Conversations Ongoing: A Priviledge

Historiography, or the history of History and it methods, is an essential piece of a great puzzle. If one is to take a page from the relativists notebook, History is an ever changing animal, one that is not objective but subjective to both the historian and the present. Given this point of view, the student of History must understand their particular point in time. Historiography is the light that illuminates this aspect of the art.

In a more direct matter, students can learn that the fact that they are even privy to History as a subject matter has not always been the case in history. History, for the better part of its existence was a grooming tool for kings, politicians, and despots. It never penetrated through the walls of governance to the masses. More so, its subject matter reflected the patrons it serviced and dealt mainly with political and constitutional maneuverings. Only after the Enlightenment and "Age of Reason" did the laymen become interested in historical study. True to the Relativists, the discipline changed along with its purveyors.

Today History reaches people en mass. An appreciation for the history of History lends to a legitimization of the discipline and a more professional approach to the present discipline. It is a launching board for a true examination of the subject today. Historiography allows the historian, lecturer, and sociologist to place themselves accurately in the conversation of History, an essential piece to the puzzle.

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