Being a historian isn’t just about collecting facts; it’s a never-ending adventure of figuring things out, looking at things in new ways, and constantly growing intellectually. For any of us working as historians, whether in universities, for the public, or on our own, it’s absolutely essential to keep learning and changing. After all, the past isn’t set in stone; our understanding of it is always shifting. What I want to share here goes beyond simple tips; it’s about real, actionable ways to keep developing our minds in the field of history.
The Starting Point: Being Humble and Really Curious
Before we dive into specific techniques, we need to cultivate two fundamental qualities: humility about what we know and an endless curiosity. Intellectual humility means admitting there are limits to what we currently understand and being open to challenging ideas that are already in our heads, even our own. Curiosity is what powers our exploration, pushing us to ask questions and search for answers beyond the obvious. Without these, even the best methods won’t get us far.
Think about this: Say a historian who specializes in 18th-century British politics stumbles upon new evidence that suggests artisan guilds had a much bigger, previously unnoticed, influence on parliament. Intellectual humility allows them to rethink their established interpretations, while curiosity makes them meticulously research this new angle instead of just dismissing it as an oddity.
Smart Research: More Than Just a Primary Source Checklist
Good research is the backbone of all historical understanding, but it’s so much more than just finding primary sources. It’s about engaging strategically, evaluating critically, and being willing to look beyond the archives we’re comfortable with. Continuous learning in this area means expanding our research toolbox and stepping outside our comfort zone.
1. Engaging with Different Kinds of Primary Sources
While essential, relying only on government documents or letters from the elite really limits our perspective. We grow by actively seeking out voices that have been marginalized and sources that aren’t traditional.
Here’s how we can do it:
* Oral Histories: We can actively seek out and conduct oral histories for the recent past, capturing lived experiences that often aren’t in written records. We need to learn proper interview techniques, ethical considerations, and how to transcribe them.
* Material Culture Analysis: Let’s integrate material culture – like artifacts, buildings, or clothing – into our historical analysis. We can learn methodologies from archaeology, art history, and anthropology to interpret these objects as historical texts.
* Digital Archives & Born-Digital Sources: We need to become masters at navigating the ever-changing digital archives. Let’s learn to analyze sources that were born digital, like websites, social media, and digital documents, understanding how fleeting they are and the unique challenges of preserving them.
* Personal Documents: We can explore diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and family histories. These give us intimate glimpses into daily life and individual perspectives that are often missing from official narratives.
For example: A historian studying post-World War II American suburbanization might typically focus on government housing policies and urban planning documents. Diversifying their primary source engagement would mean analyzing Sears Roebuck catalogs (material culture), interviewing elderly residents about their experiences moving into new developments (oral history), and examining local community newsletters (personal documents) to understand the social fabric that formed in these new spaces.
2. Expanding Our Archival Horizons
It’s so easy to just go back to the archives we know. But to grow, we need to explore new repositories, both geographically and institutionally.
What we can do:
* International Archives: If our focus has been national, let’s explore international archives that hold relevant documents or offer comparative perspectives. We might even need to pick up some basic language skills if necessary.
* Specialized Collections: Beyond general state or national archives, we can identify university special collections, corporate archives, religious archives, or even private family collections that are relevant to our specific niche.
* Micro-Archives: Let’s explore local historical societies, small-town libraries, and community centers. These often have unique, localized collections that provide granular detail often missed in larger metropolitan repositories.
Let’s say: A historian studying the American labor movement might have extensively used the National Archives and university labor collections. Expanding their archival horizons would mean investigating the archives of specific unions at their local branches, collections at settlement houses, or even exploring records in European archives if the movement had international ties.
3. Mastering Advanced Research Methodologies
Beyond just identifying sources, continuous growth demands that we command increasingly sophisticated research techniques.
Here are some actions we can take:
* Prosopography (Collective Biography): We can learn to build and analyze datasets of individuals (for example, all members of a specific parliamentary body, or all identified participants in a social movement). We should understand statistical methods that apply to historical data.
* Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Historical Analysis: Let’s integrate GIS to map historical phenomena, analyze spatial relationships, and visualize change over time. We can learn the basics of GIS software and data visualization.
* Network Analysis: We can apply network theory to understand relationships between individuals, organizations, or concepts within a historical context. This helps us identify key players, how influence flows, and structural patterns.
* Computational Methods (Digital Humanities): We should explore text mining, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis for large collections of texts. It’s about understanding what these tools can do and their limits for historical inquiry, not about becoming data scientists.
An example: A historian researching the spread of public health initiatives in 19th-century cities could use GIS to map disease outbreaks against the location of hospitals and clean water sources, network analysis to trace the connections between public health reformers and political figures, and prosopography to analyze the demographics of those involved in public health campaigns.
Learning from Other Fields: Disciplinary Cross-Pollination
The most insightful historical work often draws from theories and methods developed in other fields. As historians, continuous growth means actively engaging with fields that are close to history and even those that seem quite distant.
1. Engaging with Social Sciences
Sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics offer frameworks for understanding human behavior, how societies are structured, and power dynamics.
What we can do:
* Theory-Informed Research: Instead of just narrating events, let’s learn to apply sociological theories (like Durkheim on social cohesion, Weber on bureaucracy), anthropological concepts (like Clifford Geertz on thick description, Victor Turner on ritual), or political science models (like institutional theory, rational choice theory) to our historical subjects. We don’t want to force things, but test their explanatory power.
* Methodological Borrowing: We can explore qualitative research methods common in social sciences, such as grounded theory or ethnographic approaches, to enrich our interpretation of historical evidence.
* Interdisciplinary Seminars/Workshops: Let’s actively seek out and participate in seminars or workshops outside our history department. Many universities offer this kind of interdisciplinary training.
For instance: A historian studying peasant revolts might traditionally focus on economic grievances and political oppression. Engaging with social sciences could involve applying James C. Scott’s theories of “everyday forms of resistance” (anthropology/political science) to understand subtle acts of defiance, or using concepts of social mobilization from sociology to analyze how movements come together and gain momentum.
2. Exploring Humanities and Arts
Philosophy, literature, art history, and theology offer different ways to understand human experience, how meaning is made, and cultural shifts.
How we can do this:
* Philosophical Underpinnings: Let’s study historical philosophy, political philosophy, or ethics to understand the intellectual currents that shaped past societies and influenced historical actors. This helps us put beliefs and motivations into context.
* Literary Analysis: Let’s treat historical texts, even non-fiction, with an eye for narrative structure, rhetorical devices, and hidden biases. We need to understand how language shapes meaning. Reading widely in historical fiction and poetry relevant to our era gives us empathetic insight into the spirit of the times.
* Art History and Iconography: We can learn to interpret visual sources beyond simple illustration. We should understand symbolism, artistic conventions, and the messages conveyed through visual culture.
Consider this: A historian researching the Protestant Reformation would gain immensely from studying the theological debates of the period (theology), analyzing the rhetoric in Martin Luther’s treatises (literary analysis), and interpreting the symbolism in Reformation-era paintings and woodcuts (art history) to truly grasp the profound intellectual and cultural shifts, not just the political ones.
3. Understanding Quantitative Methods and Data Science
Even if we don’t specialize in economic history, a basic understanding of quantitative methods is crucial for interpreting numerical data and understanding historical arguments that rely on statistics.
What we can learn:
* Basic Statistics for Historians: Let’s learn concepts like correlation vs. causation, sampling bias, descriptive vs. inferential statistics, and how to interpret basic statistical tables and graphs. This helps us critically evaluate historical arguments that use numerical data.
* Data Visualization Principles: We need to understand how to effectively and ethically present quantitative historical data through charts, graphs, and maps, without distorting meaning.
* Critical Evaluation of Data-Driven Arguments: We should learn to assess the quality of historical datasets, understand their limitations, and critique arguments derived from computational analyses.
As an example: A historian analyzing demographic trends in a colonial settlement might encounter studies using statistical models to estimate population size or mortality rates. Understanding the underlying statistical principles allows them to critically evaluate the methodology, identify potential biases in the data, and assess how strong the conclusions are.
Looking Inward: Constantly Questioning “How” and “Why”
Growth as a historian isn’t just about accumulating knowledge; it’s about critically examining the process of historical inquiry itself. This means consistently asking how we know what we claim to know, and why certain narratives become prominent while others are sidelined.
1. Engaging with Historiography and Theory of History
Beyond simply reciting what other historians have said, let’s really delve into the why and how of their arguments.
Actions we can take:
* Deep Dive into Historiographical Debates: We need to understand the intellectual lineage of historical arguments. It’s not just about knowing what Foucault said, but why he said it, what intellectual currents he was responding to, and what impact his work had on later historical inquiry.
* Key Thinkers in Historical Theory: Let’s read foundational texts by historians and philosophers who have explored the nature of historical knowledge and methodology (like Bloch, Carr, White, Ankersmit, Scott, Chakrabarty). This gives us a framework for critical self-reflection.
* Philosophy of History: We can explore questions about historical knowing: How reliable are sources? Can we be objective? What’s the role of the historian’s perspective? This strengthens our analytical rigor.
Picture this: A historian researching the French Revolution shouldn’t just read various histories of the revolution. They should delve into the historiography: how liberal, Marxist, revisionist, and post-revisionist historians have interpreted the same events, what their underlying theoretical assumptions were, and how their arguments reflected their own times. This allows for a deeper understanding of how historical interpretation is always changing.
2. Practical Application of Critical Theories
Theoretical approaches aren’t just abstract ideas; they offer tools for taking apart historical narratives and uncovering power dynamics.
Here’s how we can apply them:
* Post-colonial Theory: We can learn how to move away from Eurocentric narratives, identify the legacies of colonialism, and pay attention to subaltern voices. We can apply concepts like “othering” or “Orientalism” to our sources.
* Feminist Theory: Let’s understand how gender has been historically constructed, how it affects power relations, and how to uncover women’s experiences often missing from traditional records.
* Critical Race Theory: We can learn to analyze the role of race and racism in historical phenomena, identify systemic inequalities, and challenge interpretations that ignore race.
* Environmental History Theory: We need to understand how human societies interact with the natural world, the long-term impact of environmental factors, and how to include non-human actors in historical narratives.
For example: A historian examining the building of a colonial railway might traditionally focus on economic efficiency and infrastructure development. Applying post-colonial theory would mean questioning the motivations of the colonizers, the forced labor of indigenous populations, the environmental impact on native lands, and how the railway served as a tool of domination and resource extraction, rather than just progress.
3. Reflective Practice in Our Own Work
Continuous learning means internalizing these methodologies and applying them to our own research and writing.
Actions we can take:
* “Deconstruction” of Our Own Sources: We should consciously ask: Who created this source? For whom? What biases might it contain? What is not being said?
* Positionality Awareness: We need to reflect on our own background, perspectives, and biases, and how they might influence our interpretations of the past. We should acknowledge these to our audience.
* Iterative Hypothesis Testing: We can treat our historical arguments as hypotheses that can be refined or even disproven by new evidence or alternative interpretations. We must be willing to change our minds.
Imagine this: After completing a draft chapter, a historian would engage in reflective practice by rereading it specifically to identify instances where their own assumptions might have influenced their interpretation of a primary source, or where they might have inadvertently favored one perspective over another. They might then seek out counter-evidence or revise their argument.
Communication and Engagement: Sharing and Debating for Growth
History is a collaborative effort. Growth isn’t just about what we learn individually, but how we share, debate, and evolve our understanding through interacting with others.
1. Active Participation in Historical Communities
Isolation stops growth. Engaging with our peers, both locally and globally, is essential.
Here’s how we can participate:
* Conference Attendance & Presentation: Let’s regularly attend historical conferences to hear cutting-edge research, and present our own work to get constructive feedback. We should seek out panels outside our immediate specialization.
* Professional Networks: We can join and actively participate in historical associations. These give us access to journals, newsletters, job boards, and networking opportunities.
* Peer Review (Giving & Receiving): Let’s offer to peer-review articles for journals or book manuscripts. This deepens our critical reading skills and exposes us to diverse research methodologies. And we should be open and gracious when we receive reviews on our own work.
* Online Forums & Discussion Groups: Let’s participate in reputable online forums, listservs, or social media groups dedicated to historical inquiry. These can be quick ways to share ideas and ask questions.
For example: A historian struggling with a particular methodological challenge might seek advice within an online community for digital humanities, attend a conference panel on new approaches to archival research, and then offer to review a colleague’s paper that uses similar methods to refine their own understanding.
2. Disseminating History Beyond Academia
Reaching wider audiences and explaining complex historical arguments to the general public forces us to be clear, concise, and focus on compelling stories.
Actions we can take:
* Public Speaking & Lecture Series: Let’s offer to give talks to local historical societies, libraries, or community groups. This sharpens our ability to explain complex topics in an engaging way.
* Writing for Non-Academic Audiences: We can experiment with writing articles for popular history magazines, op-eds for newspapers, or blog posts. This requires stripping away jargon and creating accessible narratives.
* Digital Storytelling: Let’s explore podcasts, documentaries, or interactive web exhibits. These mediums demand different narrative techniques and critical thinking about visual and audio communication.
* Museum & Exhibit Curation: If opportunities arise, let’s contribute to or curate museum exhibits. This involves deep engagement with visual display, object interpretation, and audience engagement.
An illustration: A historian who has just published a monograph on an obscure aspect of maritime history might write a concise article for a sailing magazine, record a podcast episode for a general history show, or offer a lecture at a maritime museum. This exercise in popularization often clarifies their own understanding and highlights the broader relevance of their work.
3. Mentorship and Learning from All Stages
Both giving and receiving mentorship fosters continuous growth, no matter where we are in our careers.
What we can do:
* Seek Out Mentors: We can identify senior historians whose work we admire and whose approaches resonate with us. We shouldn’t be afraid to reach out for advice, even informally.
* Mentoring Others: If we are experienced, let’s actively mentor junior historians, students, or aspiring writers. Explaining concepts and guiding others reinforces our own understanding and exposes us to fresh perspectives.
* Learn from Students: Often, students ask fundamental questions that force us to re-examine our own assumptions. We should embrace these moments as learning opportunities.
Think about this: An early-career historian might seek mentorship from a well-established scholar in their field, getting guidance on publishing and navigating academic politics. At the same time, they might mentor an undergraduate writing a research paper, and in explaining the nuances of source criticism, deepen their own appreciation for its importance.
Technology and Tools: Enhancing the Historical Process
Technology doesn’t replace intellectual rigor, but it’s a powerful way to speed up learning and discovery. We should embrace new tools responsibly and strategically.
1. Information Management & Organization
As knowledge expands, managing it effectively becomes critical.
Actions we can take:
* Citation Management Software: Let’s master a robust citation manager (like Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote) to efficiently organize sources, notes, and citations, ensuring accuracy and saving time.
* Research Note-Taking Systems: We should develop a systematic approach to taking notes from primary and secondary sources. We can explore tools like Obsidian, Notion, or Evergreen note-taking principles to create interconnected knowledge bases.
* Digital Archival Tools: Let’s learn to effectively use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for historical documents, and explore tools for transcribing handwritten texts if our sources require it.
For instance: A historian beginning a new project on 19th-century public health might use Zotero to manage hundreds of relevant articles and books, Obsidian to create detailed, interconnected notes on key concepts and individuals from their readings, and HathiTrust’s full-text search capabilities to efficiently locate relevant passages within digitized historical newspapers.
2. Lifelong Learning Platforms
Formal and informal learning opportunities are plentiful online.
What we can do:
* MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses): We can enroll in online courses from reputable institutions on historical topics outside our specialty, or on methodologies (like statistics for social scientists, advanced GIS, digital humanities techniques).
* Webinars & Online Lectures: Let’s follow prominent historical organizations and universities for their online lecture series and webinars on new research and methodologies.
* Specialized Podcasts: We can subscribe to podcasts that delve into historical topics, interviews with historians, or discussions on historical theory.
An example: A historian specializing in medieval Europe decides to expand their knowledge of early modern East Asia. They could take a MOOC on Ming Dynasty history from a leading university, subscribe to a podcast on Asian history, and attend online webinars discussing new archaeological finds in the region.
3. Data Storage and Preservation
As historians increasingly work with digital data, understanding how to preserve it is crucial.
Here’s how we can handle it:
* Cloud Storage & Backup Strategies: We need to implement rigorous backup protocols for all our research data, documents, and written work. We should utilize cloud storage with version control.
* Digital Preservation Awareness: Let’s understand the basics of file formats, metadata, and the challenges of long-term digital preservation for historical sources. This awareness informs how we gather and store our own born-digital research.
Consider this: A historian conducting oral histories ensures all audio files are backed up to multiple cloud services, transcribed texts are stored as universally accessible formats like plain text or rich text, and detailed metadata is embedded within each file for long-term discoverability.
Rest and Reflection: The Hidden Drivers of Growth
Constant engagement is important, but so is disengagement. True intellectual growth requires periods of rest, contemplation, and deliberate reflection to let new knowledge sink in and fresh ideas emerge.
1. Deliberate Breaks
Let’s step away from the archives and the screen.
Actions we can take:
* Scheduled Downtime: We should build regular breaks, days off, and vacations into our schedule.
* Engage in Hobbies: Let’s pursue activities completely unrelated to history. This provides mental refreshment and often, surprisingly, triggers new perspectives.
For example: After intense archival work, a historian might take a week off to hike or pursue a creative writing project, allowing their mind to process the research on a subconscious level, often leading to unexpected conceptual breakthroughs upon returning to the work.
2. Journaling and Reflective Writing
Putting our thoughts down helps clarify our thinking and identify areas where we can grow.
What we can do:
* Research Journal: We can maintain a journal dedicated to our research process. We should note challenges, unexpected findings, shifts in perspective, and new questions that come up.
* Methodological Reflections: Periodically, let’s write short essays or notes reflecting on our own research methodologies, what worked, what didn’t, and how we might refine our approach in future projects.
Imagine this: A historian might keep a research journal where they note frustrations with a particular set of incomplete sources. Later, reflecting on these notes, they might realize that the very incompleteness of the sources is itself a historical artifact, prompting them to write about the challenges of historical reconstruction and the silences in the archive.
3. Openness to Serendipity
Some of the most profound learning comes from unexpected places. We should cultivate an openness to chance encounters and tangential explorations.
How we can do this:
* Read Broadly Outside Our Niche: Let’s pick up books, articles, or documentaries on subjects completely unrelated to our current research.
* Attend Unrelated Lectures/Events: We can go to talks or exhibitions just because they caught our curiosity, even if they don’t seem directly relevant to our historical specialty.
As an illustration: A historian of Ancient Rome attending an exhibition on modern art might serendipitously discover a connection between contemporary artistic expression and their understanding of visual rhetoric in the Roman Empire, leading to a new publication or a fresh chapter in their current book.
In Conclusion
Our journey as historians isn’t a straight climb to a fixed peak, but an ever-expanding landscape of knowledge and understanding. By being humble about what we know, strategically diversifying our research, engaging with insights from other fields, practicing self-reflection on our methods, actively participating in scholarly communities, using technology wisely, and making time for rest and contemplation, we can ensure our growth as historians is continuous, deep, and incredibly rewarding. This isn’t a list to just check off, but a constantly evolving, back-and-forth process. The past is vast and can be seen in endless new ways; our ability to understand and communicate it depends on our own ever-changing perspective.