Defining History — Chapter 1 (The Princeton Guide to Historical Research)
CHAPTER 1: Defining History
Overview: Historians and philosophers offer competing definitions of history across centuries.
Charles Beard (citing Benedetto Croce): history as "contemporary thought about the past."¹
Conyers Read: history as "the memory, recorded or un-recorded, of past human experience."²
Marc Bloch: history as "the science of men in time."³
Schrag’s own definition (focus of this chapter): history is not about the past per se but about people and the choices they made. This emphasizes agency and decision-making in historical explanations.
Key takeaways (tips for historians):
Ask not what happened; ask what choices people made.
Answer questions by telling stories.
Understand your work as part of an ongoing search for knowledge that began before you and will continue after you.
Core idea: History is the study of people and the choices they made, not just a chronology of events. This distinguishes history from descriptive studies in archaeology, demography, epidemiology, etc., which may focus on different drivers of events.
History Is the Study of People and the Choices They Made
Bloch’s example: the siltation of an inlet—natural forces vs human agency. If natural forces caused the change, a geologist explains it; if people built dikes and rerouted waterways, historians can explain why those choices mattered for fate of a harbor ( Bruges ). This illustrates that history involves interaction between nonhuman forces and human action, but objects alone do not make history.
Norton’s Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures (A History of Tobacco and Chocolate): While focusing on commodities, the introduction emphasizes a broader cast of actors (soldiers, missionaries, slaves, nobles, traders, clergy, sailors, ministers, etc.). The point is that history is about people and their choices within a web of contexts.
Historians study choices across domains:
What people say (words) and why they chose those words.
What people make or acquire (artifacts) and why they chose to create or discard them.
How people understood and responded to disease and disease control.
Why Europeans adopted tobacco and chocolate in particular forms, i.e., the motives and constraints shaping adoption.
Focus on actions and thoughts:
Choices about actions (e.g., war, marriage, emigration, occupation).
Thoughts and emotions (elite intellectual histories; broader public understandings).
Both universal experiences (pregnancy, death) and new phenomena (electricity, nationalism).
Contingency vs determinism:
Contingency: how outcomes could have been different if different choices had been made. Used to explain pivotal moments in military history and beyond.
James M. McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom): four major turning points that could have altered the outcome of the Civil War; Northern victory vs Southern defeat cannot be understood apart from contingencies.
Contingency also appears in meanings assigned to objects (mirrors, wilderness) and in social choices (profit vs equality).
Determinism: the view that outcomes were inevitable due to nonhuman factors (geography, technology, etc.). Historians generally reject determinism.
Agency:
Historically, agency was attributed to princes and generals; later, to humble people (women, workers, slaves).
Naomi R. Lamoreaux and others argue that ordinary people can have agency within constraining structures, showing space for small acts of resistance.
Limits of agency and contingency: no single individual can change the world; presidential power, for example, has limits, particularly regarding deep-seated social issues like racism.
Karl Marx: "Men make their own history, but not under conditions of their own choosing; rather under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past."
Balancing agency and impersonal forces:
Fredrik Logevall: balance human agency with impersonal forces and consider how causative factors interact.
The idea that history should stitch together multiple causative factors and their interactions.
History as a means to understand today:
The debate over whether to study the past for its own sake or to illuminate the present.
Oscar Handlin: empathy requires avoiding presentism; to understand past lives, one must avoid judging them solely by present concerns.
John Higham: the historian lives a double life—responsive to present questions while honoring the integrity of the past.
Present-focused applications:
Historians of sexuality use the past to understand diverse behaviors and suggest paths toward liberation.
Historians of medicine show how previous conceptions of disease can inform current understandings and remind practitioners that diagnoses are not the only possible interpretations.
Economic historians examine wage gaps to explain their persistence today.
Legal historians document conditions under which constitutional interpretations evolved.
Jeffrey Engel notes that contemporary impeachment inquiries can influence readers’ interest in historical works.
Thomas Sugrue argues there is no bright line between past and present; present conditions are shaped by historical processes.
Applied/public history:
The field is defined by the National Council on Public History as history put to use in the world for real-world issues.
Public history roles include historical consultants, museum professionals, government historians, archivists, oral historians, policy advisers, curators, media producers, preservationists, community activists.
Its aim is to make history relevant and useful beyond scholarly debates.
Present-day relevance and public discourse:
Readiness of historians to engage with museums, road naming, school textbooks, and monuments (e.g., debates over monuments to figures tied to slavery).
The historian as public intellectual shapes public debates and policy implications while acknowledging the political dimensions of historical claims.
History Combines Storytelling and Analysis
Tension between scholarly journal work and popular history:
Debates about how to balance rigorous analysis with engaging storytelling.
Some critics argue historians retreat from public debate; others think popular history can distort nuance.
Schrag’s stance: he is a lumper—scholarly and popular histories share the same core elements, differing mainly in proportion and audience.
What makes a work both scholarly and popular:
Strong scholarship that tells a story about people with characters, conflicts, plots, and outcomes.
Even popular histories have implicit theses; the best sellers still carry a central argument, often less explicit than in academic works.
Market realities:
In the U.S., popular history tends to focus on American topics—war, murder, science, disasters, sports—with a masculine tilt.
Some authors broaden topics to include commodity exchange or slavery, challenging the conventional beach-read topics.
Language and origins:
History and story both originate from the Latin historia; over time, history has come to mean true events, while story can refer to fiction as well.
The journalist’s questions and storytelling elements:
Historians must answer who, what, where, and when; they bring these facts to life with setting, character, and plot.
William Cronon: the human need for storytelling is intrinsic to how people understand their lives and the past.
History as science (methods):
History is not predicting the future; it uses methods akin to the sciences: immersion in previous scholarship, citing evidence, and peer review.
Historians aim to persuade readers that their argument helps explain past choices; not every reader will be convinced, but the goal is to enlighten those you care about most.
The claim that history is neither exclusively a science nor a purely literary pursuit:
Beard (1933) argued that history is neither a pure science nor purely literary; it defies singular categorization.
The communication of history across formats:
Historians publish in specialized journals and books, contribute to museum exhibits, documentaries, and journalism, extending reach beyond academia.
Predictive aspect of historical work:
Historians can predict what ideas and events will be found in sources similar to those reviewed, not predict future human choices but anticipate patterns in sources and arguments.
Practical takeaway for researchers and students:
The best historical work uses a mix of methods to pose questions, search archives, and tell compelling stories that illuminate past choices and their ongoing relevance.
History Is an Ongoing Debate
History is a dynamic, evolving field; is not settled forever.
Historians continually discover new sources, pose new questions, and recontextualize old events.
Old interpretations may be revised; syntheses emerge rather than stalemates.
Continuities and changes in the discipline:
Lawrence Levine (1989) described an upward trajectory toward more sophisticated understandings of the past, even as interpretations cycle.
Foundational factual discoveries endure even when interpretations shift.
The history of the profession itself:
Historians trace the evolution of the discipline—from politics-focused histories to wider explorations of human experience.
Include the entry of women, ethnic and religious minorities, and people of color into the profession.
The definition of "historian" itself has broadened over time.
Tools and continuity:
Innovative tools (e.g., computers, digital text analysis) coexist with traditional methods (note cards, microfilm, archival reading).
The spine of the discipline—careful question formation, source analysis, and narrative construction—remains essential.
Case illustration of ongoing reformulations:
Jean O'Brien (White Earth Ojibwe) demonstrates how nineteenth-century New England historians misrepresented Native pasts, using primary sources to critique earlier narratives. The critique rests on superior use of archival materials, not a rejection of prior methods.
Anecdotes of scholarly practice:
The author’s note about spending time at the Library of Congress and comparing labor-intensive note-taking with modern digital methods, highlighting the continuity of core research tasks across eras.
The enduring aim:
By highlighting general practices that endure despite technological change, Schrag invites students to see how historical work remains relevant across centuries of practice.
History in Practice: Public and Applied History
Applied/public history in practice:
History is applied when it informs public understanding and decision-making.
Public history involves professionals who translate research for museums, policy, education, media, and community advocacy.
Examples of public-facing history:
Television documentaries, major museum exhibits, and documentary journalism expand the reach of historical insights.
Some public history projects may be classified or government-funded, illustrating the varied contexts in which history is used.
The public value of history:
History helps communities understand their past and its implications for present and future decisions.
It can challenge collective national narratives, expose past injustices, and question the idea of a universally “good old days.”
The historian as a public interlocutor:
Historians engage with politicians, the media, educators, and the public to discuss historical analogies and policy implications.
The practical aim for students:
Learn to identify a historian’s goals, understand trade-offs in topic choice, scope, research methods, and presentation, and continually reassess personal aims.
History as Storytelling and Analysis: Practical Reflections
The balance between narrative and analysis:
Good scholarly history analyzes while telling a compelling story; good popular history tells a story with analytical underpinnings.
The role of audience and genre:
Different audiences require different tonalities and levels of detail, but core historical reasoning remains consistent.
The role of question-asking and context:
Historians ask questions that go beyond simple facts; they seek to understand motives, contexts, and implications of actions.
The importance of source-based storytelling:
Detailed use of primary sources remains central even as new technologies alter how sources are accessed and interpreted.
The value of cross-pollination between genres:
Markets for history reward strong storytelling; scholarly rigor remains essential to endow narratives with credibility.
The concluding ethos of the chapter:
History’s enduring function is to illuminate past choices to better understand and respond to the present.
Notable Quotes and Concepts (from Chapter 1)
History as "the study of people and the choices they made" (Schrag’s central definition).
Contingency vs determinism; agency vs structure; limits of power.
Public history as the application of historical knowledge to public life.
The storytelling impulse as a fundamental human need, connected to the drive to understand life and the past.
The continuity of historical methods across eras, even as tools evolve.
The idea that historians balance multiple causative factors, not just single explanations.
Connections to Foundational Principles and Real-World Relevance
Builds on foundational ideas of historical method: causation, context, interpretation, evidence, and narrative.
Emphasizes the ethical and practical implications of how history shapes public memory, policy, and identity, including debates over monuments, school curricula, and representation of marginalized groups.
Encourages critical thinking about present concerns through historical analogies while cautions against simplistic determinism or presentism.
Illustrates the value of cross-disciplinary methods (economics, sociology, literature, law) and new technologies while honoring traditional archival practices.
Quick Reference: Key Concepts and Terms
History as an act of studying people and the choices they made.
Contingency: the idea that different choices could have yielded different outcomes.
Determinism: the belief that outcomes were inevitable due to nonhuman factors (to be resisted by historians).
Agency: the capacity of individuals or groups to act and influence outcomes.
Public history: applying historical knowledge to public issues and policy.
Applied history: same as public history; history used to inform contemporary concerns.
Storytelling vs. analysis: balancing narrative engagement with rigorous evidence.
Methodology: the use of archival research, citation, peer review, and cross-disciplinary approaches.
Presentism vs empathy: understanding past lives without judging them by present standards.
Continuity and change in the discipline: ongoing debates, evolving roles, and evolving tools.
References and Examples Mentioned
Beard, Croce: Written History as an Act of Faith; contemporary thought about the past.¹
Conyers Read: The Social Responsibilities of the Historian.²
Marc Bloch: The Historian's Craft.³
Norton, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate.⁶
McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: four turning points.⁷
Adam Rothman: Slave Country; understanding expansion of slavery as contingent.⁹
Allan Brandt: The Cigarette Century.⁹¹
Naomi R. Lamoreaux: microhistory and agency.¹⁴
Karl Marx: quote on making history under past conditions.¹³
Oscar Handlin; John Higham: debates on historical purpose and morality.⁹⁰, ²²
Natalie Zemon Davis; Fredrik Logevall: insights on history’s relevance and method.²⁸, ²⁰, ²⁷
Public History: National Council on Public History definition.⁷⁻⁷⁻
Jean M. O'Brien: Firsting and Lasting.⁵¹
Gary Bass; Destin Jenkins; Thomas Sugrue; Jeffrey Engel: insights on history’s present relevance.³³, ³⁵, ³⁵, ²⁷
Footnotes and sources are embedded in the chapter text (numbers refer to the author’s citations). See original for full bibliographic details.
Note: This set of notes mirrors the structure and major points of the provided transcript of Chapter 1,