Historiografia

Historiography, or historiografía in Spanish and Portuguese, is the study of how history is written. It concerns the methods, standards, and biases involved in producing historical knowledge, as well as the body of historical writing on a given topic or period. Historiography distinguishes history as events from the interpretation and presentation of those events.

Key concerns include the evaluation of sources, the role of evidence, narrative technique, and the influence of context, ideology, and power on interpretation. Throughout history, different traditions have shaped historiography: ancient and medieval chronicles; the rise of critical methods in the 19th century, exemplified by Leopold von Ranke’s insistence on primary sources; the development of social, economic, and cultural history in the 20th century; and schools such as the Annales, which emphasized long-term structures over episodic narrative. In recent decades, postcolonial, feminist, and postmodern approaches have highlighted perspective, voice, and bias, challenging assumptions of objectivity.

Historiography thus functions as both a meta-discipline—analyzing how historians write and argue—and a record of how historical explanations have changed over time in response to new evidence and theoretical currents. With the digital era, historiography increasingly incorporates digital sources, data analysis, and new modes of publication, while debates about objectivity, interpretation, and the politics of history remain central.