Concept in Definition ABC

Historian is that subject who is in charge of making a recount of events that happened in the past both from a descriptive point of view and critical. To perform such homework, the historian works with different types of sources whose objective is to provide the appropriate information on facts, processes or phenomena related to the history of Humanity.

It is considered to Herodotus of Halicarnassus as the first historian of Humanity. This intellectual was born and lived in Ancient Greece and worked collecting and counting information about famous events such as battles, wars, reigns of historical figures and other data that formed the Nine Books of History. Although Herodotus resorted to descriptive methods that today seem very basic, his work is undoubtedly the beginning historical science by offering us an idea of ​​the task of the historian in the face of the facts with which he find.

Since History is understood as a science, the historian must carry out his task following his own scientific methodologies such as

decide the object of study of him (the section or stage from history to analyze), the sources and testimonies that he will count on to carry out such understanding (which can go from material sources to oral sources), and the method analysis or hypothesis to critique the information obtained. Obviously, the historian always provides a subjective vision for the understanding of empirical data and that is why History never projects univocal and indisputable truths as it can happen with natural Sciences.

The object of study of History and the historian has varied over the centuries. While the first modern historians based their study on the analysis of the work of the great politicians, thinkers and the military, later currents have sought to complete such analysis with the study of long-term social, economic and cultural processes that suppose that the History of Humanity is constructed between everyone.

Topics in Historian