Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43136
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43136
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

If you don't want to research the _history_ directly, you may want to look into the _[historiography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography)_ -- how the history of something is studied/understood.

Often that is why we supermoderns laugh at older works, because they made assumptions we think are silly, but by working from the common narratives of the time, yep, the "Dark Ages" were generally a bad time, instead of a poorly-documented one (well, few were available about that time for ages.)

Or a well-publicized Winner's Edit view of history ("Manifest Destiny" was taught in my elementary school as the normal way of the world -- now I realize how colonialist it is/was). Often things such as oral histories were disregarded as not "real" because they weren't the expected "formal" style.

Listening to a few podcasts (especially _Tides of History_ and "Our Fake History"), I've learned how historians now incorporate the findings of archeologists and other non-textual documentation to understand the world.

> before I go deeper, a key point: I'm assuming we ARE dealing with **Facts = Facts** : no denying **[it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust)** happened, no minimizing 6 million Jews, and about 10 million other victims.

So for the Holocaust example - how is it taught in Germany, where (to my in-researched recollection) Nazi imagery is forbidden? How is it taught in countries in Africa, who have had their own genocides, but perhaps little contact with most European history? Was it understood differently?

I was profoundly influenced by the book [_Guns, Germs, and Steel_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel) , in which the fact that Europe/Asia is mostly an east-west spreading land-mass, while Africa and the Americas are mostly north-south spreading -- so the commonalities of terrain influenced how abilities and information were shared, creating feedback loops.... What sort of feedback loops influenced the every day European Citizen?

Many more [Theories of History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Theories_of_history) are available as lenses to use for research. You don't need to research for fiction the same way you do for a History Test, but using these various ways of _thinking about research_ can help give you insights into how you view your world and the world you're focused on, and thus can inspire some characters/scenarios for your book.

These theories influence a lot of subgenres: time-travel to kill Hitler? [Great Man Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory). Alt-history where the Third Reich expands only so far, and America ignores it? Perhaps it would implode in a [societal collapse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_collapse) as it destroyed some of its greatest strengths. Writing about the daily life at start of the Reich -- how did they get from originating universities to this? [History of Mentalities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mentalities). Perhaps it's an outgrowth of the [Information Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_revolution) which started earlier than many think...

Yes, these links are all Wikipedia -- that's because they're great starting points before deciding how to go deeper. But great fiction isn't just plot and details, but thinking about how the characters think, and how the society thinks, and whether those are in synch or opposition. So research isn't just a chore, or something done to appease nitpickers, but ways of understanding conflict and character in very deep ways. _(This is also why fiction-reading leads to great empathy -- a good writer can help you understand why someone would make decisions that might seem impossible.)_

Good luck! This book sounds hard, but it could be great!

Original score: 2