Historiography and History Research Methods - Essay Example

Evolution of Historiography and History of Research Methods Research methods are made up of guidelines and techniques utilized by historians to writehistory after researching primary sources and other available clues. According to Karlovysky and Sabloff (1979), Herodotus of Halicarnassus is regarded as the founder if history but Thucydides is the one who first approached history with a historical method that was well developed while writing the history of the War of the Peloponnesians. Thucydides highlighted chronology in his research method.

The current western historiography methods were established in Germany and France sometime during 17th and 18th centuries. The 20th century saw historians place less attention on narratives of epic nationalists and focus more on the complex and more objective study of intellectual and social forces. History was treated less like an art and regarded more as a social science, though there were still some historians who felt otherwise. Several other ways of studying history have since come up ever since with Postmodernists in the recent times questioning the need to study history on the basis of personal interpretation of sources.

This paper is aimed at providing a historiographical analysis of the Berlin war.The Bringing down of the Berlin wall The Berlin wall attracted numerous different views from historians, depending on whether they viewed it from the West’s of East’s perspective. Both sides though, seemed to be at first seeking reasons to justify its construction before finally agreeing that the wall is a barrier (Ladd, 1998). The view of those supporting the East, according to Marxist theories, was that the Proletariat was using the wall as a defence against the influential bourgeoisie.

Particularly, the East felt threatened by fascism which they saw as against socialist progress as noted by Beattie (2008). They seemed to imply that the neighbouring West Germany still possessed some Nazism. The West however, termed the wall shameful for the way it restricted movement between the two sides. Historians supporting the West, of course, differed with this view. According to them, the wall came up due to the two system’s historical discrepancy. They have, in many instances, viewed the period of the wall’s existence as totalitarian.

Liberal historians, like the Marxists, however reported the war to have been a progressive development. From the East German’s point of view, the wall was some sort of a political embarrassment and a place to be avoided but the Western powers like Britain, US and West Germany held a different view about the wall. If fact, the seemed to have been at first relieved at its construction (Smyser, 2009), viewing it as a way of avoiding another confrontation with the Germans. It was even reported that the Western powers exploited the wall’s value and termed it a symbol of communism failure (Ladd, 1998).

After some time, the US seemed to change its position on the wall and demanded it be brought down. The East responded to these statements to be provocations and stressed even more the importance of having the wall. Historians from the West then attacked the wall and viewed it as a means of keeping people in and progress out. Those from the East however, defended the wall stating that it was an essential means of providing protection against the West’s atavistic forces.Conclusion Historians often write down history from different perspectives depending on which side they seem to support.

The best way to get the accurate information about a certain event would be to take a neutral position, view both sides of the story and then make an informed judgement. ReferencesBeattie, A. (2008) Playing Politics with History: the Bundestag Inquiries into East Germany, Oxford: Berghahn Books.Ladd, B. (1998) The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape, Chicago: UCP Press.Karlovysky, L and Sabloff, J.A. (1979) Ancient Civilizations: the Near East and Mesoamerica, San Francisco, CA: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing.Smyser, W.R. (2009) Kennedy and the Berlin Wall: “A Hell of a Lot Better Than a War”, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.