Historiography of WWI

​Historiography of WWI

​The history of the history of World War I

​Names of Historical Interpretaitons

​1. The early intentionalists

​2. German perspectives

• War Guilt Section​

• Harry Elmer Barnes​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

​3. the structuralists

​4. Biographical accounts

5. The interwar consensus​

• The Fischer thesis​

• Marxist perspectives​

Multiple Choice

Which best explains the importance of understanding the historiography of an event in history?

• Knowing the history involved in the written history that exists of an event helps historical thinkers to better interpret and use differing perspectives about what happened in history.

• Knowing that the history of an history of an event helps us to see that old history is flawed and newer history is more accurate.

• Knowing that history has a history helps us to define which historical accounts are "right" and which one's a "wrong".

• History is not about studying how historians have written about a topic - history if about facts and that's it - Historiography is a waste of time,

​Examples of Historiography

​Historical interpretations of WWI

1. Political historians have researched and theorized about the causes, effects and management of the war​.

2. Military historians have examined the strategies, tactics and methodologies used on the war’s many fronts and battlefields.​

3. Social historians have investigated how the war affected ordinary people and changed social roles, values and attitudes.​

4. Economic historians have explored how the war affected government policy, national economies, personal wealth, trade, commerce and finance.​

Multiple Choice

TRUE or FALSE: The first histories of World War I were written when the war itself was but a few weeks old. Since then, assumptions and conclusions about the war have changed very little because of the quality of those initial primary sources and historical interpretations?

• TRUE

• FALSE

Audio Response

Please record a 1 minute response where you retrieve your memories of what you read in the reading about this question:

"How many different interpretations did the reading share with you?" "Can you remember the names of these interpretations?"

Open Audio Recorder