history pragmatic historian

History’s Hierarchy of Purpose – Resource Location & Preservation

Unpacking the Hierarchy I introduced a colorful, pyramidal, teapot-esque graphic showing “History’s Hierarchy of Purpose” a couple of blog posts ago. I want to spend some time unpacking each of the levels of this hierarchy, so let’s get started with the base of the pyramid, which is Resource Location & Preservation. Resources That Reveal History In order to study history and make use of it, we need resources that can reveal that history. Lots of…

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history pragmatic historian

History’s Hierarchy of Purpose – An Infographic

When you’ve been in the history field for 20+ years, you develop ideas about history’s larger context and how it works in both the history field and society. When you get several long-term historians together for discussion (as has happened for 2 years now at the Minnesota History Whatever), those ideas become more cohesive. That’s what bouncing thoughts off of numerous knowledgeable folks does (aside from keeping us super-entertained in a field where we love…

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