History is a study of the past events, and scholars who pursue such knowledge are known as historians. History includes finding out how people interacted with each others, the reasons why some historical events happened and their impacts on human existence.
Historians employ a number of methods or tools, while conducting their studies. Studying history requires the use of particular methodologies that enable historians to explain historical events. This paper seeks to examine different tools used in studying history, the sources of receiving the information and their credibility.
To explore historical events and establish their reasons, historians focus on asking the question why things happened the way they did. This is how a solid historical argument is developed.
When answering this question, several tools are used to explain the past event, how and why it happened, as well as its impacts on human existence. Studying past occurrences includes evaluating the evidences which confirm that events took place as well as drawing viable conclusions.
Historians employ a number of methods in their endeavor to unearth a mystery of the past events. One of the basic methods used in studying history includes the use of calendar, a tool that enables historians to travel back in time to a desired period. Calendars may differ depending on various cultural dating systems.
Nonetheless, whichever dating system a community have used, it is very useful to a historian. For instance, the western nations begin their dating system from the year when Jesus is believed to have been born (Thompson and Holm 48).
In contrast, the Jewish calendar starts 3,760 years before the Christ was born, which the Jews believe to be a period the world had been created. Muslims, on the other hand, date their calendar from the day their religious leader Muhammad left Mecca for Madinah (Fernández-Armesto 98).
According to the western calendar, the initials “B.C.” denote the years before the birth of Christ (Thompson and Holm 56). The western dating system is the most popular dating method in historical studies. Years after the birth of Jesus are known as “A.D” which stands for Anno Domini, which is a Latin phrase that means “in the year of the Lord” (Fernández-Armesto 99).
Dating events before the birth of Christ, historians start counting from A.D. 1 counting forward. The period before the birth of Christ is named with the date coming first, for example, 100 B.C., while the period after the birth of Christ is named with the date coming last such as A.D. 1 (Fernández-Armesto100). This is the widely used method of classifying and setting historic periods while conducting a historical study.
Historians over the years have come up with different ways of dividing the past eras into different historical periods (Thompson and Holm 56). These periodic divisions are formed into blocks to help researchers conduct objective historical studies.
These periods are divided and named according to the number of years each period has. A period of ten years, for instance, is called a decade while a period of hundred years is known as a century (Thompson and Holm 56). There are such periods as the prehistoric period which is the period before writing was invented and it is estimated to be around 5,500 years ago (Thompson and Holm 60).
Others include the ancient historic period, which was about A.D. 500, medieval period, and the modern historical period (Thompson and Holm 57). The use of calendars, dating events, and dividing history into different periods are the major tools used in the study of the past occurrences which help explain the present and foresee the future (Fernández-Armesto 113).
These methods are effective because history seeks to establish which event preceded the other and how the former influenced the occurrence of the latter. A good example is the study of the causes and events of the First and Second World Wars. Historians establish which came first and how World War I influenced World War II.
History is made up due to successive accounts of events, and a timeline is the best way to track these occurrences. Every event is influenced by the previous occurrence, hence tracking the sequence of these occurrences gives an effective historic account.
Chronology is the focus of historians, which helps identifying the order of events as they happened. The use of a timeline helps in splitting the numbers of years in a particular historical period of study, hence making the finding more reliable and effective.
While analyzing the evidences in a historical study, several reseach methods are used. They include finding and examining primary and secondary resources. The primary sources are the first-hand information given by people who directly saw or experienced an event.
These could be in the form of documents written by individuals who were the first witnesses of some event. Other official records could as well be used as first-hand pieces of evidence. Interviews and pictures are also used as primary evidences if the source was a firsthand witness or a victim of a historical event.
Secondary sources, on the other hand, are records or accounts created by people who did not take part in the event (Fernández-Armesto 113). These include people who were not directly involved or affected by the events. Information gathered from such sources is known as secondary information.
Nonetheless, secondary sources depend greatly on primary sources and include documents, such as biographies, history books, encyclopedias, to mention but a few (Fernández-Armesto 99). Secondary sources give historians a wider range in their study and help in consolidating relevant information.
The credibility of a source is very important, and historians have an obligation to ensure that every source of information used is credible. The reason for this is that sometimes, especially with secondary sources, a writer can be biased. Without credible sources of information, writers can write about the events which, in their own view, were important and decide on their own which people were key players (Fernández-Armesto 150).
This creates room for biases and false records of an event, that is why it is the reason why an extensive background check of the sources used is imperative (Fernández-Armesto 149). Credible sources give historians credible accounts of a past event, while the opposite is true for the sources which are not verifiable and credible.
This paper has clearly outlined the major tools used in studying historic events. The reasons and importance of history have also been clearly articulated in this paper citing the use of a timeline to track the past events as they occurred.
The paper has also discussed the two sources of information while studying historic event and their different shortcoming as well as efficiency. As discussed in the paper, history gives an account of the past, which is imperative in understanding the present and preparing for the future (Thompson and Holm 60).
Works Cited
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. The World: A History Combined Volume, London, UK: Pearson, 2009. Print.
Thompson, James Westfall, and Bernard Holm. A History of Historical Writing: From the earliest times to the end of the seventeenth century, Michigan, US: University of Michigan, 2006. Print.