Some Rules for Historians (1973)
The article outlines essential guidelines for historians in both teaching and writing. It emphasizes the importance of engaging with students, maintaining passion for the subject, and prioritizing original sources over secondary works. Additionally, it encourages historians to embrace mistakes and explore new fields to enrich their scholarly pursuits.
- ▪Historians should structure courses around student interests rather than their own research preferences.
- ▪Writing should be approached with passion, as objectivity is not essential for good history.
- ▪Engaging directly with original sources is crucial to avoid errors and enhance sensitivity to the material.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Some Rules for Historians 1. If you teach history as well as write it, be sure you never shortchange your students by shaping your courses to fit with your research interests rather than with their interests. Structure the course so that you have an opportunity to learn from them. No historian ever lived who could not learn something from his students. 2. If you write history as well as teach it, do not become obsessed with the fear of making mistakes. It is important, of course, to be accurate; but to err is human and there are much worse things than errors: dogmatism, inhumanity, superficiality among them. It is the function of the historian to open up new perspectives to his readers and his students; to lead them into the wider realms of history. 3.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Smithtrust.
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