Uses of History in Decision-Making
Questions Good Historians Ask
Potential History Products
General Historiography
General History and Archives Web Sites

Questions Good Historians Ask

What is the story I want to convey?

A well-written history should have a beginning that sets the context, a middle where the substantive bulk of the story is told, and an end that brings out the larger lessons learned or the significance.

What is my argument?

Good historical writing should present the indisputable facts, but it should also go beyond these to create a debatable, defensible point of view. If there is no clear argument, then it is likely to be simply a descriptive history, rather than a more sophisticated analysis. Description is less useful than analysis because it lacks a comparative context.

What has been done before on similar topics or using similar approaches?

A basic literature review is helpful to conceptualize or frame how your story will be a new contribution to existing knowledge by building on pieces of the story that other historians have addressed already. This helps put your story in context.

What is new and noteworthy about my topic?

In other words, why should outsiders care? What is the broader significance or importance of a particular program? Historians need to think hard about the (in)famous “So what?” question.

What kind of argument or approach best suits my topic?

Historians use many methodological approaches, conceptual lenses, or tools. Some of the most common are political, social, economic, and statistical.

What are the best primary and secondary sources to use?

Analytical history must be fully researched and documented, with its claims supported by solid evidence. This means that careful citations (footnotes or endnotes) must be included for all appropriate materials. Footnotes are also a very useful guide to finding further information, including various and sometimes opposing viewpoints, often opening up whole new avenues of research.

Is a participant or an outside observer best suited to tell a particular story?

Someone who was directly involved in significant events or a major program may have the knowledge and the personal desire to see a story told. However, an outside historian may have a more impartial perspective. Historical writing is also very different from technical engineering or natural science writing. Thus, an outside historian or other social scientist, such as a political scientist or sociologist, presumably would be more experienced in nontechnical historical writing.

What format and length is most appropriate to tell a particular story?

The NASA History Series consists mainly of analytical, full-length books and shorter, more focused monographs. There are other publication formats, such as heavily illustrated books and journal articles, that may be worth consideration. Please see the list of potential history products for more ideas.

Who is my intended audience?

Usually the audience for NASA History Series publications is the educated, lay (nonspecialist), adult reader. This means that the author needs to explain technical concepts and their significance, but also that the reader has a basic grasp of aerospace history or can easily pick it up elsewhere.

Will my writing pass muster with peer reviewers?

Analytic historical writing is always reviewed by other historians, and often by participants with special knowledge of the topic at hand, to ensure overall quality. While the peer reviewers are not as expert in the specific topic as the writer, they serve as a “sanity check” to make sure that the writer hasn’t committed any egregious errors. In other words, your writing should stand up to scrutiny by those who are reasonably familiar with, but not necessarily experts in, your topic.

What can be learned from my specific story?

One of the purposes of history is to understand what happened in the past so we can try to repeat successes and avoid failures. The lessons learned can be overt or implied, but the history should be more than entertaining; it should be informative.

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