{"id":6360,"date":"2016-11-02T15:02:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T15:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/?post_type=chapter&p=6360"},"modified":"2019-06-04T22:22:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T22:22:33","slug":"1-3-making-histories","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/chapter\/1-3-making-histories\/","title":{"raw":"1.3 Making Histories","rendered":"1.3 Making Histories"},"content":{"raw":"Where does history come from? Historians use a great many different sources to assemble information on the past. Evidence comes in many forms.\r\n\r\nTo think like a historian, we\u00a0must concern ourselves not only with what people did, but also with\u00a0what they thought they were doing. In every act that humans perform, however simple or banal, they are looking toward the future. Nations don't go to war for the sake of war; they do so to\u00a0obtain more territory or to\u00a0secure borders or to\u00a0chasten a neighbour in the future<\/em>. Likewise, individuals make personal choices, such as\u00a0emigrating or\u00a0postponing marriage until they are older,\u00a0because of how their decisions will \"pay out\" later on.\r\n

Peter Moogk, an accomplished historian of New France, encourages us to develop an deep understanding of past societies: \"If a historian is not immersed in the culture of the time being studied and has not grasped its internal logic, then that scholar's reconstruction of past human behaviour will inevitably be superficial and anachronistic.\"[footnote]Peter Moogk, \"Writing the Cultural History of Pre-1760 European Colonists,\" <\/span>French Colonial History<\/em>\u00a04 (2003): 5<\/span>.[\/footnote]\u00a0<\/span>To study\u00a0history properly, we\u00a0must\u00a0creep around behind people in the past and try to look at the future through their eyes. In order to do so, we must become open to the institutions and instincts of earlier eras and then consult\u00a0the detritus and records of\u00a0our predecessors.<\/p>\r\nThe\u00a0sources that historians rely upon are grouped under two headings (which sometimes overlap). The first\u00a0group is\u00a0primary sources, <\/strong>which\u00a0<\/strong>are original materials that come to us directly from people in the past. Diaries, letters, and reports of government inquiries are good examples of primary materials. The other\u00a0group is secondary sources, <\/strong>which generally are documents that examine primary documents and provide an interpretation. Both types are discussed below.\r\n

Primary Sources<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1277\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\"Shelves<\/a> Figure 1.5 Primary sources are often held in archives.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPrimary sources\u00a0are often held in archives<\/strong>, and\u00a0sometimes in museums. (Often the archives are in<\/em>\u00a0a museum.) Archives may be\u00a0private or\u00a0semi-private, but the principal archival institutions in Canada are public and are organized by levels of government. The\u00a0National Library and Archives of Canada<\/a> is housed in Ottawa, every provincial capital has its own provincial archives, and most cities have one too.\u00a0Most universities have their own archives, which are\u00a0sometimes called \"special collections,\"\u00a0and large public libraries very often have a room dedicated to primary documents.\r\n\r\nIn this electronic age of ours, many public archives are available online through Archives Canada<\/a>.\u00a0As well, increasingly, historical photographs and maps are available online. Still, there are times when a visit to the physical place is called for. It is typically in an archives that historians do the painstaking detective work that leads to new discoveries about the past.\r\n
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Exercises: Find the Archives<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nWherever You Live, There's an Archives<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe town or city in which you live has one. Local museums usually have some kind of\u00a0archives or a set of local records, as do churches, military regiments, schools, and universities.\u00a0It costs nothing to get into the archives.\r\n\r\nWhere is\u00a0the\u00a0provincial archives nearest to you? How many local archives are attached to museums? To churches? Regiments? Take a look at the online catalogue of any one of them. What kinds of things do they have? Pick a topic -- the local breweries, the street on which you live, a home-grown artist you like -- and see what they\u2019ve got.\r\n\r\nIf possible, drop by and take a closer look.\u00a0Ask the archivist about the collections. Tell him or her\u00a0you\u2019re interested in\u00a0learning what kinds of materials are\u00a0collected and what most excites them.\u00a0Describe in a couple of paragraphs the assets and, broadly, what makes them important resources for historical and\/or community knowledge.\r\n\r\nFinally, share what you've found with others. Go to Wikipedia<\/a> or a community website and add that knowledge.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Reading the Records<\/h3>\r\nPrimary documents can get you\u00a0closer to actual participants in past events,\u00a0but they are not without problems. Think about it: Has anyone ever lied or embellished a story in his or her\u00a0diary? Has there ever been an inquiry without a political agenda in the background? Have you ever read a letter and wondered if it reveals the writer's thoughts or what the writer thinks you will understand by it? Take the Jesuit Relations<\/em>, for example. These are reports submitted by Jesuit missionaries in New France to their masters back home. There are many truths contained in them,\u00a0but you have\u00a0to keep in mind that the Jesuits who prepared\u00a0the\u00a0Relations<\/em>\u00a0knew that they would be read by people who had the power to cut off their supplies or to send them the reinforcements and materials essential to success. In the reports, were they overly optimistic about the likelihood of religious conversions among the First Nations? Did they dramatize or downplay daily life? Both?\r\n
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Salt and pepper: comparing two paintings<\/h4>\r\nIf letters and reports can be duplicitous, what about paintings and maps? Take a look at Benjamin West's famous 1770 work, The Death of General Wolfe<\/em>\u00a0(Figure 1.6),\u00a0which hangs in the National Gallery in Ottawa. Clearly it is a very romantic interpretation of what actually took place in 1759, but what truths does it reveal ... despite itself?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1280\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\"A<\/a> Figure 1.6 The Death of General Wolfe<\/em> painted by Benjamin West.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe pepper to West's salt is The Death of Montcalm<\/em><\/a> by Fran\u00e7ois-Louis-Joseph Watteau, painted in 1800. It, too, hangs in the National Gallery. It shows Montcalm dying on the battlefield, despite the fact that he died in a surgeon's home.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_749\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\"A<\/a> Figure 1.7 The Death of Montcalm<\/em> painted by Fran\u00e7ois-Louis-Joseph Watteau.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Exercises: Paintings as Primary Sources<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nPortrayals of Historic Events<\/strong>\r\n\r\nCompare the above two famous -- and canonical -- representations of real events <\/em>with three more:\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_751\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"198\"]\"Montcalm<\/a> Figure 1.8 Mort de Montcalm<\/em> ca. 1759.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_752\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"246\"]\"Soldiers<\/a> Figure 1.9 Death of General Montcalm<\/em> by Charles William Jefferys (1869-1952).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_750\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\"Three<\/a> Figure 1.10 General Wolfe killed at the Siege of Quebec<\/em> on September 14, 1759. (1792)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nNow answer these questions.\r\n
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  1. What differences do you see?<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Who was the intended audience of each?<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. What purpose was each painting\u00a0meant to serve?<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Who is in each\u00a0painting? Who is not?<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. How are those in the paintings\u00a0depicted?<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. In the end, who do you trust and why?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn order to appreciate and make the most of primary documents,\u00a0we need to follow some basic practices of critical enquiry. The questions that follow are ones that you should ask of your sources\u00a0(even secondary sources) and have been posed by the historians whose articles and books you will read.\r\n

    Identify the Source<\/h3>\r\n