Skills and Strategies of the Historian

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Skills and Strategies of the Historian
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Historical Empathy

• Using your imagination to understand the feelings
  and motives of the past

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Historical Agency

• Understanding that people were active agents who
  made decisions and took actions to resolve the
  issues affecting their lives

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Historical Perspective

• Uncovering the different points of view found in
  the events and issues of the past

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Historical Justice

• Being fair to all people, regardless of gender,
  race, class or other characteristics, in your
  research, your thesis and your presentation of
  information

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Critical analysis

• Carefully examining and analysing all sources of
  evidence

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Original research

• Conducting first-hand research to present a new
  analysis of an historical issue or event

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Avoiding Historical Hindsight

• Avoiding making connections between the past and
  the present and imposing modern values and
  judgments on events of the past

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Detecting Historical Bias

• Critically analysing evidence for bias, point of
  view, and prior assumptions

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Understanding the complexity of Issues

• Understanding that issues are complicated and
  have multiple causes and effects

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Abstract thinking

• Thinking about concrete events and actions of the
  past in terms of trends and other abstract forces
  of the time

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Critical thinking

• Formulating, clarifying, and justifying your
  thoughts, arguments, and ideas, and proposing
  theories about the past based on a variety of
  evidence.

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Respecting Differing Opinions and Interpretations

• Respecting the fact that there are different
  opinions on, and interpretations of, every issue.
• Notes taken from Voices and Visions