historiography

American  

[hi-stawr-ee-og-ruh-fee, -stohr-] / hɪˌstɔr iˈɒg rə fi, -ˌstoʊr- /

noun

historiographies plural

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.

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historiography British  

/ ˌhɪstɔːrɪˈɒɡrəfɪ, hɪˌstɔːrɪəˈɡræfɪk /

noun

1. the writing of history

2. the study of the development of historical method, historical research, and writing

3. any body of historical literature

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Other Word Forms

• historiographic
  adjective
• historiographical
  adjective
• historiographically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of historiography

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

Example Sentences

The awards foundation said Carrère d’Encausse was “one of the most brilliant, original and distinguished personalities of French historiography and contemporary European thought.”

From Seattle Times • May 10, 2023

Good research requires both types of sources and some attention to historiography, which is the study of how other historians have already interpreted and written about the past.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

The Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko is quoted expanding on the idea, arguing that “a leitmotif of Ukrainian literature, historiography, and philosophy is opposition to the centralized idea of state and universe.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 29, 2022

For them, the culture war of the 1990s was clearly connected to the upheaval in American historiography.

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2021

Chapters 2, 15, 16 and 17 deal with historiography, methodology and philosophy.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton