The Historical Methodology Thread

[Franz Fanonipants]

Are you a historian? Do you want to be a historian? We can talk about history and methodologies here if you like.

I'm not a professional historian by any stretch of the imagination yet, I'm closing in on finishing my MA in history and am aiming at a PhD in the field in a few years. I like this forum, but a lot of the time I find myself as an Americanist kind of at odds with the broader discussions here. I wanted to see if you guys wanted to have a thread about historical methodologies (research methods, prosopography, post-structuralist/race/gender methodologies) and stuff.

Is that interesting to anyone?

[Blake's Baby]

Why does you being an American mean that you're at odds with the content of broader discussions? Really, I'm not trying to be confrontational or trap you, just baffled by why this should be so.

EDIT: I just re-read what you'd written. Now I have to admit that I'm not sure what an 'Americanist' is, though in the context of history I guess you mean someone who has studied American history. But I still don't understand why you should be at odds with the discussions.

[Franz Fanonipants]

An Americanist, someone who studies American history.

Most of the discussion on this forum focuses on non-American, Soviet, etc. history.

My own thesis, for example, is about the development of capital in the American Southwest between the 1880s and the 1920s. Nothing I have expertise in, in terms of borderlands history, critical race theory, rural-urban development tensions, irrigation, or environmental history, is discussed here often.

[Blake's Baby]

Sorry, I was editting my origianl reply while you were posting.

What you're talking about sounds really interesting to me - but as I have no background in most of it, I wouldn't be able to tell if you were bullshitting me. Surely, there are aspects of the history of the SW of the USA that have more general applicability to other aspects of history, anthropology, economics, agronomy, and environmentalism? Can you apply any of what you know about the SW-USA to other areas? Or apply a marxist analysis to what you know already?

But you're right, we tend to talk about pre-history, Greece, Rome, medieval France and England, the European industrial revolution, and Russia in the 20th century. Though all of those things are important, so are the entire history of Africa, the Americas for thousands of years, China, India... the conclusion is inescapable: the rest of us should really expand our frontiers a bit.

[Franz Fanonipants]

I think I technically could apply my research skills to other topics, but really as an Americanist and an active historian I thought maybe we could talk in this thread about things like how historians work with primary sources, how to write critical historiographies, philosophies of history, etc.

The broader application of the history work I do is within an environmental-borderlands context. I do have a real interest in doing comparative history work on the Soviet arid borderlands/irrigation/development, but honestly my focus makes it a little difficult to go beyond the current model I've been developing.

Maybe sharing a little more specifically what I'm doing will help. Currently in Southern New Mexico the Rio Grande which is the major waterway through most of the state goes dry or down to a trickle for most of the year. It does so because of irrigation and flood controls built on in between 1900-1920. During that time period in Southern New Mexico a displacement of Mexican/Nuevomexicano farmers occurred and large land holders developed a monopoly on irrigation. I am looking at a constellation of primary sources, a collection of stock certificates sold to both farmers and speculators on the irrigation development (which I'm feeding into a database), maps from the period that document the irrigation networks in existence prior to the massive irrigation project, and several inter-state and international treaties on water usage.

I'm in the middle of that work, so my thesis is still being worked on, but my broader point of inquiry is to see if this development and accumulation of land capital was a foundation for marginalizing Mexicanos in southern New Mexico. In order to prove this I'll also probably have to collate this information with broader regional information (from Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Socorro, The Mesilla Valley, El Paso/Juarez) to observe how this change to human relationships with water also changed social order and relationships.

It's a big project, but hopefully that gives you some ideas about what historical method can be for people in my field.

A smaller set of projects I'm doing looks at the Mesilla Valley during the mid-1700s as a frontier between the Spanish and Apaches, especially focusing in on Enlightenment-era ideologies of personhood, "civilization," and savages. Also, Spanish ideas about land value.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I like history. I never finished my degree, though...it wouldn't be worth much anyway unless I want to be in employed as a teacher or academic, which I don't.

Most of my focus was on American history, though.

[Invader Zim]

I'm a post-grad history student too. My research is on an aspect of social history of the British home front during the Second World War.

What kind of historiographical discussion were you looking at having?

[Jose Gracchus]

I graduated with a BA in history, but am kind of twiddling my thumbs because I lost motivation to go do a thesis and go to grad school.

[Franz Fanonipants]

I'm a post-grad history student too. My research is on an aspect of social history of the British home front during the Second World War.

What kind of historiographical discussion were you looking at having?

How to do historiographies/what historiographies are would probably be a pretty big step. It would also, hopefully, make the discourse on this forum a little sharper and more like actual peer-reviewed work.

Unless you mean like in the broader sense. In which case I'd want to have discussions about using different historical methodologies to do Marxist historical analysis etc.

[Franz Fanonipants]

I like history. I never finished my degree, though...it wouldn't be worth much anyway unless I want to be in employed as a teacher or academic, which I don't.

Most of my focus was on American history, though.


I graduated with a BA in history, but am kind of twiddling my thumbs because I lost motivation to go do a thesis and go to grad school.

The decision to go after a post-collegiate education in history is a pretty big one. I personally worked for about five years as an educator before making the decision. I did it to expand my professional capacities as an educator and because honestly its a good way to create opportunities for myself working with public institutions like the park service, state monuments, etc. as well as having the opportunity to insert Chicano/border history into venues that need it.

Of course, it isn't for everyone. But hopefully this thread might be a place to discuss the possibility of how to aim at being a professional historian whether that's through official educational channels or otherwise.