History Tools / Inquiry questions / "Crap detector"

There are multiple tasks that the historian is asked to fulfill, and a key one is analysis of sources.  This entails more than just summarizing points which is straight-forward.  The inquiry mode requires an analysis of the source which means subjecting it to a set of questions or points of inquiry.  This serves as a template or checklist; i.e., not every point is necessarily relevant to the source on hand.  The key is to utilize some of these--those which you believe are most effective in what you are working on at the moment.  The Inquiry Mode is a set of reasoning skills that students of history should learn as a result of studying history.  Sometimes called historical reasoning skills, historical thinking skills are frequently described in contrast to history content such as names, dates, and places (Factoid approach). This dual presentation is often misinterpreted as a claim for superiority of one form of knowing over the other. In fact, the distinction is generally made to underscore the importance of developing thinking skills that can be applied when individuals encounter any history content. Most educators agree that together, history content--the factoid approach--and historical thinking skills enable students to interpret, analyze and use information about past events.

From Susan Wise Bauer's The Well Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had.  New York:  W.W. Norton, 2003. 

HOW TO READ HISTORY

First Level of Inquiry: Grammar-Stage Reading
__ Look at the title, cover & table of contents
__ Does the writer state his/her purpose for writing?
__ What are the major events of the history?
__ Who is this story about?
__ Who or what causes this challenge?
__ What happened to the historical "hero/ine"?
__ Do the characters go forward, or backward--and why?
__ When does the story take place?
__ Where does the story take place?

Second Level of Inquiry: Logic-Stage reading
__ Look for the historian's major assertions
__ What questions is the historian asking?
__ What sources does the historian use to answer them?
__ Does the evidence support the connection between questions and asnwers?
__ Can you identify the history's genre?
__ Does the historian list his or her qualifications?

Third Level of Inquiry: Rhetoric-Stage Reading
__ What is the purpose of history?
__ Does this story have forward motion?
__ What does it mean to be human?
__ Why do things go wrong?
__ What place does free will have?
__ What relationship does this history have to social problems?
__ What is the end of history?
__ How is this history the same as--or different then--the stories of other historians who have come before?
__ Is there another possible explanation?

See also Reading like a historian

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SOME HISTORY TOOLS

Agreement vs. Clarity.  Folks will not always agree, so strive to state your position clearly; i.e., "Get your facts straight first, then you can distort 'em as you wish." -Mark Twain

Strength & Weakness.  Every positive has within it a negative and vice-a-versa; e.g., rain on your wedding day isn't preferable but a farmer celebrates the rain for his crop.

Force & Finesse (Power & Persuasion).  There are generally two ways of getting people to do what you'd like them to do: you make them or persuade them.

Responsible Judgment

Hierarchy of Values.  We have different perceptions/answers in history because not everyone shares the same basis of judgment; e.g., one basis of judgment could be economic, another political, moral, etc.

Moral Bank Account.  A bank account is about credits and debits, and at the end is the bottom line of plus or minus.  Responsible judgment requires a fair assessment of all transactions before passing judgment.

Thinking Trap.  Usually when one thinks they know the answer to something, they are not inclined to think about it again.  The normal brain craves answers, certainty which makes it a problem for almost all of us to keep an open mind.

Cosmic vs. Traditional Justice

Text vs. Subtext 

Universal vs. Unique.  Causation works on two levels, the general and the specific.  Historians seek both. 

Teaching vs. Preaching