Historiography

Beliefs Gudiing the Approach to Writing History: A record of historical events in the New England colonies should show God's chosen people acheiving perfection in America

Beliefs Gudiing the Approach to Writing History: 1. The American triumph of Great Britain was an act of Providence. 2. George Washington was a heroic and indispensable leader of the Revolution.

Beliefs Gudiing the Approach to Writing History: 1. The United States stands at the high point o f human progress. 2. The movement westward from Europse to the United States--as well as within the United States--has been a movement that represents the most progressive developments that world has ever seen.

Beliefs Guiding the Approach to Writing History: 1. Historians should write detailed, disinterested history of the United States. 2. The United States is a special and exemplary nation, showing the rest of the world that democracy can work over a vast area.

Beliefs Guiding the Approach to Writing History: 1. History is characterized by a struggle between the "power elite" and "the people." 2. Liberals and progressives have been movign the nation closer to a liberal democratic state. The development of a liberal democratic state is inevitable.

Beliefs Guiding the Approach to Writing History: 1. The shared ideas of Americans are more important than the conflicts. U.S. history is generally lacking in conflict, particularly class conflict. Conflicts may be present in U.S. history, but they never approach the same level of intensity as the conflicts that characterize European history.

Beliefs Guiding the Approach to Writing History: 1. Historians should include stories of violence, racism, and oppression in American society. The United States is a slew of race, clsss, gender, and ethnicity, and the idea of an American "consensus" is inaccurate.

Beliefs Guiding the Approach to Writing History: 1. History should be studied from the bottom up. Historians should study diaries, letters, and other documents from ordinary people. Subfields of social history include the study of race, gender, ethnicity, labor, families, education, cities, rural life, etc.