Necessary Selection: Toward a Theory of Critical Historical Reasoning

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Current Practices and New Directions in History Education

Abstract

Drawing on Frankfurt School critical theory, this paper argues that conceptions of historical reasoning—especially in the United States—tend to be positivistic in nature. The author proposes an alternative conception, called critical historical reasoning, that involves viewing historical inquiry dialectically, as “a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts” (Carr, 1961, p. 35). Historians frame their investigations through the questions they pose and the causal theories they advance, but also must ensure that their narratives conform to documentary evidence. The author utilizes this framework to critique recent research in the teaching and learning of history and to propose a new trajectory for future research.

Author

• Eric B. Freedman, University of Iowa