The 5 types of History (and what each branch studies)

According to the proposed purpose or events, we will distinguish between different types of History: the historicism, which is based on the study of past human events to be useful in the Present; the antiquarian, which focuses on the study of objects, events of the past; criticism, which aims to reflect on or value different aspects or characters from the past; of bronze, created by each nation for the increase of patriotism; and scientific, more objective, raises the scientific and technological advances of humanity.

Thus, all types will be important, useful and complementary to each other for the conception of history and study of the past and the evolution of society. In this article, We will describe the term History, presenting the most important aspects of this discipline and we will mention the different branches that make it up., describing what is understood by each of them and what is their purpose.

• We recommend you read: "History of human beings: 15 key dates"

What is meant by History?

As is well known, History explains and raises the different events of the past regarding humans or other aspects. But the different conceptions of it are not as well known as a social science, if they pose facts related to people, with humanity or natural, when it refers to other facts not related to the human being, other natural sciences would be Physics or Chemistry; or as an academic discipline, charged with studying and developing knowledge or events of the past.

Likewise, the historian is the professional trained in history, both in the academic discipline and in Science. In this way, he will be in charge of studying the events of the past and collaborating for the preservation of the culture of society. Given the breadth of the field of study, he can specialize in a specific area such as archeology or in specific areas such as sports or science.

In this way, there are two important branches to take into account that make up the story, which would be the following. On the one hand, Historiography, which refers to the set of methods and techniques used to explain and describe history, that is, the study of history is considered, in the same way it can also refer to the writings made of history or of last.

On the other hand, Historiology, also known as the Theory of History, raises and forms theories, methods or explanations to know why or how certain events occur in places or moments determined. It would be linked more to history as a science, since it carries out a more objective study of data and records to explain the cause for the different events of the past to occur.

What are the branches within history?

So there are different types of history, below we will mention them and briefly describe their most relevant characteristics.

1. Historicism

Historicism is the kind of history that focuses on and studies human events and events, that is to say, it would be the type most linked to the conception of history that anthropologists have. In this way, it presents different areas such as social, economic, political, artistic, religious and scientific to understand and understand the human being and humanity.

In the same way, it will not define history as the discipline of study of the past, but rather it will conceive it as a knowledge that makes it possible to improve life in the present. That is, understand that if we are trained in past events we can benefit and act better in the present.

So that, history is made up of relevant facts and events carried out by peopleThis means that not just any event or action will be part of the story, but rather those that are relevant will be taken into account when studying this discipline. It also points out that the different events that constitute it should be understood as a set, related to each other, and not as isolated elements independent of each other.

2. Critical History

Critical history is the kind of history that is in charge of carrying out a critical and reflective process of society, regarding various topics such as literature, art, politics, science, always presenting, as already we have mentioned, a critical view of events and that, consequently, can be both positive and negative.

It is common in critical history to refer to different authors or characters who have been important, making contributions relevant to society, raising, evaluating or giving their opinion to achieve a deeper knowledge of their works, beliefs or contributions that they made.

Thus, the purpose will be to assess and analyze according to a humanistic perspective, whether social, critical or literary, the character or event in question and thus be able to determine both their positive and negative contributions to society current.

3. The Bronze Story

The bronze story is a type of story used o created by each country to increase the feeling of patriotism and strengthen the nation. In this way, it will focus on presenting or reproducing events or characters that brought greatness to the nation and thus increase the esteem and defense of the country.

Thus, the country's technique to achieve its objective can be based on favorably modifying or making up the reality, that is, they manipulate it so that the feeling of patriotism, of love, of the citizens towards their country increase. They will also use the heroes, who are the characters that have been important and have helped to exalt the nation according to history.

Given the purpose and the way of treating and presenting the different facts and characters, sometimes not very objective, it makes other types of History not conform. The clear example would be the critical history, already presented, since it does not positively conceive the manipulation of data and information that the bronze history makes to improve the image of the country.

A clear example of the use of this type of story is seen in the United States, where the country's leaders are in charge of venerating the facts and characters who fought and acted to improve the state of the nation and achieve their freedom.

4. Scientific History

Scientific history is one of the most objective types of history, which presents less personal opinion, since its main purpose is to explain and describe the development and evolution of science over the years, what discoveries have been made, what advances have there been and what improvements this has brought about for the human being or for humanity in general.

In this way, an analysis and quantitative presentation of the data will be used, without jumps in time, presented in a linear way as they occurred, in order to reach an objective conclusion, and thus be able to assess the influence of past events or findings on today's science and technology.

Thus knowledge of different sciences such as social or natural sciences is used, referring for example to Physics or Chemistry. The approach of this type of story is not easy, since the human being, the people in charge of describing and explaining these events, tend to contribute subjective or own thought or information that can alter the characteristics or purpose of this history.

5. Antiquarian History

Antiquarian history is a type of history that aims to study and describe facts or data from the past, in this way its study will focus on collect and analyze events from ancient civilizations, thus being able to be divided into different eras or stages such as the stone age or the age of metals.

It is for this reason, for the purpose of this, that antiquarian history is usually little valued or lacking in interest by most of society, even by others. professionals also dedicated to history, since they believe that it is only based on describing and analyzing objects or geographical places of the past without further involvement in the present. A typical example of this type of treated objects are fossils or archaeological remains.

Thus, the main differences between the historian in the field of historicism, a term mentioned above, and an antiquarian, who is a type historian who focuses on studying ancient societies, is that in reference to the second, this has the specific purpose of analyzing The past, on the other hand, referring to the first, as we have already said, will be based on using past events to apply and improve the Present.

Despite the negative considerations that can be had of this type of story, this one is important and serves as a support and complement to the other stories, based on the investigation and examination of events and objects to deduce or know how ancient generations lived and thought.