5 Tips for Dealing with Bias in History

Yesterday, on August 13, I posted a historian dilemma post on the comment "But isn't that biased?" In that post, I basically said that bias is everywhere that humans are. And this is something that most historians acknowledge. However, it is something that's difficult to understand if you're not used to the history career or historical research.

Additionally, in that post, I mentioned that there were multiple ways to deal with bias in history. That's what I'll be talking about here. Here are 5 tips for dealing with bias in history.

Tip 1: Just accept that there will be and always is bias wherever there are humans.

This is something I mentioned yesterday, but accepting that there will be and always is bias wherever there are humans will help you better analyze the history despite any biases. Bias is a part of human nature and the nature of language, so accepting it - and not dismissing it - will make it easier on you.

Tip 2: Acknowledge what history you're studying.

There are many sub-topics within the overarching umbrella of history. Acknowledge the topic of history you're studying, whether it's the history of architecture, or writing, or art. This will make it easier for you to identify any biases and to work with those biases.

Tip 3: Try to remove any 21st-century biases.

This is probably the hardest one to do for many of us. We all have our 21st-century biases, expectations, and stereotypes. Applying these onto a completely different time period, especially one before the 20th century, is very dangerous and damaging to historical study and research. Yes, it'll be difficult, but it needs to be done to better understand the history.

Tip 4: Try to remove biases influenced by your home.

Let's say you're from a Western country, either from Europe or the American continents, studying an Eastern European, Asian, or African country. You do not want to be imposing the biases, stereotypes, and expectations from your home onto the history of a completely different country in a wholly different part of the world.

Tip 5: When looking at a document, ask yourself the 4 big questions.

Those questions are: Who is the author? Who is the intended audience? When was it written? and Why was it written? These questions will help you identify and work with the bias in the document so you can understand it better.