"Mainstream historians **AND THE CIA** want you to believe the Peloponnesian wars were a series of prolonged, protracted conflicts between Athens, Sparta and their client city-states in which the two predominant Greek powers that emerged from the greco-persian war competed for hegemony across Greece. The truth, however, is much, much darker."
Ah comrade! I see you're also a follower of the immortal science of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era! Awesome!
Whoever thinks Ancient history (especially ancient Greek history) is something we can all "objectively" agree upon, should come and attend a Greek or generally south Balkan, or even turkish history school class...
I got my degree in history and was trained using the same techniques, so I'm glad ppl interested in certain topics, who aren't getting a history degree, can get some tips on how to do research on topics they want to know more about. Good work.
I likely won't ever get to be able to attend university because of my financial situation (I'm very poor, and American), so being able to learn the basics of how to do historical research correctly to educate myself is great.
@@ewee2568 I'll tell you a secret. Here in Mexico City the 3 big public universities UNAM, IPN & UAM charge minimum rates (like at most 10 USD per year). If you know spanish and can afford rent, I've met foreign friends who studied their uni or masters here in Mexico.
*Stay the HOLY FUCKING HELL AWAY from Soviet “History.”* If you value your credibility, your sanity, and your principles, you best stay away from the equivalent to Holocaust-Denial-in-Reverse. The day that credible historians *cite Nazi sources* (without ever telling you that they are, or they are blissfully ignorant to the original, or maliciously omit such details…) that is the day when you risk placing yourself into logic pretzels as soon as you’re challenged with evidence. Sadly, there are many examples of this occurring. And don’t think that it’s as easy as buying the source material and checking for yourself either. 1) You’ll be dealing with rare books and difficult-to-find books. 2) You’ll be doing A LOT of double takes, cause you’ll be asking yourself: “Wait, where DID I see X before, I swear, I saw that X somewhere before…” 3) “Archives [cited in] propaganda pieces” is going to be alarmingly common. 4) You’ll identify a Murder’s Row of frauds and hacks that will haunt you in your sleep. 5) A lot of ALIASES will be used. 6) If you ever question the narrative, be prepared to be compared to Holocaust deniers. 7) If you have ACTUAL evidence, be prepared to be excised as though you were possessed by demons. 8) Oh… be very wary of how they “fix” a narrative too. (Katyn being a ripe example.) Yeesh, it’s not a pretty sight. The day you get to see Timothy Snyder cite a Nazi-sycophant in Bloodlands, or Anne Applebaum dismiss Nazis in literature (post WWII), only to cite “Black Deeds of the Kremlin” (10 times, I counted…) That’s the day when you should question your life’s decision to studying history.
@@ewee2568 it’s great to hear people taking an interest in history, and you know you could try working in public history (It’s surprise the number of journalists who work in the field). I’m currently reading Falsehoods and Fallacies by Bethany Kilcrease and it essentially written for that purpose, though the book also brings up fallacies which no professor ever mentioned to me in undergrad. Maybe your library has the ebook.
Same here. However, upon discovering the likes of Spengler and Toynbee, my entire Eurocentric conception of history shattered. Linear history is just a western myth, superimposed upon the rest of the world.
@@marauder8257 it was clearly not serious due to all the caps ... I don't think showing this as secondary material would be bad for students. At my university professor’s assistant sometimes gives us TH-cam video to help us understand the more formal material.
Getting a lot of flashbacks to secondary school history of "evaluate the usefulness of this random political cartoon in telling us about the mood of Britain in 1938 or whatever"
This is a great guide, and I'm sure it'll help many people improve their understanding of history. TH-cam needs less history channels like Armchair Historian and more of them like you.
Always good to remember that even a biased source will usually cite something true if it fits their narrative/agenda, as there are situations where you're sifting for bits and pieces from multiple biased sources with nothing fully reliable available.
Additional advice on books. Instead of buying it go to your local library. Even if they don't have it, which will be mostly the case with niche and specific historical topics, they can order it from other libraries for just a small fee.
I have a pathological need to own the books I read so libraries, as important an institution as they are, make me extremely anxious. Last time I went to one to find books for a college research project I spent more time browsing books I'd like to own and feeling sad and distraught at the bad condition of some volumes I found than I did searching for the ones I needed for my project. I support public libraries, I just can't use them.
This goes for the fortunate and privileged situation where your city/country still have actual public libraries. Not all of us can afford such privilege.
Only 13 minutes in and you’ve cleared up a ton of misconceptions I, and I think a lot of other people who don’t study history at a tertiary level, have. Especially on primary vs secondary sources, and how primary =/= better just because it’s straight from the subject matter, and how secondary sources are just as relevant to giving a full historical explanation as primary sources are. And I’m fairly certain that I, and a lot of others, have assumed that primary = better for that reason, and from there it becomes easy to see how someone like Knowing Better can deceive people. Very helpful video.
I definitely recommend the ask historians subreddit as well. They have a bunch of historians who answer questions. They also have a podcast where the usually interview someone who discusses their particular field.
as a prospective history major in college, thank you much. History has long been a passion of mine, but doing my own research has never been a strong point for me.
I was really interested by your question of "Does this source seem too certain about something where a lot of doubt still remains?" for secondary sources. Going to start using that from now on when I read works of history like books or articles to detect for biases
I'm of the opinion the CLR James application of sources, both primary and secondary in Black Jacobins is both illustrative and paramount to learning how sources are found, and incorporated into writing. I wish every historian was as good a writer as James.
BTW the guy doing the Columbus video knew what he was doing and was just pushing his agenda/view, no way that anyone could ever missunderstand the meaning of the word subjugate in to making a subject any spanish, latin or italian speaker would know that the word is never used in that conotation
I don't know, he doesn't seem to be the kind of right winger that would push for a glorification of the conquest or Columbus. I think he fell into the trap of "enlightened centrist" thought. You know, "these people have painted him as a genius, a saint, almost a demi-god; these people have painted him as an evil person, a narcissist, almost a demon. I'm smarter than all of them, I only see a normal person", that kind of thing.
@@frechjo That was the point, though. He wasn't unilaterally bad. Centrism doesn't neccesarily mean he's of the belief that he should be celebrated, or not removed.
@@wellsshady KB's videos try to reinterpret the historical facts and evidence, and play moral relativism, in order to erase what was bad about Columbus. It's historical revisionism to rehabilitate him, and that is BS history.
@@frechjo I mean, most historical analysis done casually doesn't carefully tackle what conditions are, and what is essential to a person, but wouldn't relativism also delete the possibility of a good Columbus, thus making it not as bad as the person replying to you made it out? I also see that he brought relevant information to back him up, it wasn't just "Well, we're all human, let's plausibily agree and leave".
Sometimes I tend to think some of the things you said here are of common knowledge, but as a social science graduate I usually take for granted the level of academic formation required to know such "basic" notions like primary/secondary sources, critical analysis, peer reviews, etc. In high school we took Social Sciences / History classes where we learned all those basic stuff about historiography, and also on the first semester of university there was an entire course on "Analysis and Verbal Expressions" (where we were supposed to learn about citation standards, writing structures, academic formats, etc.). So for someone with previous experience on any social science (or any empirical science in general), not just historians, this should be like the most basic stuff. However, people who can go to college (or even to high school) are sadly still a minority, so it's still pretty important for people like you to take the time to explain these basic concepts in our "post-truth era". So kudos for your work!
30 years ago I was involved in translating ancient pre-Columbian accounts of the conquest and then comparing them to the works of the spaniard priest account of the events Needles to say the version where so different than you would be hard press to believe you where talking about the same historical events
@@kamito834 not my particular efforts those are non public data but try "in xochitl in quicatl" has side by side nahuatl and spanish translation of poems that amongst many other things depict the conquest trough the view on the victims of the genocide also, Bernal dia del Castillo tried to be as impartial as posible and "la vision de los vencidos" for a lot of first person accounts from both sides of the ordeal 500 years ago
By "pre-Columbian accounts", you mean "contemporary Indigenous"? I don't see how someone could be "pre-Columbian" and have a vision on the Conquest at the same time, unless they weren't "pre-"Columbian.
@@Ajente02 they are pre columbian as in the conquest was not yet a reality and they where chronicling the war, the siege of tenochtitlan, the pelage and finally their defeat The colonies and therefore colonial times come after the fall of the ancient empire They where written as they where dying by those who did not live to see the fall in most cases as 90% where wipeout by the epidemic the spaniards used as bio warfare
@@orlandoblanco6969 Did the Spaniards use the old world diseases as bio-warfare or did they spread without their intentionally spreading them or even understanding the process?
Hey man, thanks for making this video. I'm a high school student looking to publish something on the racism against Mexicans and Hispanics during the Mexican-American war. That one site really helps instead of being locked behind the paywall of JSTOR. Wish me the best of luck!
I wish we had more historians like Spengler, Toynbee, and Quigley living today. They were some of the only ones who actively challenged and outright deconstructed the Eurocentric myth of “linear history”.
Spengler, like the Oswald Spengler who directly inspired national-socialism ? 💀 Tonybee is not what I would call the best historian around, no one really takes his theories seriously anymore
I feel acknowledged and called out, however, it did inspire me to go seek actual papers and some books in the off chance you're making a video about Brazil and the military, look "Canudos" up. It's quite symbolic for the role the Army has played and the way they handle things, from the cruelty to the incompetence
I did know this all, but I listened to make sure I wouldn't have to leave an angry comment. Which I don't! This is a great introduction! As an added bonus, one way you can generally rapidly tell that someone is about to make a super conservative or racist argument is that they cite secondary sources that are decades old (especially pre-60s/70s). In those cases where a racist pretends to be intellectual and actually gives sources, it's pretty fun to count how many of those secondary sources are 60-100 years old. But also for anyone wanting ideas on the challenge, I can recommend looking into the historiography around the 1st World War. And not just stopping at The Guns of August (or at the Fischer Thesis of course). It's a great area to see lots of debate over methods and sources on an interesting subject!
It's been a while since a TH-cam video set me homework. I've already brought the book. You have set in motion a process that neither of us will be able to stop! I am become research, devourer of book
Thank you! I was always confused on who to trust because both arguments always seems compelling (Example: Knowing better’s Columbus video and your debunking of that) now I know how to check these videos and how to accurately find knowledge. Thanks :)
Teacher: "You get an F." You: "Wha- But why?! All my sources were properly cited, my research was impeccable!" Teacher: "You're not the only one who follows Bad Empanada."
There’s a lot of questions to ask about the author and the intended audience and its all the right. However if you are writing the research paper for the first time or it’s your first few times and you are doing it for an intended audience of being an entertaining, informative piece. I feel as though it’s always best to have someone who is experienced to peer review it. The only problem is having a convenient colleague to actually to that which leads to my question is there is such a community?
Thanks for linking this video in your update, I absolutely did not get notified of this video in my subscription feed! This is my favorite kind of analysis, I really love videos covering topics like this. Muchas gracias amigo~
On the peer review section, im not sure if this applies to history but for the sciences reputable peer reviewed journals are catalogued by the Master Journals List.
Also remember: 1) individual peer-reviewinf institutions can themselves have biases which should be checked with reference to other respected institutions, and 2) The LANGUAGE of the text matters, since text in one language may not reflect the scholarly views of authors who publish primarily in another language.
secondary literature of calibre when you're unsure of your intuition on the subject primary sources if you're familiar with the subject - a former history student
Now I get what you were saying about primary sources not being good start with on researching. Skipping the secondary source can lead to misinterpretations because their is missing contexts. This is something not told in depth in my research writing class.
In the course of working toward my degree in Political Science/Political Theory and History (in the US) I DID learn these research methods, but it was never explicitly TAUGHT to me as much as it was something I learned from feedback, both negative and positive, from my professors...It worked for me, but it's NOT an ideal basis for teaching something as foundational to scholarship. Research methods and source analysis should start in the EARLIEST years of education...IMHO.
This video gives me special feelings on the inside. I came out the other side of a history degree and boy does it frustrate the shit out of me to see the poor state of pop-history.
as a neopagan this was really useful! i find myself often having to filter through academic sources to learn about how my gods were worshipped. i know that isn't your primary audience but holy moley do pagans need to do better research
Most local history does not get peer-reviewed often. Public historians are often put in a hard position to correct previous publications and need to take the deep dive into primary sources not to publish anything but to just get familiar with the time and event.
Nice job man! I'm teaching an undergraduate class this semester on American history and culture and you explained these fundamentals as well as or better than I could. I think I'll use this as a suggested video for students preparing their research!
Ok i like this video a lot, but i have a doubt. What if i want to know things about a conflict or an event more generally, do i just type out "Vietnam war" or "israel" and "palestine" and search from there?
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🕰️ *Introdução ao vídeo* - O vídeo aborda questões comuns sobre pesquisa histórica. - Perguntas como a confiabilidade de fontes históricas e como realizar pesquisas próprias serão respondidas. - A importância da historiografia é destacada para entender como os eventos passados são pesquisados e interpretados. 01:22 📚 *Tipos de Fontes Históricas: Primárias e Secundárias* - Explicação sobre a distinção entre fontes primárias e secundárias. - Primárias são relatos contemporâneos, enquanto secundárias oferecem análises e interpretações. - Exemplos práticos são dados, destacando a importância de considerar como uma fonte está sendo usada. 03:37 📖 *Analisando Fontes Primárias e Secundárias* - Métodos de análise para fontes primárias: quem a ofereceu, qual seu contexto, quais preconceitos podem existir. - Métodos de análise para fontes secundárias: qualificação do autor, uso de evidências, abordagem equilibrada. - Enfatiza a importância de questionar fontes e ser crítico em ambas as análises. 09:20 📚 *Primárias vs. Secundárias: Qual usar?* - Argumenta que fontes secundárias, com o benefício da retrospectiva, oferecem uma visão mais ampla e precisa. - Adverte contra confiar exclusivamente em fontes primárias, destacando o desafio de encontrar e contextualizar essas fontes. - Apresenta um exemplo de um youtuber que falhou ao depender apenas de fontes primárias sobre Cristóvão Colombo. 13:00 🧭 *O Papel das Fontes Primárias na Pesquisa Histórica* - Usa o exemplo da obra de Gildas, um clérigo britânico do século VI, para ilustrar a importância das fontes primárias. - Alerta sobre a necessidade de analisar criticamente mesmo fontes primárias valiosas. - Destaca que o trabalho dos historiadores é construir uma síntese baseada em fontes primárias e secundárias. 16:14 📚 *Identificação de Boas Fontes Secundárias* - Explica como identificar fontes acadêmicas, preferencialmente peer-reviewed. - Livros de editoras universitárias e artigos em revistas acadêmicas são indicativos de qualidade. - Enfatiza a importância de procurar estrutura e métodos de citação específicos para a pesquisa histórica. 21:44 🚫 *Cuidado com Pseudo-História* - Adverte contra pseudo-história que imita a estrutura acadêmica sem revisão por pares. - Destaca a importância de pesquisar sobre os autores, suas qualificações e trabalhos anteriores. - Recomenda cautela ao avaliar trabalhos não peer-reviewed, especialmente para iniciantes. 22:36 🎓 *Qualificações Acadêmicas e Revisão por Pares* - Autor com qualificações formais geralmente oferece trabalhos mais confiáveis. - Alguém sem diploma, mas com várias publicações revisadas por pares, pode ser uma fonte valiosa. - A revisão por pares é crucial para validar a qualidade e confiabilidade de um trabalho. 23:28 🌐 *Escopo na Pesquisa Histórica* - A profundidade da pesquisa é favorecida ao focar em tópicos e períodos específicos. - Trabalhos amplos podem fornecer uma visão geral, mas muitas vezes sacrificam detalhes. - O escopo influencia a precisão e a conclusão de uma pesquisa histórica. 25:03 📜 *Reconhecendo Limitações e Conflitos* - Boa pesquisa histórica reconhece suas falhas e lida com argumentos conflitantes. - Explanar as razões por trás de conclusões divergentes é fundamental. - O livro "Guns, Germs, and Steel" é citado como exemplo de pesquisa deficiente. 28:01 🧐 *Variação na Disponibilidade de Evidências* - A qualidade e quantidade de evidências variam ao longo do tempo e locais. - Pesquisas recentes são geralmente mais confiáveis do que aquelas mais antigas. - A falta de evidências não impede conclusões, mas exige reconhecimento da incerteza. 29:25 📚 *Ferramentas e Estratégias de Pesquisa* - Google Scholar é uma ferramenta valiosa para encontrar artigos acadêmicos. - Utilizar palavras-chave específicas facilita a busca de informações relevantes. - Explorar as referências de um artigo pode revelar fontes adicionais. 34:30 🔄 *Prática e Desafio para o Espectador* - A prática é fundamental para aprimorar as habilidades de pesquisa histórica. - Desafio proposto: Escolher um tópico, encontrar e analisar um livro ou artigo. - A experiência prática contribui significativamente para o aprendizado. Made with HARPA AI
I was a History major in undergrad. Watching this video weirdly reminded me of the level of anxiety I endured researching in preparation for papers. Although I loved it, I'll never voluntarily go back to those days again. Oh and Chicago-Turabian is the way every discipline should cite sources. I never used MLA or APA in any of my college courses.
@@Ajente02 APA is very much high school citation practices. It looks childish on a long form college level paper. It takes up unnecessary space that should be dedicated to the body of your paper and interpretation of source material. Chicago-Turabian is a much more mature and organized way of citing. It is also much simpler than littering your paper with parentheses, titles, and page numbers.
@@jnyerere I prefer Chicago-Turabian, but your point about maturity or it looking childish on a long form college paper is absurd. APA is a standard in many fields, not just "high school citation practices," which in my high school was MLA. No professor looks at a specific citation style, especially one that is widely used in the field, in such a judgemental fashion as you are here. What makes a paper look immature is sloppy formatting, having poor quality sources, mixing different citation styles, not being consistent, misspelling, etc. I personally hate reading books and articles that use APA, especially in literature review sections, since it can have multiple lines of names within the in-text citation. I just think you are being overzealous by attaching childishness or maturity onto it.
Isn't the difference between primary and secondary sources how removed they are from the subject? Let's say you're studying an event through diaries and letters of people who lived during the event, then the "distance" would be researcher > letters and diaries > event, making it just a single step removed from it (since you can't go to the event). The distance you'd need to go using a secondary source (let's say an academic book about the event that uses the same primary sources you'll use), then the distance would be researcher > book > letters and diaries > event. The secondary source is 2 steps behind the event, and primary sources are just one.
That's a more abstract way to look at it. But take for example the scenario: Ethnographic researcher > Anecdotal accountants > Oral tradition > Event. In this case, the ethongraphy is far away from the original event (at least 3 steps, if not more), but still counts as primary source as it takes the closest evidence about it from the most reliable sources available in the most objective way possible.
People like potholer54 do a great job of contextualizing and going straight to the primary sources of scientific literature when people like Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro misrepresent them
Thank you! I am studying Classics at an online university. I am enjoying it BUT I did find information on using sources to be lacking. I've been interested in doing some deeper dives on topics of interest but I wasn't sure where to get started. This video laid it all out for me and now I can dig in with a bit more confidence.
What about books like Ian Mortimer's Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England? It isnt a typical boring history book, but is loaded with sources and everything within seems very genuine. And I see a lot of historians citing in bc of how entertaining it is. It's written in an innovative way ("virtual history) and has a ton of references in the book, but I cant find out how legit the Publisher is or the qualifications of the author. I found a review which talked about how some parts are very specific bc the sources are plentiful (like with nobility) but vague when describing peasantry (bc sources are much sparser). I cant find out if the information within is peer reviewed or not. I get that it's a very popular book (so likely bad) but I was surprised how many references were at the back and how much it made sense. It also doesnt pretend to be matter of fact. It states at the start it is a combination of history past AND history present (what we as humans are like today, which is evidence of what humans were like in the past - which is one of the strongest evidence we could have IMV).
A consideration is that this expectation of publishing peer reviewed feeds into pushing academics to focus on pushing out papers. maybe isn't such an issue in history (other than for historians not being paid/make a living). But for people on the ground doing research they frequently don't have time/ capacity/ inclination/money to write papers! Let alone getting people to have the expertise and capacity to do the peer review
The secret is to blame the CIA for everything. This has been very helpful to me in my research on Ancient Greece.
"Mainstream historians **AND THE CIA** want you to believe the Peloponnesian wars were a series of prolonged, protracted conflicts between Athens, Sparta and their client city-states in which the two predominant Greek powers that emerged from the greco-persian war competed for hegemony across Greece. The truth, however, is much, much darker."
Ah comrade! I see you're also a follower of the immortal science of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era! Awesome!
Whoever thinks Ancient history (especially ancient Greek history) is something we can all "objectively" agree upon, should come and attend a Greek or generally south Balkan, or even turkish history school class...
“The CIA is Capitalism’s invisible army” - General Smedley Butler
@@The80sWolf_ yeah I was reading that Allen Dulles had Socrates killed
I got my degree in history and was trained using the same techniques, so I'm glad ppl interested in certain topics, who aren't getting a history degree, can get some tips on how to do research on topics they want to know more about. Good work.
I likely won't ever get to be able to attend university because of my financial situation (I'm very poor, and American), so being able to learn the basics of how to do historical research correctly to educate myself is great.
@@ewee2568 I'll tell you a secret. Here in Mexico City the 3 big public universities UNAM, IPN & UAM charge minimum rates (like at most 10 USD per year). If you know spanish and can afford rent, I've met foreign friends who studied their uni or masters here in Mexico.
*Stay the HOLY FUCKING HELL AWAY from Soviet “History.”*
If you value your credibility, your sanity, and your principles, you best stay away from the equivalent to Holocaust-Denial-in-Reverse.
The day that credible historians *cite Nazi sources* (without ever telling you that they are, or they are blissfully ignorant to the original, or maliciously omit such details…) that is the day when you risk placing yourself into logic pretzels as soon as you’re challenged with evidence.
Sadly, there are many examples of this occurring.
And don’t think that it’s as easy as buying the source material and checking for yourself either.
1) You’ll be dealing with rare books and difficult-to-find books.
2) You’ll be doing A LOT of double takes, cause you’ll be asking yourself: “Wait, where DID I see X before, I swear, I saw that X somewhere before…”
3) “Archives [cited in] propaganda pieces” is going to be alarmingly common.
4) You’ll identify a Murder’s Row of frauds and hacks that will haunt you in your sleep.
5) A lot of ALIASES will be used.
6) If you ever question the narrative, be prepared to be compared to Holocaust deniers.
7) If you have ACTUAL evidence, be prepared to be excised as though you were possessed by demons.
8) Oh… be very wary of how they “fix” a narrative too. (Katyn being a ripe example.)
Yeesh, it’s not a pretty sight.
The day you get to see Timothy Snyder cite a Nazi-sycophant in Bloodlands, or Anne Applebaum dismiss Nazis in literature (post WWII), only to cite “Black Deeds of the Kremlin” (10 times, I counted…)
That’s the day when you should question your life’s decision to studying history.
@@ewee2568 it’s great to hear people taking an interest in history, and you know you could try working in public history (It’s surprise the number of journalists who work in the field). I’m currently reading Falsehoods and Fallacies by Bethany Kilcrease and it essentially written for that purpose, though the book also brings up fallacies which no professor ever mentioned to me in undergrad. Maybe your library has the ebook.
Same here. However, upon discovering the likes of Spengler and Toynbee, my entire Eurocentric conception of history shattered.
Linear history is just a western myth, superimposed upon the rest of the world.
The best source is always an article by a conservative think tank
If Infowars has taught me anything, it's that the best source is the CIA.
@@1homelander179 conservopedia be like “Barry Goldwater was against the civil rights act because he was a **conservative**”
All this talk of sources is a bit much, I'll stick to breitbart, thank you very much!
No biases 100% of the time
specially parger uwu
this is excellent
signed off by a phd and now assistant professor
(not in history but generally well versed on looking at good research)
@@marauder8257 I think someone else need to take pills
@@marauder8257 it was clearly not serious due to all the caps ... I don't think showing this as secondary material would be bad for students. At my university professor’s assistant sometimes gives us TH-cam video to help us understand the more formal material.
@@marauder8257 Vaush good yeah.
STEM seems to be different. They emphasize primary sources first way too much.
This is one of the best research guides I have ever some across. Perhaps you are a...good empanada.
@@marauder8257 Any good research guides you prefer on youtube?
@@abhishek_singh9 Lmaoooo
@@liamtahaney713 dude, ask bad empanada to marry you
Agreed. I’ve got a degree in history and I feel like he’s just covered several months of tuition more clearly than I ever got it
Which is the best one?
Man, this video really just emphasizes how hard it is to sort actual historical fact from created narratives. Really appreciate it
Getting a lot of flashbacks to secondary school history of "evaluate the usefulness of this random political cartoon in telling us about the mood of Britain in 1938 or whatever"
Ngl I kinda love seeing really old, reactionary politial cartoons because they can have some of the most idiotic takes out there.
@@ewee2568 oh god, Ben garrison is going to be on curriculums one day
@@LOLquendoTV Give us the cum
lmao
If you are a university student or someone with a library card, sometimes your university or library will pay for access to peer reviewed journals
This is a great guide, and I'm sure it'll help many people improve their understanding of history. TH-cam needs less history channels like Armchair Historian and more of them like you.
Out of the big history channels, which one do you like the most?
Whats wrong with armchair historian?
@@justamaninthisworld2742 he's incredibly biased towards America and he can be wrong pretty often
Always good to remember that even a biased source will usually cite something true if it fits their narrative/agenda, as there are situations where you're sifting for bits and pieces from multiple biased sources with nothing fully reliable available.
Additional advice on books. Instead of buying it go to your local library. Even if they don't have it, which will be mostly the case with niche and specific historical topics, they can order it from other libraries for just a small fee.
I have a pathological need to own the books I read so libraries, as important an institution as they are, make me extremely anxious. Last time I went to one to find books for a college research project I spent more time browsing books I'd like to own and feeling sad and distraught at the bad condition of some volumes I found than I did searching for the ones I needed for my project. I support public libraries, I just can't use them.
This goes for the fortunate and privileged situation where your city/country still have actual public libraries. Not all of us can afford such privilege.
@@Ajente02 I'd argue that even fewer people have the privilege to afford many books themselves
@@ladyduckworthduck8434 At least you can still buy books from abroad if your city/coutnry lacks public libraries.
Only 13 minutes in and you’ve cleared up a ton of misconceptions I, and I think a lot of other people who don’t study history at a tertiary level, have. Especially on primary vs secondary sources, and how primary =/= better just because it’s straight from the subject matter, and how secondary sources are just as relevant to giving a full historical explanation as primary sources are. And I’m fairly certain that I, and a lot of others, have assumed that primary = better for that reason, and from there it becomes easy to see how someone like Knowing Better can deceive people. Very helpful video.
is it different in Science fields than social science fields? Going to primary first than secondary in STEM?
Thank you, BadEmpanada for this! Extremely helpful!
I feel you did a lot of unnecessary work for this video. I answered all three questions immediately by shouting "Stalinism" at my screen.
But isn't Stalinism based?
It made me laugh a lot.
I definitely recommend the ask historians subreddit as well. They have a bunch of historians who answer questions. They also have a podcast where the usually interview someone who discusses their particular field.
They think that historiography after the 1700s is "objective" and "apolitical".
@@kongspeaks4778 and like most of reddit, they're heavily liberal biased
Do not go to reddit make me kill myself
as a prospective history major in college, thank you much. History has long been a passion of mine, but doing my own research has never been a strong point for me.
Are you going to do a video about Harari's Sapiens like you did with Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel?
I was really interested by your question of "Does this source seem too certain about something where a lot of doubt still remains?" for secondary sources. Going to start using that from now on when I read works of history like books or articles to detect for biases
I'm of the opinion the CLR James application of sources, both primary and secondary in Black Jacobins is both illustrative and paramount to learning how sources are found, and incorporated into writing. I wish every historian was as good a writer as James.
BTW the guy doing the Columbus video knew what he was doing and was just pushing his agenda/view, no way that anyone could ever missunderstand the meaning of the word subjugate in to making a subject
any spanish, latin or italian speaker would know that the word is never used in that conotation
I don't know, he doesn't seem to be the kind of right winger that would push for a glorification of the conquest or Columbus.
I think he fell into the trap of "enlightened centrist" thought. You know, "these people have painted him as a genius, a saint, almost a demi-god; these people have painted him as an evil person, a narcissist, almost a demon. I'm smarter than all of them, I only see a normal person", that kind of thing.
@@frechjo I used to be really into his videos until I realised he was doing this. When he doubled down I unsubscribed.
@@frechjo That was the point, though. He wasn't unilaterally bad. Centrism doesn't neccesarily mean he's of the belief that he should be celebrated, or not removed.
@@wellsshady
KB's videos try to reinterpret the historical facts and evidence, and play moral relativism, in order to erase what was bad about Columbus. It's historical revisionism to rehabilitate him, and that is BS history.
@@frechjo I mean, most historical analysis done casually doesn't carefully tackle what conditions are, and what is essential to a person, but wouldn't relativism also delete the possibility of a good Columbus, thus making it not as bad as the person replying to you made it out? I also see that he brought relevant information to back him up, it wasn't just "Well, we're all human, let's plausibily agree and leave".
Sometimes I tend to think some of the things you said here are of common knowledge, but as a social science graduate I usually take for granted the level of academic formation required to know such "basic" notions like primary/secondary sources, critical analysis, peer reviews, etc.
In high school we took Social Sciences / History classes where we learned all those basic stuff about historiography, and also on the first semester of university there was an entire course on "Analysis and Verbal Expressions" (where we were supposed to learn about citation standards, writing structures, academic formats, etc.). So for someone with previous experience on any social science (or any empirical science in general), not just historians, this should be like the most basic stuff.
However, people who can go to college (or even to high school) are sadly still a minority, so it's still pretty important for people like you to take the time to explain these basic concepts in our "post-truth era". So kudos for your work!
30 years ago I was involved in translating ancient pre-Columbian accounts of the conquest and then comparing them to the works of the spaniard priest account of the events
Needles to say the version where so different than you would be hard press to believe you where talking about the same historical events
Wow that sounds really interesting, is there somewhere I can read about this?
@@kamito834 not my particular efforts
those are non public data
but try "in xochitl in quicatl"
has side by side nahuatl and spanish translation of poems that amongst many other things depict the conquest trough the view on the victims of the genocide
also, Bernal dia del Castillo tried to be as impartial as posible and "la vision de los vencidos" for a lot of first person accounts from both sides of the ordeal 500 years ago
By "pre-Columbian accounts", you mean "contemporary Indigenous"? I don't see how someone could be "pre-Columbian" and have a vision on the Conquest at the same time, unless they weren't "pre-"Columbian.
@@Ajente02 they are pre columbian as in the conquest was not yet a reality and they where chronicling the war, the siege of tenochtitlan, the pelage and finally their defeat
The colonies and therefore colonial times come after the fall of the ancient empire
They where written as they where dying by those who did not live to see the fall in most cases as 90% where wipeout by the epidemic the spaniards used as bio warfare
@@orlandoblanco6969 Did the Spaniards use the old world diseases as bio-warfare or did they spread without their intentionally spreading them or even understanding the process?
Yay long new video!
That quote about Columbus is from a professor from my university, Jalil Sued Badillo
Awesome vid!
As a person continuing my education in history I needed a good refresh!
This is better research advice than most my history classes in college taught me.
you are in a very bad college mate
Hey man, thanks for making this video. I'm a high school student looking to publish something on the racism against Mexicans and Hispanics during the Mexican-American war. That one site really helps instead of being locked behind the paywall of JSTOR. Wish me the best of luck!
I wish we had more historians like Spengler, Toynbee, and Quigley living today. They were some of the only ones who actively challenged and outright deconstructed the Eurocentric myth of “linear history”.
Spengler, like the Oswald Spengler who directly inspired national-socialism ? 💀
Tonybee is not what I would call the best historian around, no one really takes his theories seriously anymore
I feel acknowledged and called out, however, it did inspire me to go seek actual papers and some books
in the off chance you're making a video about Brazil and the military, look "Canudos" up. It's quite symbolic for the role the Army has played and the way they handle things, from the cruelty to the incompetence
Thanks!
Thank you for the google scholar quotation tip, as well as the 'hubs of science' tip.
Awesome video overall
I did know this all, but I listened to make sure I wouldn't have to leave an angry comment. Which I don't! This is a great introduction! As an added bonus, one way you can generally rapidly tell that someone is about to make a super conservative or racist argument is that they cite secondary sources that are decades old (especially pre-60s/70s). In those cases where a racist pretends to be intellectual and actually gives sources, it's pretty fun to count how many of those secondary sources are 60-100 years old.
But also for anyone wanting ideas on the challenge, I can recommend looking into the historiography around the 1st World War. And not just stopping at The Guns of August (or at the Fischer Thesis of course). It's a great area to see lots of debate over methods and sources on an interesting subject!
6:02 Turns out that it’s also true that Churchill was a colossal mugger.
It's been a while since a TH-cam video set me homework. I've already brought the book. You have set in motion a process that neither of us will be able to stop! I am become research, devourer of book
Woooohooooo!!!!! I have been looking forward to this! ✨🌟✨
do you have a source for this revolutionary claim?
"Horse worship in ancient Rome."
... I was just reading about Epona yesterday.
... *starts up anti-spyware program*
Syncretic horse worship no less! Very saucy.
(I mean, Epona was a goddess of horse-riders and not a horse, but kinda similar)
Thank you! I was always confused on who to trust because both arguments always seems compelling (Example: Knowing better’s Columbus video and your debunking of that) now I know how to check these videos and how to accurately find knowledge. Thanks :)
I was doing a school project on this very subject then I got a notification about this upload. Shits amazing
Teacher: "You get an F."
You: "Wha- But why?! All my sources were properly cited, my research was impeccable!"
Teacher: "You're not the only one who follows Bad Empanada."
watch out for special interest organizations that masquerade as actual research
There’s a lot of questions to ask about the author and the intended audience and its all the right. However if you are writing the research paper for the first time or it’s your first few times and you are doing it for an intended audience of being an entertaining, informative piece. I feel as though it’s always best to have someone who is experienced to peer review it. The only problem is having a convenient colleague to actually to that which leads to my question is there is such a community?
Really gonna need this! Thanks a lot, hopefully this is going to help me in my research on electrodynamics!
Thank you for making this video!
Thanks for linking this video in your update, I absolutely did not get notified of this video in my subscription feed! This is my favorite kind of analysis, I really love videos covering topics like this. Muchas gracias amigo~
libgen is the way to go for books. Equivalent of science hubs
Very well done, so detailed and informative. Thanks man!
On the peer review section, im not sure if this applies to history but for the sciences reputable peer reviewed journals are catalogued by the Master Journals List.
An excellent overview. A useful intro for students wanting to get a basic idea about Historiography.
Thank you so much! This really helps with my specific research topics.
Also remember: 1) individual peer-reviewinf institutions can themselves have biases which should be checked with reference to other respected institutions, and 2) The LANGUAGE of the text matters, since text in one language may not reflect the scholarly views of authors who publish primarily in another language.
I liked the bit about sauces. I love sauce.
Oh shit - I've been asking around on how to do this very thing. Hell yeah.
This is probably great for people who aren't/weren't able to do a uni degree
I can't find author John Abituncomfortablyobsessedwithnaziweaponryinparticular. There's a problem with the sourcing.
Everytime i do this it leads me back to "so some short man according to british propanganda made a war in europe and europe mad"
This is insanely helpful! Thank you
Thank you! I'm planning to do a research (maybe even write a book) about a certain person, but I'm not a historian so this is quite handy.
secondary literature of calibre when you're unsure of your intuition on the subject
primary sources if you're familiar with the subject
- a former history student
Great vid, I appreciate putting a lot of effort into a very necessary video even if it likely won't get as many views as your usual stuff.
Now I get what you were saying about primary sources not being good start with on researching. Skipping the secondary source can lead to misinterpretations because their is missing contexts. This is something not told in depth in my research writing class.
i'd rank this in the top five with my 2021 lefttube award. dense, but so valuable.
19:50 i see you’ve been acquainted with the scale modeling community
Great job! I'll accept your homework challenge and try to read The Origins of Peronism by Murmis-Portantiero.
Interesting. Thank you.
In the course of working toward my degree in Political Science/Political Theory and History (in the US) I DID learn these research methods, but it was never explicitly TAUGHT to me as much as it was something I learned from feedback, both negative and positive, from my professors...It worked for me, but it's NOT an ideal basis for teaching something as foundational to scholarship.
Research methods and source analysis should start in the EARLIEST years of education...IMHO.
This video gives me special feelings on the inside. I came out the other side of a history degree and boy does it frustrate the shit out of me to see the poor state of pop-history.
Thank you so much! I’m now going to continue to not check my sources’ sources!
awesome video !
as a neopagan this was really useful! i find myself often having to filter through academic sources to learn about how my gods were worshipped. i know that isn't your primary audience but holy moley do pagans need to do better research
Most local history does not get peer-reviewed often. Public historians are often put in a hard position to correct previous publications and need to take the deep dive into primary sources not to publish anything but to just get familiar with the time and event.
Nice job man! I'm teaching an undergraduate class this semester on American history and culture and you explained these fundamentals as well as or better than I could. I think I'll use this as a suggested video for students preparing their research!
Ok i like this video a lot, but i have a doubt. What if i want to know things about a conflict or an event more generally, do i just type out "Vietnam war" or "israel" and "palestine" and search from there?
Like if my curiosity is not so specific but about what happened in general
A think for an outline of basic facts about a topic the Wikipedia entry is enough
@@juanmartinzelaya247A respected textbook could do well.
Your videos are amazing!
good vid
outstanding stuff here
Just commenting to increase engagement
And a reply
@@joejoseph6555 And a reply to said reply.
There’s a reason they call it His-tory instead of Their-story because you know it’s like I forget but that’s pretty funny though lol
Because it's written by british conservative men?
That’s it! Those Tory scum!
@Digonto it's a very good game and you should buy it immediately
In a number of Slavic languages ‘history’ is just ‘story’, requires less noise to say.
Good fakin' video mate
Thank you so much for this video! It was very helpfull!
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 🕰️ *Introdução ao vídeo*
- O vídeo aborda questões comuns sobre pesquisa histórica.
- Perguntas como a confiabilidade de fontes históricas e como realizar pesquisas próprias serão respondidas.
- A importância da historiografia é destacada para entender como os eventos passados são pesquisados e interpretados.
01:22 📚 *Tipos de Fontes Históricas: Primárias e Secundárias*
- Explicação sobre a distinção entre fontes primárias e secundárias.
- Primárias são relatos contemporâneos, enquanto secundárias oferecem análises e interpretações.
- Exemplos práticos são dados, destacando a importância de considerar como uma fonte está sendo usada.
03:37 📖 *Analisando Fontes Primárias e Secundárias*
- Métodos de análise para fontes primárias: quem a ofereceu, qual seu contexto, quais preconceitos podem existir.
- Métodos de análise para fontes secundárias: qualificação do autor, uso de evidências, abordagem equilibrada.
- Enfatiza a importância de questionar fontes e ser crítico em ambas as análises.
09:20 📚 *Primárias vs. Secundárias: Qual usar?*
- Argumenta que fontes secundárias, com o benefício da retrospectiva, oferecem uma visão mais ampla e precisa.
- Adverte contra confiar exclusivamente em fontes primárias, destacando o desafio de encontrar e contextualizar essas fontes.
- Apresenta um exemplo de um youtuber que falhou ao depender apenas de fontes primárias sobre Cristóvão Colombo.
13:00 🧭 *O Papel das Fontes Primárias na Pesquisa Histórica*
- Usa o exemplo da obra de Gildas, um clérigo britânico do século VI, para ilustrar a importância das fontes primárias.
- Alerta sobre a necessidade de analisar criticamente mesmo fontes primárias valiosas.
- Destaca que o trabalho dos historiadores é construir uma síntese baseada em fontes primárias e secundárias.
16:14 📚 *Identificação de Boas Fontes Secundárias*
- Explica como identificar fontes acadêmicas, preferencialmente peer-reviewed.
- Livros de editoras universitárias e artigos em revistas acadêmicas são indicativos de qualidade.
- Enfatiza a importância de procurar estrutura e métodos de citação específicos para a pesquisa histórica.
21:44 🚫 *Cuidado com Pseudo-História*
- Adverte contra pseudo-história que imita a estrutura acadêmica sem revisão por pares.
- Destaca a importância de pesquisar sobre os autores, suas qualificações e trabalhos anteriores.
- Recomenda cautela ao avaliar trabalhos não peer-reviewed, especialmente para iniciantes.
22:36 🎓 *Qualificações Acadêmicas e Revisão por Pares*
- Autor com qualificações formais geralmente oferece trabalhos mais confiáveis.
- Alguém sem diploma, mas com várias publicações revisadas por pares, pode ser uma fonte valiosa.
- A revisão por pares é crucial para validar a qualidade e confiabilidade de um trabalho.
23:28 🌐 *Escopo na Pesquisa Histórica*
- A profundidade da pesquisa é favorecida ao focar em tópicos e períodos específicos.
- Trabalhos amplos podem fornecer uma visão geral, mas muitas vezes sacrificam detalhes.
- O escopo influencia a precisão e a conclusão de uma pesquisa histórica.
25:03 📜 *Reconhecendo Limitações e Conflitos*
- Boa pesquisa histórica reconhece suas falhas e lida com argumentos conflitantes.
- Explanar as razões por trás de conclusões divergentes é fundamental.
- O livro "Guns, Germs, and Steel" é citado como exemplo de pesquisa deficiente.
28:01 🧐 *Variação na Disponibilidade de Evidências*
- A qualidade e quantidade de evidências variam ao longo do tempo e locais.
- Pesquisas recentes são geralmente mais confiáveis do que aquelas mais antigas.
- A falta de evidências não impede conclusões, mas exige reconhecimento da incerteza.
29:25 📚 *Ferramentas e Estratégias de Pesquisa*
- Google Scholar é uma ferramenta valiosa para encontrar artigos acadêmicos.
- Utilizar palavras-chave específicas facilita a busca de informações relevantes.
- Explorar as referências de um artigo pode revelar fontes adicionais.
34:30 🔄 *Prática e Desafio para o Espectador*
- A prática é fundamental para aprimorar as habilidades de pesquisa histórica.
- Desafio proposto: Escolher um tópico, encontrar e analisar um livro ou artigo.
- A experiência prática contribui significativamente para o aprendizado.
Made with HARPA AI
i guess i've found a hidden gem, glade for the comment in GDF that led me here.
Commenting here to help with the TH-cam algorithm.
(historiography) Those were my favorite classes. I am a bit odd.
I was a History major in undergrad. Watching this video weirdly reminded me of the level of anxiety I endured researching in preparation for papers. Although I loved it, I'll never voluntarily go back to those days again. Oh and Chicago-Turabian is the way every discipline should cite sources. I never used MLA or APA in any of my college courses.
Chicago is based
Sorry, but you're objectively wrong. APA is the most perfect way to cite, period.
@@Ajente02 APA is very much high school citation practices. It looks childish on a long form college level paper. It takes up unnecessary space that should be dedicated to the body of your paper and interpretation of source material. Chicago-Turabian is a much more mature and organized way of citing. It is also much simpler than littering your paper with parentheses, titles, and page numbers.
@@jnyerere I prefer Chicago-Turabian, but your point about maturity or it looking childish on a long form college paper is absurd. APA is a standard in many fields, not just "high school citation practices," which in my high school was MLA. No professor looks at a specific citation style, especially one that is widely used in the field, in such a judgemental fashion as you are here. What makes a paper look immature is sloppy formatting, having poor quality sources, mixing different citation styles, not being consistent, misspelling, etc. I personally hate reading books and articles that use APA, especially in literature review sections, since it can have multiple lines of names within the in-text citation. I just think you are being overzealous by attaching childishness or maturity onto it.
Google Académico, un clásico. Prácticamente hizo mi memoria de grado por mi xD
Brilliant. Thank you comrade
Isn't the difference between primary and secondary sources how removed they are from the subject? Let's say you're studying an event through diaries and letters of people who lived during the event, then the "distance" would be researcher > letters and diaries > event, making it just a single step removed from it (since you can't go to the event).
The distance you'd need to go using a secondary source (let's say an academic book about the event that uses the same primary sources you'll use), then the distance would be researcher > book > letters and diaries > event. The secondary source is 2 steps behind the event, and primary sources are just one.
That's a more abstract way to look at it. But take for example the scenario: Ethnographic researcher > Anecdotal accountants > Oral tradition > Event. In this case, the ethongraphy is far away from the original event (at least 3 steps, if not more), but still counts as primary source as it takes the closest evidence about it from the most reliable sources available in the most objective way possible.
People like potholer54 do a great job of contextualizing and going straight to the primary sources of scientific literature when people like Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro misrepresent them
Thank you! I am studying Classics at an online university. I am enjoying it BUT I did find information on using sources to be lacking. I've been interested in doing some deeper dives on topics of interest but I wasn't sure where to get started. This video laid it all out for me and now I can dig in with a bit more confidence.
What about books like Ian Mortimer's Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England?
It isnt a typical boring history book, but is loaded with sources and everything within seems very genuine. And I see a lot of historians citing in bc of how entertaining it is.
It's written in an innovative way ("virtual history) and has a ton of references in the book, but I cant find out how legit the Publisher is or the qualifications of the author.
I found a review which talked about how some parts are very specific bc the sources are plentiful (like with nobility) but vague when describing peasantry (bc sources are much sparser).
I cant find out if the information within is peer reviewed or not.
I get that it's a very popular book (so likely bad) but I was surprised how many references were at the back and how much it made sense.
It also doesnt pretend to be matter of fact. It states at the start it is a combination of history past AND history present (what we as humans are like today, which is evidence of what humans were like in the past - which is one of the strongest evidence we could have IMV).
Where would you place archival material? Such as documents from a German or Soviet archive when writing about WW2?
thanks for the video
I was having a conversation with my best friend about this subject a couple of hours ago
LOL LOL
Esa patadita bajo la mesa sí que se puede ver, señor empanada
Really appreciate this
Thanks for making this.
Did he make the follow up video?
A consideration is that this expectation of publishing peer reviewed feeds into pushing academics to focus on pushing out papers. maybe isn't such an issue in history (other than for historians not being paid/make a living). But for people on the ground doing research they frequently don't have time/ capacity/ inclination/money to write papers! Let alone getting people to have the expertise and capacity to do the peer review
Great Video!
Super helpful and didactic. Awsome, man. Thank you so much.
....but what DID the romans think of horses ?
Mala-Empanadito camrada, this is why you're the dude. Up the 'Ra.