The practice of historical inquiry and writing involves unique combination of intellectual skills. The historian must command the tools of analysis to assess the truth in his source materials, and of synthesis to assemble and interpret these materials in a meaningful narrative. As a scientist, a historian must have a critical frame of mind as well as training in the location and use of sources. As an artist, he needs literary skill and the imagination to perceive broad and complex relationships. The great historians have been men of vast erudition who could draw on their knowledge for context, comparisons, and sense of the implications and interrelatedness of the data of other disciplines.

1、 一套方法

历史探询与写作的实践涉及智力技能的独特组合。历史学家必须掌握分析工具来评价其原始材料的真实性，并掌握综合工具将这些材料整合并解读成有意义的叙述。作为一名研究者，历史学家必须有批判心态，以及在材料的定位和使用方面的训练。作为一名艺术家，他需要文学技能和理解广泛而复杂关系的想象力。伟大的历史学家都是博学之人，他们可以利用他们的知识对语境、比较，并感知其它学科数据蕴涵的意义和相互关系。

Method of Approach.  Until the middle of the 19^th century, historical scholarship usually took broad themes, producing entire national histories in great multivolume efforts. Since that time historical inquire has been directed to much more specific topics, defined variously by the historian’s interest, by national problems, or by the availability of un-worked source material. The topic of historical study, whether event, personality, or institution, must have some relevance to the life of society as a whole; otherwise it is not history but merely antiquarianism.

渐近的方法。直到19世纪中期，历史的学术研究都是宽泛的主题，在极大的多卷努力中产生了整个国家的历史。自那时以来，历史调查已被引向了更为具体的主题，由历史学家的兴趣、国家的问题、或未加工的原始材料的可用性进行不同定义。历史研究的主题，无论事件、人物，或机构，必须与作为一个整体的社会生活有某些相关性；否则它就不是历史，而仅仅是古物研究。

Historical studies ordinarily take the form of journal articles or book-length monographs; single books by several authors are not uncommon, and most multivolume publications of the last 100 years (for example, the Cambridge histories: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern) have relied on specialists to contribute individual volumes or chapters. Briefer general writing has taken the form of textbooks, which are available on a wide range of historical subjects.

历史研究通常采用期刊文章或成书的专题论文；由几位作者合著的单行本并不罕见，而过去的100年中的大多数多卷出版物（例如，《剑桥》历史：古代、中世纪和现代）依靠专家贡献个人的书卷或章节。更简短的一般写作都以教科书的形式出现，它们适用于广泛的历史主题。

As the study of human affairs in their chronological dimension, history is most naturally organized in time segments, ranging from the conventional ancient-medieval-modern to short periods delimited by particular rulers, wars, or other events. A meaningful division of history into periods requires criteria from history itself.

作为对人类事物在其时间维度上的研究，最自然地是按时间分段来处理历史，范围从依照惯例的古代-中世纪-现代到由特定统治者，战争，或其它事件限定的短时期。对历史分时期有意义的划分需要历史本身的标准。

Within the chronological framework, history is subdivided geographically—by countries and smaller regions—and topically, according to the political, diplomatic, economic, social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of human experience. Biography is a special branch of history, focusing on the lives of particular individuals. Comparative history, treating similar events or institutions of different eras and countries (for example, the history of feudalism, the history of revolution) is often fruitful for its new insights. The historical aspects of certain other areas of knowledge and thought are commonly studied as branches of the discipline of history. These include constitutional and legal history, the history of religion, and the history of science and technology.

在按时间顺序排列的框架内，历史在地理上被细分---由国家和较小的地区---以及按专题分类，根据政治、外交、社会、文化，以及人类经验的智力方面。传记是一种历史的特殊分支，重点是特定个体的生活。处理不同时代和国家制度的类似事件或机构比较历史（例如，封建制度的历史，革命的历史）常常是因其新的见解而富有成效。某些其它知识与思想领域的历史方面通常是作为历史学科的分支来研究的。这些包括宪法和法律史，宗教史和科技史。

Collection of Sources.  History is based primarily on the study of written or printed sources, typically classified as primary, secondary, or tertiary. Primary sources include (1) documents generated by the events themselves: archival records (governmental, commercial, ecclesiastical, and so on), letters and memoranda, speeches, and reports and statements of official bodies; and (2) documents produced to record events immediately: chronicles, diaries, journalists’ reports and interviews, drawings and photographs, motion picture film, tape recordings and videotape.

来源的收集。历史主要是基于对书写或印刷资料的研究，通常被归类为第一手资料，第二手资料，或三手资料。第一手资料包括（1）由事件本身生成的文档：档案记录（政府的、商业的、教会的，诸如此类），信件和备忘录、演讲、以及官方机构的报告和声明；（2）直接产生的记录事件的文档：编年史、日记、记者的报道和采访、图纸和照片、电影胶片、录音带和录像带。

Certain supplementary forms of data belong in the category of primary sources. Oral sources include “oral history,” (the recollections of a participant in an event as elicited and tape-recorded by the researcher) and oral tradition and folklore among communities without written records. Material sources include the discoveries of archaeology (supplemented by such modern techniques as radiocarbon dating of artifacts) and the observation of actual historical sites (buildings, cities, battlefields, and so on).

数据的某些补充形式属于第一手资料的范畴。口述资料包括“口述历史”，（由研究者提问并录制的事件参与者的回忆）和在社区中未被文字记录的口述传统和民间传说。材料来源包括考古学发现（如碳14测年法这样的现代技术的补充）以及对真实历史痕迹的观测（建筑、城市、战场，等等）。

Important collections of source materials may be published, either in their entirety or in representative selections (for example, the U. S. government series Foreign Relations of the United States). Numerous volumes of excerpts from primary sources illustrating specific subjects have been published for text purposes. Otherwise the original materials must be consulted in the libraries or archives in which they are housed.

重要的原始资料收集可能以其整体或有代表性的选择来出版（例如，美国政府系列《美国对外关系》）。出于文献的目的，已出版了摘自一手资料，说明特定主题的多卷本。除此以外，必须在收藏存放它们的图书馆或档案室查阅原始资料。

Secondary sources (monographs) and tertiary sources (reference works) are much more readily available, being obtainable in any large library or through interlibrary loan services. Among the reference aids should be mentioned the bibliographies (either general or specialized) that guide the researcher to the secondary sources, and the various catalogs and indexes that describe certain bodies of primary source material.

二手资料（专著）和三手资料（参考书）更容易获得，可在任何大型图书馆，或通过图书馆间的互借服务获得。在参考工具资料中应该提及引导研究者查阅二手资料的参考文献（无论一般的或专业的），以及描述一手资料某些部分的各种目录和索引。

To facilitate the utilization of primary sources for historical research, a number of “auxiliary sciences” have been developed in the last 150 years, including philosophy and linguistics, paleography and diplomatics (the study of handwritten texts), epigraphy (the study of inscriptions), and numismatics (the study of coins). More recently historians have drawn on the techniques of statistics and computer data processing to analyze large quantities of political, economic, and biographical information. Data and conclusions from the social sciences are frequently used, especially from sociology, cultural anthropology, geography, demography, and linguistics.

为方便利用一手资料进行历史研究，在过去的150年间许多“辅助学科”已发展起来，包括哲学和语言学，古文书学和外交学（手写文本研究），铭文学（铭文研究），以及钱币学（钱币研究）。最近的历史学家已开始使用统计学和计算机数据处理技术来分析大量的政治、经济以及传记信息。经常使用来自社会学的数据和结论，尤其是社会学、文化人类学、地理学、人口统计学和语言学。

In modern times the volume of source material has grown enormously. Whereas for much of ancient and medieval history the sources are too few (often lost or destroyed), for recent history the quantity and variety of sources are overwhelming. The problems of storage and retrieval of information are increasingly serious (even with microfilm and computerized indexing), and the historian’s task in trying to survey and use the material that is available is even more complicated. On the other hand, the most important events and decisions are often much more poorly documented than in previous centuries; the use of the telephone and the more frequent meetings between heads of state and other decision makers made possible by air travel have lessened the need for written correspondence. Oral history was developed to try to fill this gap.

在现代，基础材料的总量已大幅增加。然而，对于许多古代和中世纪的历史来源又太少（常常丢失或损坏），对近代史来说，来源的数量和种类是压倒性的。信息的存储和检索问题日趋严重（即使有微缩胶卷和计算机化的索引），而历史学家试图调查和使用可用材料的任务甚至更加复杂。另一方面，最重要的事件和决策常常比在前几个世纪记载的更少；在国家元首和其他决策者之间使用电话和更频繁的会议通过航空旅行成为了可能，减少了对书面通信的需要。口述历史得以发展就是试图填补这一空白。

Use of Sources.  Source material must be passed through a series of intellectual operations before it becomes part of the finished work of history--first selection, then evaluation and interpretation, then synthesis into a narrative with a systematic framework. 

材料的使用。原始材料在它成为完成了的历史工作前必须通过一系列智力活动---首先选择，然后是评价和解释，接下来是综合成一个具有系统框架的叙述。

Selection, especially for recent history, is essential, according to the nature of the researcher’s particular problem and the criteria of relevance and significance that derive from his hypotheses. Selection is facilitated by the use of bibliographic aids and existing secondary works, but the historian of a recent topic must nevertheless be prepared to sift and digest masses of material, most of which will not directly appear in the final work.

选择，尤其是近期的历史，是必不可少的，根据研究者特定问题的性质和源于他假设的相关性和重要性的标准。通过使用书目辅助工具和现有的二手作品会方便选择，但尽管如此，研究近期题目的历史学家必须准备好筛选和消化大量材料，其中的大部分不会直接出现在最终的作品中。

Sources are evaluated by checking them for plausibility and consistency (“internal criticism”). These standards are the essence of the critical method founded by the great German historian Leopold von Ranke, in the 19^th century. Historical criticism serves to expose forgeries such as the early 20^th century “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”; to analyze composite origins or authorship, as in Biblical criticism; to detect errors in manuscripts and to supply missing dates; and to bring out meanings concealed in the text. With the critical method, the historian is made aware of the inherent defects in most of his sources—not only deliberate bias or deception, but also the errors of memory and even of perception that cause eyewitness to disagree, as well as the incompleteness caused by the loss of sources or the failure to make certain records in the first place.

通过检查它们的合理性和一致性对材料进行评估（“内部的批评”）。这些标准是由著名的德国历史学家利奥波德·冯·兰德于19世纪建立的批判方法的本质。历史批评有助于揭露如20世纪初“《锡安长老议定书》”这样的赝品；为分析复合起源或原创作者，如圣经的批判那样；为识别原稿中的错误和提供缺少的日期；以及揭示隐藏在文本中的含义。用批判的方法，可使历史学家意识到在其大部分材料中的固有缺陷---不仅仅是故意的偏见或欺骗，还有记忆的错误，甚至是目击者不一致的看法，以及由材料缺失或一开始就未能做好某些记录引发的不完整。

Synthesis of historical data is the most difficult step of all. A conceptual scheme must be developed round which the facts are to be organized, with an appropriate logical sequence of topics and points. Then a detailed outline is prepared. Finally the narrative is composed with due concern for balanced presentation and the leavening of generalization with illustration.

对历史数据的综合是最为困难的一步。概念架构必须围绕着要组织的事实，以主题和观点的适当逻辑顺序来发展。然后准备一个详细大纲。最后，适当地关注平衡的呈现，并用例证概括的影响组成叙述。

The narrative itself is a tool of integrative explanation, since it compels the historian to order his data to form the most meaningful representation of reality and demands filling up the gaps and reconciling the inconsistencies in the data at hand. Where the facts are lacking, careful conjecture is necessary in preference to complete silence about probable but undocumented events, though the historian must be scrupulously careful to alert his readers when he is indulging in educated guesswork. Ordinarily the narrative in a learned article or monograph is supported by an extensive apparatus of footnotes and bibliography, designed to indicate to the reader the original sources and scholarly authorities utilized by the author in arriving at his conclusions.

叙述本身就是一种综合的解释工具，因为它迫使历史学家整理他的数据以形成对现实最有意义的呈现，并要求填补空白，以及协调手头数据的不一致。在缺乏事实的地方，对于可能发生的，但未记载的事件，小心推测是必要的，而不是不予理会，虽然当历史学家沉迷于有根据的猜测中时，他必须小心翼翼地提醒读者。通常，学术文章或专著中的叙述是由大量注释和参考书目支持的，目的在于向读者说明作者在得出结论时使用的原始材料和学术权威。

The Problem of Objectivity.  Historical synthesis is necessarily a highly subjective art. It involves the intuitive perception of patterns and relationships in the complex web of events, as well as the art of narrative writing. Explanations and judgments may be called for that will involve the historian’s own personality, experience, assumptions of different schools or nationalities have arisen over practically every important event. The initial reduction of the complex events of the recent past to comprehensible patterns is particularly difficult and subjective and thus is subject—even more than older history—to severe disputes and partisanship among different schools of historians.

客观性问题。历史综合必定是一门高度主观的艺术。它涉及在复杂事件网络中的模式和关系的直觉感知，以及叙述写作的艺术。可能需要解释和判断，因为它会涉及到历史学家自己的个性、经验，对不同学派或民族实际上已产生的每个重要事件的假设。将最近发生的复杂事件初步还原为可理解的模式尤其困难，而且主观，因此，在不同学派历史学家当中的激烈争论和党派偏见---甚至比更古老历史主题的争论还多。

Because the process of reducing the historical past to a meaningful narrative is a human one, total objectivity can never be achieved. Outright bias, distorting or suppressing facts to fit preconceived notions or purposes, is not uncommon, particularly under conditions of dictatorial government and censorship or the stress of national and partisan conflict. Relative objectivity depends on the freedom of the historian and his willingness to face the facts whether they are comforting or not. But all historical conclusions are relative, conditioned as they are by time, place, and the identity of the author. It is better for a historian to acknowledge this and make his assumptions explicit than to pretend to perfect objectivity with an unwitting bias.

因为，将历史的过往还原为一种有意义叙述的过程是一种人类的过程，永远无法实现完全的客观。完全的偏见，歪曲或压制事实以符合预想的观念或目的也不罕见，尤其在独裁政府，审查制度的条件下，或在国家和党派冲突的压力下。相对的客观性取决于历史学家的自由和他面对事实的意愿，不管它们是否令人欣慰。但是，所有的历史结论都是相对的，它们都会受到时间、地点以及作者身份的限制。历史学家最好承认这点，并明确地进行假设，而不是带着不自觉的偏见，假装完全的客观。

Since history contains an inherent element of subjectivity, the final truth on any important subject can never be written. Later historians will work with different frames of reference, new interests, and new conjectures. They will ask new questions and often discover new source material. Finally, because of the defects of the sources themselves, the total truth of an important event can never by completely established. New generations and other nationalities will always be ready to offer new insights and new interpretations of the past.

由于历史包含了内在的主观因素，因此，永远也无法书写出任何重要主题的最终真相。后来的历史学家会以不同的参照系，新出现的兴趣和新的猜想来工作。他们会提出新问题，并且常会发现新的原始材料。但由于材料来源本身的缺陷，最终，永远都无法完全建立重要事件的全部真相。不过，新的一代和其他民族总会随时对过往准备提供新见解和新解释。

                      ROBERT V. DANIELS, University of Vermont

                      Author of “Studying History: How and Why”

                      罗伯特·V. 丹尼尔斯，弗蒙特大学

                      “《历史研究：如何与为什么》”的作者

                                      2023年12月15日译

（译者注：该词条部分位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第14卷，第227页至229页）