The Entire Past

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Incorporating Historiography into History

Classes
Many teachers who are required to take History classes are qualified in English or another area
of Humanities, and therefore lack academic grounding in the discipline. The accompanying
worksheets may be useful to help introduce some basic ideas about historiography to students
from Year 9 onwards.
Kate Habgood, Suzanne Cory High School

Historiography is the study of how history is written

or put together. The Victorian Essential Learning
Standards (VELS) stipulated students should be
exposed to historical perspectives at Level 6, with
examples such as understanding different perspectives
on Australian settlement, including that of invasion.
Although the Australian Curriculum does not appear
to emphasise teaching historical perspectives as much
as VELS did, it is nonetheless an important foundation
for understanding the academic aspects of History as
a discipline. It provides an important basis for VCE
History as well.
Historiography, or the study of how history is written
or compiled, is often neglected by textbooks or treated
in a simplified way. Yet it adds valuable complexity
and rigour to the study of high school History, and
encourages critical thinking. It allows understanding
of the past beyond acquiring facts and dates.
Importantly, historiography helps students
comprehend how well-known debates such as black

armband versus white blindfold or Ned Kelly:

criminal or hero are evident within the historical texts
and narratives created by academic historians.
Historiography also facilitates building students
broader critical literacy. The term critical literacy has
been bandied about with recent bureaucratic literacy
drives and has, at times, been used erroneously as
a tool to help students achieve better test scores.
However, its pedagogical origins are in helping
students develop the skills to question notions
emanating from powerful, hegemonic or dominant
institutions in our society. Good critical literacy
helps citizens negotiate everyday manipulation from
advertising, opinion pundits, the mainstream media
and politicians.
When students encounter a text whether it be
historical or contemporary, in an academic or nonacademic context they should first ask themselves
questions such as Who wrote this?, What is this
persons agenda or motivation? and What is this

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While history textbooks often have glaring inadequacies, these can be put to the
advantage of the History teacher practising critical pedagogy.

persons values and why have they

written this? They should also consider
the political values of the publisher and
whether this may have any bearing on
the way the text has been written, what
evidence has been selected and what
information is missing or marginalised.
While history textbooks often have
glaring inadequacies, these can be put
to the advantage of the History teacher
practising critical pedagogy. Whose
voice is missing? How are different
groups and their views represented?
What are your thoughts on image
selection? What comes to mind when
you read a heading, and does this reflect
the text adequately or appropriately?
It is important for teachers new to
history to avoid considering textbooks
as a neutral, complete, true account of
the past. Even though I am trained in
history, I can be nave when teaching a
topic outside my academic experience.
While I felt doubtful about one
textbooks portrayal of China as an
unknown land suspicious of outsiders,
it was only while reading historian Julia
Lovells The Opium War that I found
out this was an expedient stereotype
developed by European politicians
looking to Chinese markets in the
1800s.1 How I wish Id known this when
teaching Ancient China to Year 7s!
Another classroom tactic is to bring in
copies of old textbooks and examine
how they represent a topic differently
to the current textbook. My previous
school had a class set of an Australian
history text from the early 1980s called
Mastering the Land. The delightfully
masculine title and the books contents
allow for rich discussion in the
classroom. The first chapter regaled
about pre-contact Indigenous society
(digging sticks and so on), and then
completely ignored Aboriginal people
apart from a picture of some Indigenous
shearers later in the book. This exercise
helped students realise how older
Australians might conceptualise and
thus misunderstand issues relating to
Indigenous Australians today.

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LEFT: E.H. Carr.

In the accompanying worksheets here,

I have chosen to focus on E.H. Carr
because I was myself introduced to his
ideas by a high school History teacher
and found them to be illuminating.2
They help build my understanding that
evidence needs to be selected in order
to present a particular perspective.
Following this, I have summarised some
broad schools of historical thought I
have encountered in my own studies or
while teaching Australian and modern
history. To give Year 9s onwards a
basic introduction, the historiographic
approaches are portrayed simply and
without mentioning nuances that may
represent them more accurately.
This understanding of historiographical
perspectives sits hand in hand with
another area which is inadvertently
neglected by our school system:
political literacy. Arguably it has been
neglected for so many years that many
teachers themselves have a weak
grasp of the political spectrum. Some
of my colleagues have even called
themselves apolitical which is an
inherently anti-intellectual position
(and countered by their rich and varied
views on everything!). Most, if not all,

1 Julia Lovell, The Opium

War: Drugs, Dreams
and the Making of China
(Sydney: Picador, 2011),
8.

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historians who engage in public debate

espouse a particular perspective of
the past because it mirrors their own
political understanding or values. Often
academic historians are politically active
in contemporary issues. A good example
is US historian Howard Zinn, who was
heavily involved in antiWar on Terror
campaigns in the early noughties. I
recommend showing students a short
dramatisation of his writing, narrated
by actor Viggo Mortensen, which is
available on YouTube.3 It contains an
account of how he began to question his
schoolings representation of American
history and how his experiences in the
air force in World War II shaped his
political perspective of the past and the
present. After watching, students can be
asked questions about which historical
events mentioned by Zinn may have
different or contested ideas. They
can also be asked what Zinns central
hypothesis is in this video. Gleaning a
historians hypothesis from a text is an
activity which builds upon the learning
in these worksheets.

2 E.H. Carr, What is

History? (Ringwood, Vic:
Penguin, 1964).
3 Howard Zinn, Empire
or Humanity? What
the Classroom didnt
Teach me about the
American Empire,
www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg.

cite and annotate a small number of

books that fit into a distinct school of
thought. These types of activities help
students improve evidence use in their
own writing, particularly knowing when
and what to use as quotes or evidence.
Students need clear modelling in
understanding that it is important to
quote historians views rather than a
bland description of an event.
I would value any feedback from
colleagues about these resources. If
you would like an editable copy or
accompanying Powerpoint presentation,
I can be contacted via email at habgood.
kate.k@edumail.vic.gov.au.
N.B. See appendices over the page.

A task which I use to accompany the

table showing different schools of
thought is to provide a box of history
books with clearly evident perspectives.
Examples include feminist texts,
Australian history texts written by
indigenous historians, local history
pamphlets, books about workers
struggles and biographies of politicians
and other leaders. Students discuss
in groups which school(s) of thought
they think the book best fits. I have
combined it with a bibliography exercise
in the library, asking students to find,

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Carrs What is History? in the

history classroom

the facts (or fish) that fit with their

bias or way of approaching the past.

In 1961, British historian E.H. Carr

wrote a seminal book called What
is History? Senior history teachers
often use this book to introduce the
ideas of historiography to students.

Why were these ideas revolutionary?

Carr argued historians had to stop
thinking of facts as neutral. He said
that historians uncritically worship
facts. Often we think something is a
fact if it is repeated often enough.
Sometimes facts are repeated all the
time, and trusted as real evidence,
but when you do historical research
and go back through all of the
primary sources, a fact may not be
true!

What did Carr say that was so

important? When you are reading a
history text (or watching a history
documentary), he suggested, look
first at the historian before you look
at the history.
What does this mean? Carr was
saying we all think differently about
things. We all have life experiences
which shape our understanding
of the world. Someone who has
experienced hunger is likely to hold a
different perspective than someone
who has grown up rich. Carr argued
peoples perspectives are always
there in the way they write, talk and
argue. We are all biased in some way
or another, and we cannot escape
it. There is no such thing as neutral
history.
Consider another of Carrs ideas in
this book. When a historian begins to
write an account of what happened
in an event, the facts are laid out for
him like fish on a fishmongers slab,
Carr wrote. The historian chooses

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One example is Richard III, a

play about an English king who
lived 150 years before the time of
Shakespeares theatrical production.
Shakespeare intimates Richard III
was an evil, nasty, cold-hearted king.
Over time, this became received
wisdom about Richard III because
everyone assumed Shakespeare was
accurate. But Shakespeare was trying
to please the Tudor monarchy and
Queen Elizabeth I. Many historians
found in the twentieth century,
through examining primary sources,
that Richard was not so wicked.
What do we need to take from this?
Every time we read something, we
should consider the facts presented.
We should find something out about
the author and look at the way they
use language to explain history. Are
they telling us everything we want
to know? Are they only telling one
side of the story? We should realise,
with Carrs guidance, that any
time one reads a history textbook
or a historical novel, watches a
documentary or a Hollywood film
about a historical event, the history
is biased. The facts are selected and
interpreted by the creators to fit
what they believe to be the truth
or with different historiographic
methods.

BELOW: Front cover of What

is History? by E.H. Carr.

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Worksheet: Historiography
The historiographic approaches of historians fit into some common schools of thought or theories.
Whig view of history
This interpretation is British in origin.
These scholars are usually traditional
although not conservative and
write from a British perspective.
They present history which shows
the world is getting better, moving
on a path to Enlightenment.
Whig histories typically see Europe
as having a positive influence on
the world. They look for examples
showing the West trying to do
the right thing, although not
always achieving it. They look at
history by understanding leaders
and government decisions, and
momentous events such as wars.
Feminism
The 1970s womens movement
led to greater power and influence
for women. Feminist approaches
to history were fodder for this
movement. Feminist historians argue
history traditionally focuses on
mens experiences. These historians
focus on the historical experience
of women. They look for examples
where women have been strong and
powerful.

Marxism
Marxist historians are politically
left-leaning and follow the ideas
of nineteenth-century scholar
Karl Marx. Marx argued that the
poor or working class have always
been treated badly by the rich and
powerful. Capitalism necessarily
subordinates labour to capital.
All history is the history of class
struggle.
Marxist histories usually focus on
the experiences of ordinary, poor
people. They look for examples
where working class people have
stood up for their rights or where
they have been denied those rights.
Postmodernism
Postmodernists question every
normally accepted truth from the
past. They also question progress
in history. The Holocaust exerted
a profound influence on the ideas
of postmodernism. Instead of
technology helping people to
have better lives, the Holocaust
revealed how modernity could
use technology for efficient mass
killing. So postmodernists reject a
lot of ideas from historians who see
progress over time.

Postmodernists often focus on

understanding power and language
in a society, particularly through
Right-wing revisionism
analysing representations and
Right-wing revisionists claim the past discourse. They show there is no
has been interpreted in an incorrect single way of understanding things
or doing things, suggesting relative
way by left-wing historians with a
viewpoints.
personal and political agenda.
Australian historian Keith
Windschuttle, for example, argues
the left exaggerates the number of
massacres and Indigenous people
killed. These exaggerations are
apparently an attempt to make
white settlers look immoral and
their modern descendants feel
guilt. Windschuttle emphasises
that white settlers had largely
positive intentions to build a new
life in Australia and should not be
misrepresented.

Postcolonialism
Postcolonial historians are
revisionists who want to revise
traditional European-written
histories about colonies. They want
to find out about the indigenous
experience and to understand why
Europeans were able to colonise and
control them.
Postcolonial histories focus on the
experiences of indigenous people
in colonies. They often look for
examples where indigenous people
have defied colonial authority and
stood up for their rights.

Exceptionalism
Exceptionalists believe certain
nations follow their own
paths and are exempted from
ordinary expectations. American
exceptionalists, for example,
propose the United States has
unique qualities which make it stand
out from the rest of the world. They
point to the American Revolution
and the ideas of liberalism, pursuit
of happiness, equality and so forth.
German exceptionalists, likewise,
argue the Holocaust was the result of
exceptional historical developments
(the Sonderweg) in Germany.
Positivists and Empiricists
Positivists believe facts can be
neutral. History textbooks are often
positivist because they present the
idea there is just one way to interpret
the past.
Empiricists are academic historians
who reject the idea of starting
with a theory. Instead they try to
understand the past by doing the
research first, i.e. examining primary
sources.

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