Historiography

See History

When someone writes history, that person is called a historian. When a historian of fervent curiosity bases the writing of history in particular on critical analysis of historical source material and provides a narrative synthesis that receives the attention of scholars, that person may be referred to, more technically, and with more distinction, as a historiographer (etymologically, a 'grapher' in words of what one has learned through inquiry). A historiographer's writing of history is called historiography — i.e., the historiographer's art or occupation. Thus, Herodotus, the Greek historian whose life nearly spanned the 5th century BCE, and whom the Roman scholar, Cicero (106-43 BCE), dubbed 'the father of history', occupied himself with the 'art' of historiography — a historiographer writing of the wars between the Greeks and Persians — in the process setting a precedent for historiographers to come.

The term historiography may apply, in other senses, somewhat overlapping:

• to the study of the lives of the writers of history, as it gives insight into their writings, e.g., their potential biases, their philosophy or religion, their educational breadth
• to the study of the historical writings themselves, for critical analysis by other historiographers, e.g., for their accessibility to the general reader or student
• to the study of the history or evolution of historical writing or of a particular historical writing, e.g., how the culture of the time translated and interpreted Herodotus's Histories
• to the study of the theoretical bases, methodologies and approaches of historical writings, e.g., the different approaches to writing the history of science

In a recent article on Herodotus by Peter Green, one can readily see all of the above senses of 'historiography' employed in a trenchant analysis by a historiographer.

The journal Histos ("The Electronic journal of ancient historiography at the university of Durham.") states that its ....focus will be more on the historical texts and media than on the historical problems for which those texts and media are sources, though the emphasis may naturally vary. For example, see the article by Clemence Schultze, entitled "Authority, originality and competence in the Roman Archaeology of Dionysius of Halicarnassus". wherein the opening paragraph states:

Any attempt to understand an ancient historian’s programme, claim to authority, self-definition,[citation] originality and ideas about history and historiography must begin with analysis of his prefatory statements.[citation] Dionysius’ preface (whose literary and intellectual quality has generally been underestimated) reveals how his authority rests at once upon his predecessors and upon himself. At the very outset, in a single long and impressive sentence, he marks his knowledge of, and simultaneously his distance from, those predecessors; he expresses his attitude to his role and his materials; and he asserts the logismoi (‘reasonings’) and empeiria (‘knowledge’) which underpin his work: [Dionysius's sentence follows].

Thus, a historiographer may write history or study how historiographers write history.

The article, History, extensively discusses topics relevant to historiography, and provides a formal article on the subject.