Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Historical method
(1,227 words)

1. Definition

The term historical method refers to the constantly changing set of scholarly rules according to which the human past is made sense of for the present in the form of history. These include the rule that accounts of actual events should be prepared from empirical evidence (from what is termed primary sources), rules governing the writing of history (what is called historiography), and rules governing the conceptual processes whereby …

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Nordalm, Jens, “Historical method”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 08 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_020976>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180915



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