Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs

The Where: The Foci of Historical Studies

Historians can look at topics and events a number of different ways. The foci of where historians direct their attention will yield differing histories of even the same event. When considering where historians look, we focus on the scope of history and the view of history.

Scope of History

The scope of a historical investigation determines how wide a net the historian casts in finding sources and may reflect how influential the historian sees the topic or event. This, in turn, influences the interpretation made. Let us consider immigration policy during World War II to understand the foci of historical studies. We could look at the effect of U.S. immigration policies on Los Angeles. To do so, we would ...