How should facts and concepts be used in a history essay?
Begin your essay with a statement of purpose and an explicit thesis statement. Stick to the point and do not fill up your essay with information and evidence that while factually correct does not carry forward your thesis. Keep in mind that history is the study of human behavior in the past. Historical analysis essays require an appreciation of concepts such as culture, class, race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as a chronological recounting of names, dates, battles, congressional laws, presidential executive orders, and Supreme Court decisions. It goes without saying that in the case of historiography essays, your primary sources will be the books and articles written by historians and perhaps secondary sources regarding the various contexts in which historians worked. Such specific factual information is absolutely indispensable, but it comprises only the building blocks out of which you, the historian, construct history. Factual material – historical evidence – must be used in conn
