How Historical Lenses Can Affect The Study Of A Historical Topic (Social Lens, Political Lens, Economic Lens)

How historical lenses can affect the study of a historical topic (social lens, political lens, economic lens).

Read the article on historical lenses, write a discussion post (150 to 200 words) about which of the following lenses you believe the article is using: social, political, economic, or other. Use at least two quotes from your source to justify your choice of lens.

Here is some content I got from class.

Lenses In Historical Research

Historical lenses can be helpful in studying a historical topic as they provide different perspectives on the subject. Historical lenses also provide insight into the various aspects of a historical topic.

There are three types of historical lenses: political, social, and economic lenses.

A social lens is shifted toward the importance of how society and culture can affect an event. The focus is on how the social order was important to what happened in history. A social lens can also show how the events may have changed what was considered normal at that time.

Historians who use a social lens will look for explanations in terms of "political economy": how does an event affect the way people interact with each other and exchange goods, services, and property? Political economists rely on tools such as economic theory to explain historical changes.

Historians who use social lenses will look at the impact of ethnic groups, religious beliefs and moral values. They often stress that common people are not powerless in affecting historical change. For example, how was life for women or slaves before and after a certain event?

Historical events can also be viewed through a political lens.

Political lens involve looking at history through a governing body's perspective. It fills our understanding with how powerful people's beliefs affect their view of themselves and their government regimes. A Political lens emphasizes the importance of how different governments participate in historical events. Lastly, an economic lens also allows us to see history from a business perspective which helps people understand how economics play a role in government policies and interactions with other countries.

Economic lens look at economics from any point in history through a variety of angles, such as resource distribution, salaries, employment rates, unemployment rates, and inflation. These lenses provide an opportunity to see the history of a topic from a different point of view than what is commonly taught.

An economic lens is focused on the money and goods required using run a country. It helps us understand how important resources are to human survival and the manufacturing of an historical event.

Current lens can also be used for studying history as they help us see how time affects our view of what happened in the past. They reflect some need or want of the current generation.

There are three major historical techniques: description, control, and comparison.  

Historical description is a method that looks at what has happened in history as it was reported by historians during the past or present. The researcher is an outside observer looking at past events with little interpretation or evaluation added to them.  

Historical control is controlling a variable, or in the case of history, system of variables that are studied. It is used to show how a controlled variable changes over time and why it changes. The variables often consist of human behaviors and political events.

Historical comparisons usually use models to compare historical data from various parts of the world at different times.

The historian selects an important historical topic that is significant in studying the past. This can be a major event, such as the American Revolution or a war, or it can be something smaller like how people felt about the Civil War at the time. This can also include investigating why certain events occurred and why a certain event is significant to different people in different ways. This step is important because a thesis needs to be developed from the topic. Thesis are used to determine what part of history will be studied and how it will be investigated.

The historian then generates ideas about why the historical event occurred by using primary sources, such as information found in letters, government documents, and scholarly journal entries. The information is formatted and arranged into a thesis that has one main idea, or point of view. After the historian has organized the data into a thesis, he or she will begin to support it with primary sources by adding evidence from various parts of history to affirm his or her thesis.  

The final step in historical research involves presenting the findings. This is the process of presenting them in a way that will convey the information and thesis to other people. The historian may present his or her findings as an article, book, or as a lecture.

The following are reasons why historians use various techniques in historical research:

Historical research is often a very long process because it involves many steps. Historians are often not able to answer all questions about an historical event or topic because it requires as much time and investigation as needed to provide accurate information.

Historian's main goal in doing historical research is understanding the past and interpreting the present through past events. This is why one of the most important aspects of historical research is looking at the past through windows, or perspectives that historians are able to provide. Through these lenses and windows on the past, historians are able to see events in a new way and understand how they affected people living at that time.