historiography

[hi-stawr-ee-og-ruh-fee, -stohr-]

noun

plural

historiographies 

1. the body of literature dealing with historical matters; histories collectively.

2. the body of techniques, theories, and principles of historical research and presentation; methods of historical scholarship.

3. the narrative presentation of history based on a critical examination, evaluation, and selection of material from primary and secondary sources and subject to scholarly criteria.

4. an official history.

   medieval historiographies.

Other Word Forms

• historiographic adjective
• historiographical adjective
• historiographically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of historiography¹

1560–70; < Middle French historiographie < Greek historiographía. See history, -o-, -graphy

Example Sentences

Her favorite spring semester class was historiography, a study of how historians research and interpret the past.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“He has engaged with the historiography in a way that is clearly the equivalent of a professional historian,” Brooks said.

Read more on Seattle Times

But no matter — conservative historiography was as quick to condemn Roosevelt’s war leadership as it was to pounce on his domestic record.

Read more on Salon

Such a reading of history is inaccurate, based on lies and willful distortions of fact and historiography, intellectually dishonest, and is right-wing dogma and disinformation masquerading as "scholarship".

Read more on Salon

In practice, these strictures elevate a white-oriented historiography to the level of received truth, turning the clock back on decades of pedagogical progress.

Read more on Los Angeles Times