Do history scholars know ALL history or specialists in one area?

Answer 1

Generally they specialize in one area. If completeing a PhD they will have to write their thesis on a particular subject, which is usually their specialization of choice.

Answer 2

This is actually a pretty good question. Here is one answer.

1. In order to graduate with a degree in history you have to take certain classes in ALL areas of either American, European, Asian, Latin, or Ancient history. But within those broad categories you have some room to look at certain areas of interest.
2. Once you become a historian you then can stury what ever you like. As an Advanced Placement American History teacher I have had to constantly brush up on areas that I am weak on to present accurate information to my students. Over twenty years I have tried to tackle weak areas every summer when I have time off from my regular classes to gain deeper understanding in that area.
3. For MY Master's Degree I focused on how American popular music reflected American war sentiment during seven American wars. So on that particular topic I probably know more than most other historians. Each Master's Degree or PhD candidate has to select an area of expertise and do original research in order to write their thesis. The length of each candidate's thesis varies. Mine was 233 pages long. Many I've read are shorter, a few are longer.

So probably those who TEACH all of American History are forced to have a better broad background of history while those at the college lever who specialize in Women's History, or African-American history, or Labor Movement history would have a deeper background in those particular areas and not such a broad background in ALL areas.


And there you have it.

Answer 3

As a historian, I am specializing in two areas. I am looking at social and legal history. I approach any event in American history looking through these to lenses. I do have a little focus on the witch trials of Europe but I still look at the events through a social and legal lens.

Answer 4

As an amatuer historian I prefer to specialize in certain time periods and themes there are those who claim to keep tabs on "all history" but it's highly doubtfull if they actually do because so much is going on in the field of History and development it would be overwhelming to even try

so i'd say it's more specialized

Answer 5

Historians specialize in VERY specific areas. Just for an example, mine is US/British/Canadian foreign policy prior to WWII.

You will also note that college professors have a "speciality." It may be Latin America, America's colonial period, etc.

The real scholarship of history is the ability to research. The training is in teaching how to research and write well.

Answer 6

Of course, all historians have studied history in general, but then specialized in one area.

Answer 7

Nobody knows it all even in one specific area of history. New things are discovered every day through researching original documents and artifacts.