I think this is a really good summary of what historians might do, thanks Oscar.
One contextual point is that I think 1 and 2 are something like ‘central examples of useful things historians might do’, rather than something like ‘the main things current historians actually do’.
In particular, my outdated impression from when I studied history is that a lot of historical work is very zoomed in source work that may not involve much integration or summarisation. Some of this work is necessary groundwork for 1 and 2; some of it I think comes from specialisation pressures within the field and doesn’t produce much value.
I think this is a really good summary of what historians might do, thanks Oscar.
One contextual point is that I think 1 and 2 are something like ‘central examples of useful things historians might do’, rather than something like ‘the main things current historians actually do’.
In particular, my outdated impression from when I studied history is that a lot of historical work is very zoomed in source work that may not involve much integration or summarisation. Some of this work is necessary groundwork for 1 and 2; some of it I think comes from specialisation pressures within the field and doesn’t produce much value.