write the introduction: Engage your readers by providing some context or background information about the topic. Then, present your thesis statement, which will act as the guideline for the rest of your paper.

5. Present your arguments: Use the body paragraphs to discuss your main points or arguments that support your thesis statement. Be sure to provide evidence by citing relevant sources, examples, or personal experiences to solidify your claims.

6. Address counterarguments: It's essential to offer a balanced perspective by considering opposing viewpoints. You can either dedicate a separate paragraph for counterarguments or address them throughout your body paragraphs. This allows you to demonstrate critical thinking and shows that your opinion is well-informed and well-reasoned.

7. Write the conclusion: Sum up your main points and restate your thesis in a different way. Leave your reader with a thought-provoking statement or question that encourages further discussion and reflection.

8. Revise and edit: Carefully review your essay for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity. It's always helpful to have someone else proofread your work to identify any errors or areas that could be improved.

Remember that in a perspective essay, it's not about being right or wrong — it's about presenting your viewpoint effectively and persuasively. Good luck and happy writing!

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26 Student Example Essay: New Historicism

The following student essay example of New Historicism is taken from Beginnings and Endings: A Critical Edition .  This is the publication created by students in English 211. This essay discusses Lorrie Moore’s short story, “Terrific Mother.”

When Women Were Never Enough: A New Historical Perspective on Lorrie Moore’s “Terrific Mother”

by Tania Agurto

Motherhood has been a source of discord in recent decades for being a concept that is exclusively associated with women, and it turns out to be for some people or societies a kind of meter that helps to pigeonhole women or rank them depending on whether they have decided or managed to be mothers. Lorrie Moore’s “Terrific Mother” presents us this reality through Adrienne, a woman in her mid-thirties, single, childless, which due to her personal circumstances receives compliments such as, “You would make a terrific mother” (Moore 3). Adrienne attends a gathering of friends and by accident, her friend’s baby she holds falls along with her when the picnic bench toppled on her, and sadly the baby dies, which leads her to make decisions such as seclusion for months and later marriage, as an escape route from her pain and guilt. This is how Adrianne, despite being a woman who breaks with the socially established canons, cannot get out of the vicious circle established for women in those years.

Through the lens of New Historical Criticism, we can appreciate the external influences that shape Moore’s work and at the same time understand the reality experienced by women in the late 1990s. At the end of the nineties the world was already seeing a change concerning the established social model; this could be appreciated in the delay in the age of marriage and childbirth due to prioritizing the pursuit of a professional career, the joining of women to the workforce or simply seeking independence without the need for marriage. These changes were reflected in the increase in the average age of women at the time of marriage, which had risen from 20 – 22 years in the early nineties to 25 years at the end of 1997 (Yarrow). This is how the author manages to bring to the fore the important social events that were happening worldwide through Adrienne, a single and independent woman. Regarding that, Karen Weekes declares that “protagonists in Moore’s short stories cycles are constantly exploring and pushing against the social boundaries that they and others have established” (3).

A characteristic of the social change of the nineties is the recognition and the requirement of women as a multifaceted beings; however, in Text and Contexts Steven Lynn acknowledges that having equal opportunities is good, but it is not fair when the woman is responsible for taking those opportunities while taking care of everything else (223). Weekes also refers to this and points out that “females’ identities are continually formed and reformed, allowing women to fluctuate between stages of development in response to the sociological demands of relationships and maternal nurturing.” However, we can see to this day that, even though things have become the same through the years, the demand has always been greater for women or the reward for the opportunity has been uneven.

Although we know that the historical context will shape the result whatever the work, the author’s background will also do it. Steven Lynn points out “We can hardly understand one person’s life without some sense of the time and place in which he or she lived, and we can hardly understand human history without trying to think about the individual humans who made it” (148). As part of Moore’s life story, she comments that as a child she was very thin and that made her feel fearful of her environment; she even shared that she was afraid to walk over the grates. Once she became an adult that was not an exception since Moore, like Adrianne, broke with the established pattern, but she continued with his fearful personality. Don Lee comments that “her expectations for herself were modest. Entering St. Lawrence, she hadn’t been exactly bursting with ambition.” Later Moore adds, “ I think I probably went to college to fall in love” (“About Lorrie Moore”). The influence of her environment and pre-established social patterns have likely helped her to feel that way concerning her personal abilities and expectations. How did this fearful girl become the successful writer of “Terrific Mother”? It is probably her personality that has helped in a great way since this influences her way of writing which is detailed as follows: “Many of her stories are fairly traditional in structure, but there is always that quickness of movement, that slightly skewed narrative perspective that keeps you alert and a little uneasy —she could pull something anytime, and you don’t want to miss it” (Unlikely Stories). Moore herself catalogs her life as “conventional” and that is what makes her strangely close in her way of writing.

However, despite not feeling too trained or not being completely sure of the path she wanted to follow professionally, she broke all standards and has even been highlighted as one of the best authors of American short stories.  In an article that talks about the rebirth of American short stories Vince Passaro declares, “When volumes like those from Lorrie Moore …a new kind of work stepped out onto the American literary landscape, more psychologically rich and confrontational than that of the minimalists” (“Unlikely Stones”).

The time period in which the story was written tells us a lot about important social changes concerning the visualization of women as defiant beings of the unilaterally established rules. In the late 1990s, it was the Post Feminist movement that was gaining momentum; however, it seems that Adrienne remains to live only First Wave Feminism, since it only leaves the parameter of breaking the scheme, but does not advance further.

The foregoing is explained in her decision to marry Martin, who offers her the option to accompany him to his academic retreat in northern Italy, then in this way “she could be a spouse” (Moore 4). The emotional situation that Adrienne experiences does not allow her to see further and she thinks that this decision will allow her to resume her life; to try to live again because she “is a bushwoman now” (Moore 4). As a consequence of this decision, Adrienne becomes emotionally subjugated to Martin, which makes her dependent on him emotionally and does not help her with her previous mental-emotional situation.

“Terrific Mother” is a complex story in which Lorrie Moore takes us along surprising paths and we can see how the historical context influences the development of this work; however, it should be mentioned that Moore’s background also affects the setting of the stage in this story. Just as she admits to leading a very conventional life, she also leads Adrienne to try to follow the same path, because “Marriage it’s an institution”, which means that at this time in a historical-social environment, surpassed currents of equality, equity, and liberation.

Works Cited

Critical Worlds Copyright © 2024 by Liza Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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From the President

Is History History?

Identity Politics and Teleologies of the Present

James H. Sweet | Aug 17, 2022

Author’s Note (Aug 19, 2022)

My September Perspectives on History column has generated anger and dismay among many of our colleagues and members. I take full responsibility that it did not convey what I intended and for the harm that it has caused. I had hoped to open a conversation on how we “do” history in our current politically charged environment. Instead, I foreclosed this conversation for many members, causing harm to colleagues, the discipline, and the Association.

A president’s monthly column, one of the privileges of the elected office, provides a megaphone to the membership and the discipline. The views and opinions expressed in that column are not those of the Association. If my ham-fisted attempt at provocation has proven anything, it is that the AHA membership is as vocal and robust as ever. If anyone has criticisms that they have been reluctant or unable to post publicly, please feel free to contact me directly .

I sincerely regret the way I have alienated some of my Black colleagues and friends. I am deeply sorry. In my clumsy efforts to draw attention to methodological flaws in teleological presentism, I left the impression that questions posed from absence, grief, memory, and resilience somehow matter less than those posed from positions of power. This absolutely is not true. It wasn’t my intention to leave that impression, but my provocation completely missed the mark.

Once again, I apologize for the damage I have caused to my fellow historians, the discipline, and the AHA. I hope to redeem myself in future conversations with you all. I’m listening and learning.

The discipline did not heed Hunt’s warning. From 2003 to 2013, the number of PhDs awarded to students working on topics post-1800, across all fields, rose 18 percent. Meanwhile, those working on pre-1800 topics declined by 4 percent. During this time, the Wall Street meltdown was followed by plummeting undergraduate enrollments in history courses and increased professional interest in the history of contemporary socioeconomic topics. Then came Obama, and Twitter, and Trump. As the discipline has become more focused on the 20th and 21st centuries, historical analyses are contained within an increasingly constrained temporality. Our interpretations of the recent past collapse into the familiar terms of contemporary debates, leaving little room for the innovative, counterintuitive interpretations.

This trend toward presentism is not confined to historians of the recent past; the entire discipline is lurching in this direction, including a shrinking minority working in premodern fields. If we don’t read the past through the prism of contemporary social justice issues—race, gender, sexuality, nationalism, capitalism—are we doing history that matters? This new history often ignores the values and mores of people in their own times, as well as change over time, neutralizing the expertise that separates historians from those in other disciplines. The allure of political relevance, facilitated by social and other media, encourages a predictable sameness of the present in the past. This sameness is ahistorical, a proposition that might be acceptable if it produced positive political results. But it doesn’t.

In many places, history suffuses everyday life as presentism; America is no exception. We suffer from an overabundance of history, not as method or analysis, but as anachronistic data points for the articulation of competing politics. The consequences of this new history are everywhere. I traveled to Ghana for two months this summer to research and write, and my first assignment was a critical response to The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story for a forthcoming forum in the American Historical Review . Whether or not historians believe that there is anything new in the New York Times project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project is a best-selling book that sits at the center of current controversies over how to teach American history. As journalism, the project is powerful and effective, but is it history?

This new history often ignores the values and mores of people in their own times.

When I first read the newspaper series that preceded the book, I thought of it as a synthesis of a tradition of Black nationalist historiography dating to the 19th century with Ta-Nehisi Coates’s recent call for reparations. The project spoke to the political moment, but I never thought of it primarily as a work of history. Ironically, it was professional historians’ engagement with the work that seemed to lend it historical legitimacy. Then the Pulitzer Center, in partnership with the Times , developed a secondary school curriculum around the project. Local school boards protested characterizations of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison as unpatriotic owners of “forced labor camps.” Conservative lawmakers decided that if this was the history of slavery being taught in schools, the topic shouldn’t be taught at all. For them, challenging the Founders’ position as timeless tribunes of liberty was “racially divisive.” At each of these junctures, history was a zero-sum game of heroes and villains viewed through the prism of contemporary racial identity. It was not an analysis of people’s ideas in their own time, nor a process of change over time.

In Ghana, I traveled to Elmina for a wedding. A small seaside fishing village, Elmina was home to one of the largest Atlantic slave-trading depots in West Africa. The morning after the wedding, a small group of us met for breakfast at the hotel. As we waited for several members of our party to show up, a group of African Americans began trickling into the breakfast bar. By the time they all gathered, more than a dozen members of the same family—three generations deep—pulled together the restaurant’s tables to dine. Sitting on the table in front of one of the elders was a dog-eared copy of The 1619 Project .

Later that afternoon, my family and I toured Elmina Castle alongside several Ghanaians, a Dane, and a Jamaican family. Our guide gave a well-rehearsed tour geared toward African Americans. American influence was everywhere, from memorial plaques to wreaths and flowers left on the floors of the castle’s dungeons. Arguably, Elmina Castle is now as much an African American shrine as a Ghanaian archaeological or historical site. As I reflected on breakfast earlier that morning, I could only imagine the affirmation and bonding experienced by the large African American family—through the memorialization of ancestors lost to slavery at Elmina Castle, but also through the story of African American resilience, redemption, and the demand for reparations in The 1619 Project .

Yet as a historian of Africa and the African diaspora, I am troubled by the historical erasures and narrow politics that these narratives convey. Less than one percent of the Africans passing through Elmina arrived in North America. The vast majority went to Brazil and the Caribbean. Should the guide’s story differ for a tour with no African Americans? Likewise, would The 1619 Project tell a different history if it took into consideration that the shipboard kin of Jamestown’s “20. and odd” Africans also went to Mexico, Jamaica, and Bermuda? These are questions of historical interpretation, but present-day political ones follow: Do efforts to claim a usable African American past reify elements of American hegemony and exceptionalism such narratives aim to dismantle?

The Elmina tour guide claimed that “Ghanaians” sent their “servants” into chattel slavery unknowingly. The guide made no reference to warfare or Indigenous slavery, histories that interrupt assumptions of ancestral connection between modern-day Ghanaians and visitors from the diaspora. Similarly, the forthcoming film The Woman King seems to suggest that Dahomey’s female warriors and King Ghezo fought the European slave trade. In fact, they promoted it. Historically accurate rendering of Asante or Dahomean greed and enslavement apparently contradict modern-day political imperatives.

Hollywood need not adhere to historians’ methods any more than journalists or tour guides, but bad history yields bad politics. The erasure of slave-trading African empires in the name of political unity is uncomfortably like right-wing conservative attempts to erase slavery from school curricula in the United States, also in the name of unity. These interpretations are two sides of the same coin. If history is only those stories from the past that confirm current political positions, all manner of political hacks can claim historical expertise.

This is not history; it is dilettantism.

Too many Americans have become accustomed to the idea of history as an evidentiary grab bag to articulate their political positions, a trend that can be seen in recent US Supreme Court decisions. The word “history” appears 95 times in Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion overturning New York’s conceal-carry gun law. Likewise, Samuel Alito invokes “history” 67 times in his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade . Despite amicus briefs written by professional historians in both cases ( including one co-authored by the AHA and the Organization of American Historians ), the court’s majority deploys only those pieces of historical evidence that support their preconceived political biases.

The majority decisions are ahistorical. In the conceal-carry case, Justice Thomas cherry-picks historical data, casting aside restrictions in English common law as well as historical examples of limitations on gun rights in the United States to illustrate America’s so-called “tradition” of individual gun ownership rights. Then, Thomas uses this “historical” evidence to support his interpretation of the original meaning of the Second Amendment as it was written in 1791, including the right of individuals (not a “well regulated Militia”) to conceal and carry automatic pistols. In Dobbs v. Jackson , Justice Alito ignores legal precedents punishing abortion only after “quickening.” concluding: “An unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.” This is not history; it is dilettantism.

In his dissent to NYSRPA v. Bruen , Justice Stephen Breyer disparagingly labels the majority’s approach “law office history.” He recognizes that historians engage in research methods and interpretive approaches incompatible with solving modern-day legal, political, or economic questions. As such, he argues that history should not be the primary measure for adjudicating contemporary legal issues.

Professional historians would do well to pay attention to Breyer’s admonition. The present has been creeping up on our discipline for a long time. Doing history with integrity requires us to interpret elements of the past not through the optics of the present but within the worlds of our historical actors. Historical questions often emanate out of present concerns, but the past interrupts, challenges, and contradicts the present in unpredictable ways. History is not a heuristic tool for the articulation of an ideal imagined future. Rather, it is a way to study the messy, uneven process of change over time. When we foreshorten or shape history to justify rather than inform contemporary political positions, we not only undermine the discipline but threaten its very integrity.

James H. Sweet is president of the AHA.

Tags: From the President Africa African American History Cultural History Migration/Immigration/Diaspora

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Module 1: Westward Expansion (1840-1900)

Analyzing documents using the happy analysis, learning objectives.

• Analyze primary source documents using the HAPPY Analysis

The H.A.P.P.Y. Analysis

Because we will be looking at primary sources so often in this course, it is helpful to use a consistent pattern for analyzing the documents. There are several strategies to help you analyze documents, but no matter which technique you use, the important thing is to simply take the time to read documents carefully and look for the information you need. You want to read historical sources like an investigator—looking for information that might reveal clues about a person, event, or time period. In longer texts, this often includes using headers to help you, reading the introduction, looking up confusing words, and considering the viewpoint from which the primary source originates. One strategy for analyzing primary sources is known as H.A.P.P.Y.

The H.A.P.P.Y. analysis consists of:

H : Historical Context

• Where and when was this source produced? Focus on how place and time affect its impact, message, and genesis.
• Place it in the appropriate context – connect it with ideas before and after, or related events.

A : Audience

• Who is the author’s intended audience?
• How does the audience affect the validity of the document and its message? For example, how might their message have been modified or shaped to suit their audience?

P : Purpose

• What is the author’s purpose and/or motivation for creating this source?
• Is this intended to persuade or inform? Is this some sort of propaganda?
• How does the purpose affect reliability and validity?

P : Point of View

• What do you know about the author’s background?
• How does the author’s role in society and hierarchy affect their perspective?
• How does this affect the reliability and validity of the source?

Y : Why? (Significance)

• What is the main idea the source is trying to convey?
• Why is this source important to history?
• Why does this source relate to your thesis and/or the prompt? (Remember to explain this in your writing)

H.A.P.P.Y Analysis of the Extermination of the American Bison (1889)

Let’s practice the HAPPY Analysis by taking a careful look at the document by  William T. Hornady on the Extermination of the American Bison (1889). William Hornady, Superintendent of the National Zoological Park, wrote a detailed account of the near-extinction of the American bison in the late-nineteenth century.

Figure 1 . Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal.

Of all the quadrupeds that have lived upon the earth, probably no other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of buffaloes living at any given time during the history of the species previous to 1870. Even in South Central Africa, which has always been exceedingly prolific in great herds of game, it is probable that all its quadrupeds taken together on an equal area would never have more than equaled the total number of buffalo in this country forty years ago.…

Between the Rocky Mountains and the States lying along the Mississippi River on the west, from Minnesota to Louisiana, the whole country was one vast buffalo range, inhabited by millions of buffaloes. One could fill a volume with the records of plainsmen and pioneers who penetrated or crossed that vast region between 1800 and 1870, and were in turn surprised, astounded, and frequently dismayed by the tens of thousands of buffaloes they observed, avoided, or escaped from. They lived and moved as no other quadrupeds ever have, in great multitudes, like grand armies in review, covering scores of square miles at once. They were so numerous they frequently stopped boats in the rivers, threatened to overwhelm travelers on the plains, and in later years derailed locomotives and cars, until railway engineers learned by experience the wisdom of stopping their trains whenever there were buffaloes crossing the track. …

No wonder that the men of the West of those days, both white and red, thought it would be impossible to exterminate such a mighty multitude. The Indians of some tribes believed that the buffaloes issued from the earth continually, and that the supply was necessarily inexhaustible. And yet, in four short years the southern herd was almost totally annihilated…

It will be doubly deplorable if the remorseless slaughter we have witnessed during the last twenty years carries with it no lessons for the future. A continuation of the record we have lately made as wholesome game butchers will justify posterity in dating us back with the mound-builders and cave-dwellers, when man’s only known function was to slay and eat.

The primary cause of the buffalo’s extermination, and the one which embraced all others, was the descent of civilization, with all its elements of destructiveness, upon the whole of the country inhabited by that animal. From the Great Slave Lake to the Rio Grande the home of the buffalo was everywhere overrun by the man with a gun; and, as has ever been the case, the wild creatures were gradually swept away, the largest and most conspicuous forms being the first to go.

The secondary causes of the extermination of the buffalo may be catalogued as follows:

• Man’s reckless greed, his wanton destructiveness, and improvidence in not husbanding such resources as come to him from the hand of nature ready made.
• The total and utterly inexcusable absence of protective measures and agencies on the part of the National Government and of the Western States and Territories.
• The fatal preference on the part of hunters generally, both white and red, for the robe and flesh of the cow over that furnished by the bull.
• The phenomenal stupidity of the animals themselves, and their indifference to man.
• The perfection of modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting fire-arms in general.

Each of these causes acted against the buffalo with its full force, to offset which there was not even one restraining or preserving influence, and it is not to be wondered at that the species went down before them. Had any one of these conditions been eliminated the result would have been reached far less quickly. Had the buffalo, for example, possessed one-half the fighting qualities of the grizzly bear he would have fared very differently, but his inoffensiveness and lack of courage almost leads one to doubt the wisdom of the economy of nature so far as it relates to him…

The buffalo supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding, saddles, ropes, shields, and innumerable smaller articles of use and ornament. In the United States a paternal government takes the place of the buffalo in supplying all these wants of the red man, and it costs several millions of dollars annually to accomplish the task…

The Indians of what was once the buffalo country are not starving and freezing, for the reason that the United States Government supplies them regularly with beef and blankets in lieu of buffalo. Does any one imagine that the Government could not have regulated the killing of buffaloes, and thus maintained the supply, for far less money than it now costs to feed and clothe those 54,758 Indians?…

There is reason to fear that unless the United States Government takes the matter in hand and makes a special effort to prevent it, the pure-blood bison will be lost irretrievably….

Source: Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1889).

Historical Context

For historical documents, reading critically means placing the author, audience, and message into their historical context. The author and the audience may have lived in times and places very different than our own. Their lives, their knowledge, and their assumptions might be very different than our own. So you need to carefully construct a mental picture of their world, and then relate what they say and what they do to your knowledge of that world.

Ask yourself, based on your readings, what do you know of the historical events surrounding the source? Was there a war? A plague? A technological innovation? A social change? How was society structured? What part of it did the author and audience occupy? How might that affect their viewpoints?

This can be quite tricky. Our guesses about the past might be wrong. But such imaginative reconstructions are necessary to fully appreciate historical sources.

Comprehending an author’s message is only the first step in reading critically. You still need to figure out why the author sent it: the message’s intended audience, its purpose, and its context. This analysis is the exciting part of the process, and the most useful.

Every piece of writing has an author, an audience, and a message. As you read, you should think about each of these pieces simultaneously.

Who does the author expect will be reading their work? If you are reading a historical document, to whom is it addressed? If the author doesn’t say, can you guess? Is the audience part of the author’s own group (whatever that is) or an outsider? How does the author seem to feel about his audience? Is he or she hostile? Condescending? Flattering? How does he or she seem to feel the audience will regard him or her in turn?

For academic writing, this question is less urgent, but you may notice a difference in content between articles specialists write for each other and articles written for students or for a general audience.

Every piece of writing has a purpose. Even a simple grocery list serves the purpose of reminding me what to buy. Much writing aims to convince someone to adopt an opinion or to perform an action. What action does the author want the audience to perform? What view do they want them to adopt?

Look at how the author constructs their message. What arguments do they employ to convince their audience? Why do they think these arguments might be persuasive? Do they make an emotional appeal? What emotions do they invoke, why, and how?

You may ask yourself: who benefits if the author gets what they want? Human motivations are complex and not always immediately obvious; you should perhaps be skeptical whether the author has some hidden purpose.

Some of our historical documents will have huge, raw messages: to declare a war, to destroy an enemy, or to promote a religion. Others may be more mundane: to describe an event or convince the audience to purchase a product. Regardless, your job as a critical reader is to figure out what that purpose is.

Even academic writing has a message, although it is often more subtle than historical documents. In articles and books, scholars want to convince their peers that their theories are correct or that they should adopt a particular point of view about a historical event. Textbooks, by their selection of material, aim not only to convey raw data, but to provide a convincing interpretation of that data.

Point of View

Who is writing? For historical documents, this is hugely important. A document written by a king will be very different than a document written by a farmer or a priest.

When you read a historical document, try to find out as much as you can about the author. Many primary source readers will contain a small biography at the start of the selection. You could also look up the author’s background online. What suppositions can you make about the author based on his or her background? How is it likely to affect their knowledge or other resources available to them? How is it likely to shape their attitudes, prejudices, and goals?

What can you tell about the author just based on his or her own statements? Often, an author’s choice of words reveals a great deal about their mental world and goals.

The same questions apply to modern authors as well. Historians may be liberal or conservative, religious or secular, or favor one group over another in their analysis. Even the authors of textbooks have a background and point of view that affects their selection of facts.

Y? or Significance

This last component of the HAPPY Analysis includes thinking about the significance, or the importance of the document. Consider the following questions:

• What makes this event or source memorable?
• What does this reveal about the time period?
• What are the results of the event?
• What is its relevance today?
• Why does this source relate to your thesis and/or the prompt?

Fill out this HAPPY chart for the primary source reading below. This is an open-ended exercise, but you can use the spaces below to jot down your ideas.

Primary Source: Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé tribe on Indian Affairs

H: Historical Context

A: Audience

• How does the audience affect the validity of the document and its message? E.g., how might their message have been modified or shaped to suit their audience?
• How does this affect reliability and validity?

P: Point of View

Y: Why? (Significance)

• Why does this source relate to your thesis and/or the prompt? (Remember to explain this in your writing.)
• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Megan Coplen for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Authored by : Mr. Erfurth. Located at : https://erfurth.co/history-handbook/primary-sources-happy-analysis . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Analyzing Documents. Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-ushistory1/chapter/reading-documents-the-happy-analysis/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Bison skull pile. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bison_skull_pile_edit.jpg . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

“The Grapes of Wrath” in Historical Perspective

This essay about “The Grapes of Wrath” examines the novel’s reflection on the economic hardships and social injustices experienced by farmers and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. It highlights how Steinbeck’s narrative, centered on the Joad family’s migration from Oklahoma to California, serves as a poignant commentary on the era’s struggles. Through the backdrop of environmental catastrophe and financial crisis, the essay explores themes of resilience, discrimination, and the erosion of the American Dream. It also discusses the novel’s portrayal of social dynamics, the exploitation of migrant workers, and the potential for compassion and collective action. The essay concludes by asserting “The Grapes of Wrath” as not only a piece of American literature but also a historical document that captures the human cost of this period, offering a message of hope and solidarity that transcends its historical setting.

How it works

John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is more than just a novel; it’s a powerful commentary on the American condition during one of its most turbulent periods. Set against the stark backdrop of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, the narrative dives deep into the economic hardships and social injustices that plagued farmers and migrant workers in the 1930s. This exploration not only provides a window into the struggles of the era but also offers a timeless reflection on themes of resilience, injustice, and the quest for dignity.

The Dust Bowl was a period marked by severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. This environmental catastrophe was largely the result of poor farming practices combined with prolonged drought conditions. It led to a mass exodus of displaced families, many of whom were farmers, from their barren lands in search of work and sustenance elsewhere. “The Grapes of Wrath” captures the heartache and desperation of these families, focusing on the fictional Joad family as they journey from Oklahoma to California in hope of a better life.

Steinbeck intricately weaves the economic hardships of the time into the fabric of his story. The Great Depression, a decade-long economic downturn, had a profound impact on the American populace, with unemployment rates soaring and widespread poverty. For farmers and migrant workers, the situation was exacerbated by the collapse of agricultural prices, which rendered their already meager livelihoods unsustainable. Steinbeck’s portrayal of the Joad family’s struggles against the backdrop of these economic forces serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of financial crisis and environmental disaster.

The novel also delves into the social dynamics and conflicts that arose as a result of these hardships. Discrimination, exploitation, and a profound sense of injustice were rampant among the migrant camps in California, where workers were often subjected to inhumane conditions and paltry wages. Steinbeck doesn’t shy away from depicting the stark realities of these camps, highlighting the social and economic disparity between the migrants and those who sought to profit from their labor. Through the Joads’ experiences, Steinbeck critiques the societal structures that perpetuate inequality and underscores the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Moreover, “The Grapes of Wrath” serves as a historical document that illuminates the broader societal implications of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. It captures the erosion of the American Dream for many, as the promise of prosperity and security crumbled along with the soil of their farms. Yet, it also portrays the potential for compassion, community, and collective action as a means to overcome dire circumstances. Steinbeck’s empathetic depiction of the migrant workers’ plight and their capacity for endurance offers a message of hope and solidarity that resonates beyond the confines of its historical setting.

In conclusion, “The Grapes of Wrath” is a seminal work that richly deserves its place in the canon of American literature, not only for its literary merit but also for its profound engagement with the historical context of the 1930s. Steinbeck’s novel is a testament to the strength and dignity of those who faced the unimaginable hardships of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Through the lens of the Joad family’s journey, Steinbeck invites readers to reflect on the enduring themes of struggle, resilience, and the search for justice in the face of systemic oppression. As much a historical document as it is a work of fiction, “The Grapes of Wrath” continues to speak to the challenges and hopes of humanity in any era.

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