Alan Brinkley: Where Historians Disagree

From Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation: A Brief Interactive History of the American People

Where Historians Disagree - The American Population before Columbus
Where Historians Disagree - The Origins of Slavery
Where Historians Disagree - The American Revolution
Where Historians Disagree - The Background of the Constitution
Where Historians Disagree - The Age of Jackson
Where Historians Disagree - The Character of Slavery
Where Historians Disagree - The Causes of the Civil War
Where Historians Disagree - The Origins of Segregation
Where Historians Disagree - The "Frontier" and the West
Where Historians Disagree - Populism
Where Historians Disagree - Progressive Reform
Where Historians Disagree - Causes of the Great Depression
Where Historians Disagree - The New Deal
Where Historians Disagree - The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb
Where Historians Disagree - Origins of the Cold War
Where Historians Disagree - McCarthyism - Scroll down.
Where Historians Disagree - The Vietnam Commitment
Where Historians Disagree - Watergate
Where Historians Disagree - Women's History

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xTimeline

Methods of Analysis

METHODS OF ANALYSIS

analyze – to separate into parts or basic principles in order to determine the nature of the whole; to examine methodically

When you are asked to read and analyze something, here are some methods of analysis you can use. Can you think of some others?

• FIND PATTERNS
• QUANTIFY (COUNT) THINGS
• ANALYZE STATISTICS – What is the most or least? What is the average? By how much did things increase over a period of time? Who had the most? Where were the most things located?
• RANK THINGS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE
• NOTICE CHANGES that take place through time
• CATEGORIZE – Group things under various categories.
• CLASSIFY – assign things or people to classes or groups
• FIND INTERRELATIONSHIPS – How are various things related to one another. What is the significance of these relationships?
• FIND GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONSHIPS
• FIND CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS
• CAUSE & EFFECT – How did one thing lead to or cause another?
• BREAK DOWN INTO COMPONENT PARTS – What are the various parts of this thing?
• DRAW INFERENCES – Read between the lines to extract ideas that are not explicitly stated.
• EXPLAIN MEANINGS
• CORROBORATION/CONTRADICTION – Support or contradict previously learned information or opinions. Point out differences of fact and differences of opinion between two or more sources.
• DISTINGUISH FACT FROM OPINION – What evidence is available to distinguish fact from opinion?
• FIND FACTUAL ERRORS
• COMPARE & CONTRAST – Find similarities & differences between things.
• OBJECTIVE OR SUBJECTIVE? – Is the person being fair and impartial (objective) or telling something strictly from his/her own point of view?
• FIND BIAS – Are there signs of bias in what is being analyzed? Has the information been “shaped” or “selected” to support one point of view?
• DISTINGUISH BETWEEN RELEVANT & IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
• FIND LOGICAL INCONSISTENCIES – Point out arguments or points that are erratic or illogical.
• FIND AMBIGUITIES (things that are doubtful, uncertain, or capable of more than one interpretation)
• FIND EQUIVOCATION ( things that are evasive, capable of two or more interpretations, or of a doubtful nature)
• FIND UNSTATED ASSUMPTIONS – something not set forth specifically in words but nevertheless accepted or supposed to be true
• MAKE GENERALIZATIONS – What general statement can we make to summarize what we see here?
• AUTHOR’S THESIS – State the author’s thesis (main argument) and describe how s/he supports it.