The Key To Historical Thinking

Re-Post from February 2017 blog on old website: According to Sam Wineburg in his book, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, historians utilize a form of critical thinking that offers a new construction of a story. The key to ‘historical thinking’ is engaging with the subject matter in depth and viewing the past as if one is actually in the past, not the present (i.e. the opposite of ‘presentism’), and drawing upon background knowledge while formulating critical thinking questions and offering solutions.

Historians are trained to write in this specific way that invokes historical thinking. One example comes from the powerful narrative displayed in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book, A Midwife’s Tale. Ulrich, an American historian and academic scholar at Harvard University, presents the story of a midwife who lived in eighteenth-century America. However, instead of just revealing the basics of this individual like any other author would do, she critiques the protagonists’ movements, immerses herself into the life of this woman, and connects the motives and work of the female lead with the social relationships and the herbal medicine field of colonial New England. Ulrich’s writing branches further than the facts a reader would see in a textbook. Using primary documents and diary entries to form an argument, the historical narrative is no longer restricted to that statecraft, but encompasses historical thinking, a encompassing form of in-depth writing that provokes critical thinking questions. Ulrich’s book has been well-praised for it’s scholarly research; the Ivy League professor made no attempt to hide behind the monotone bars of a textbook’s black lettering, engaging the subject matter with passion, and immersing herself into a world of the midwife by critically viewing the past as its own separate identity. (Wineburg, pp. 12-14).

Ulrich and other academic historians use contextualized thinking when looking at primary and secondary sources, and are able to place themselves within the confinements of the past without looking at the present. Their writings display more life and critical thought than the black lettering of a textbook. Upon reading scholarly documents and being taught this two-dimensional form of thought, young historians will learn how to interpret an author’s work, and have the ability to dive deeper into the subject matter and formulate their own analytical questions. In my history classes, I utilize and showcase many primary documents and other historian’s works, gently prodding my students to think ‘outside the box,’ away from the every-day narrative, and placing their minds in the shoes of those who walked in the past.

Using the book: Wineburg, Sam. Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2001.

Receiving the 2016 Folbre Award (Outstanding Student in History)- Austin College. Flanked by Professors of History Max Grober (L) and Hunt T. Tooley (R).