Wikipedia:WikiProject History

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For the past of the wiki-based free content encyclopedia, see History of Wikipedia
For revision history (also called "page history" or "edit history"), see Wikipedia:Page history

Image:Portal.gif History portal

Wikipedia:History has been put up to resolve a number of issues which occur with great frequency when writing articles about history for Wikipedia. As usual with Wikipedia please extend and expand these brief outlines as you uncover them.

Contents

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Basic topics

These should be the most basic topics in the field--topics about which we'd like to have articles soon. Please see the most basic encyclopedia article topics for general instructions on constructing this list, and consult complete list of encyclopedia topics.

Archaeology -- Archaeologist -- Cartography -- History -- Historian -- Historiography -- Numismatics -- Palaeography -- Periodization -- Annals -- Chronicle -- Map -- Family history -- Local history -- Mythology -- Classics -- Cultural history -- Social History -- Radiocarbon dating -- Intellectual History -- Intellectual history of time

Linear history

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Projects

Lists A number of lists and meta-lists are maintained in Wikipedia:

Regions

Religion

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Child projects

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Searches

A search for "History" via google of wikipedia can give you a variety of articles that may be relevant. Alternatively, editors can search for "Timeline".

These articles will almost certainly not be of a standard sufficient to write an encyclopedic article about a historical subject. The correct standard of material to generate encyclopedic entries about historical subjects are:

  1. Peer reviewed journal articles from a journal of history
  2. Monographs written by historians (BA Hons (Hist), MA, PhD)
  3. Primary sources
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Sources

The goal of Wikipedia is to become a complete, accurate encyclopedia. Verifiability is an important tool to achieve accuracy, so it is strongly recommended to check facts. However, don't be too keen to remove unverified information at the cost of completeness.

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Levels

Primary sources:

"Piece of information or evidence that was created by someone who witnessed first hand or was part of the historical events that are being described".

These are sources which, usually, are recorded by someone who participated in, witnessed, or lived through the event. These are also usually authoritative and fundamental documents concerning the subject under consideration. This includes published original accounts, published original works, or published original research. Physical objects can be primary sources.

Wikipedia would not ordinarily be considered a primary source (see Wikipedia:No original research). Over time, however, this situation may change as researchers may use, for example, analyses of Wikipedia edits and reversions as evidence of shifts and changes in attitudes and approaches.

Secondary sources:

"Piece of writings which were not penned contemporaneously with the events in question".

These are sources which, usually, are accounts, works, or research that analyze, assimilate, evaluate, interpret, and/or synthesize primary sources. These are not as authoritative and are supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration. This includes published accounts, published works, or published research.

Wikipedia would be considered a secondary source on some occasions.

Tertiary sources:

These are sources which, on average, do not fall into the above two levels. They consist of generalized research of a specific subject under consideration. Tertiary sources are analyzed, assimilated, evaluated, interpreted, and/or synthesized from secondary sources, also. These are not authoritative and are just supplemental documents concerning the subject under consideration.

Wikipedia would be considered a tertiary source on some occasions.

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Types

[todo] various types of sources

The letters after an item describes generally the type it is (though this can vary pending the exact source). P is for Primary sources, S is for Secondary sources, and T is for Tertiary sources.

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Sourceberg

See Wikisource for original text (or primary sources). Wikisource (i.e., "Sourceberg") is a repository of source texts in any language which are either in the public domain, or are released under the GFDL.

See also : Wikipedia:Informative, Wikipedia:Verifiability, Wikipedia:Public domain resources, Wikipedia:Don't include copies of primary sources

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Style issues for history

Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (general style issues)

In historical articles, the past tense is strongly preferred. While history can be written in the present tense, the general audience of Wikipedia will usually expect the past tense on historical subjects and events that occurred in the past. The present tense in English is only correctly used to describe past events in a work of fiction. This is referred to as the "historical past tense".

Remain objective as possible. The point and ideal of Wikipedia is to create an encyclopedic neutral body of knowledge. Avoid using the first-person point of view (emphasising the facts; not the editor). Explain the evidence (from the links and references) and explain the reasons of any conclusions.

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Article names

See: Wikipedia:Naming conventions, Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English)

Convention: Use the form most familiar to English speakers. Name pages in English and place the native transliteration on the first line of the article unless the native form is more commonly used in English than the anglicized form.

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Biography

See: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies)

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Names and titles

For naming articles See: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles), for use in article content See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies)

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Dates

See: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar currently used in the Western world. If dates used are from the Julian calendar, please make a note as to any differences.

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Link references

See: Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Link_titles

The following is a suggested formatted reference link for external links and references.

Appearance:

Source:

* Last name, First name, "''[http://www.url.org Linked article name]''". Source publisher, Location. [[Month Day]], [[Year]].

See also: Wikipedia:Cite your sources, Style guides (for more detailed and formal styles), Wikipedia:External links, Wikipedia:Links

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Categories

Every article on a historical topic should be assigned to as specific a sub-category under the Category:History as possible, as well as to any non-history categories to which it belongs. Since Wikipedia has tens of thousands of articles on historical subjects, they shouldn't all be placed directly in Category:History; there is an elaborate hierarchy of historical categories, described here, and only the lowest-level category need be assigned.

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Organization of Category:History

Category:History contains only the most general articles, such as History and History of the world. Other historical articles appear in one or more of these sub-categories:

see also Wikipedia:Auto-categorization

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Category names

The category for the history of the modern nation X should be called "History of X" or "History of the X" and included. Similarly the history of subject Y should be categorized under "History of Y". But the alternate name "Xish history" is acceptable.

When a country no longer exists, there's no need to have a separate "History of" category for it. For example, since we have Category:Ancient Rome, there's no need for a category "History of Ancient Rome".

When "History of X" becomes large (more than fifty articles, say), create sub-categories and move articles to them. Standard sub-categories include:

  • "Political history of X"
  • "Economic history of X"
  • "Religious history of X"
  • "Legal history of X"
  • "Cultural history of X"
  • "Military history of X"
  • "Presidents/Prime ministers/Monarchs/Heads of State/Rulers of X" (delete as appropriate)

Don't create sub-categories until you have enough articles to populate them. As a rough guide, it's not worth creating a sub-category unless you have five articles to put in it.

"Y history of X" should be a sub-category of both "History of X" and of "History of Y". For example, Category:Military history of the United Kingdom is a sub-category of both Category:Military history and of Category:History of the United Kingdom.

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Organization of national histories

Few nations have neat histories: most have changed name, constitution and boundaries over their history. This section gives advice on creating sub-categories to reflect these changes, using the United Kingdom as an example:

Here's an incomplete diagram showing these historical categories and how they relate in the category system: 

                                            History
                                              |
                                    .---------+------------------.
                                    |                            |
                            History by nation             History by period
                                    |                            |
                         .----------+-----------+    .--.        |
                         |                      |    |  |        |
                   United Kingdom   Republic of Ireland |  Ancient history
                     |  |  |  |                 |       |        |
  .----------+-------+  |  |  `------------+----+       |        |
  |          |       |  |  |               |            |   .----+-----.
  |    Great Britain |  |  `-------.    Ireland <-------'   |          |
  |          |       |  `------.   |       |                |          |
  +----------+-------+---.     |   `----+--'                |    Ancient Rome
  |          |           |     |        |                   |          |
  |       England     Scotland |   Northern Ireland         |          |
  |          |                 |                            |          |
  `-+--------'                 `-----------+----------------+--.       |
    |                                      |                   |       |
  Wales                              Ancient Britain         Roman Britain

(This diagram is far from complete: there is a Category:British Empire, not shown. Category:History of the United Kingdom is in Category:United Kingdom and so on. And there are many sub-categories. But it illustrates the principles.)

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Don't over-categorize

Having added an article to, say, Category:Military history of the United Kingdom, there's no need to also add that article to Category:Military history, Category:History of the United Kingdom, Category:United Kingdom or Category:History. The category hierarchy expresses the fact that every article about the military history of the UK is an article about military history and an article about the UK.

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Time bias

Some topics, in particular those of ancient mythology (e.g. egypt), represent only their contents as they stood at the most recent significant moment in history. However, many of these things have evolved over time

  • e.g Zoroastrianism is a prime example, only really describing the religion as it is now, when it had substantial evolution over its long history (it went through a phase where a sub-sect formed that was fairly polytheistic (see Magi), and an earlier phase in which Ahura Mazda was not the prime god, but one of the two lesser aspects of the prime god (who was something rather like Zurvan))
  • e.g. Egyptian Mythology (multiple links), only really describing the state of the 3000 year spanning religion at two points (the greek period right at the end (in which there was just Horus, Osiris, Seth, and Isis) , and a period about 750 years before that (in which the main god was Amun Ra)), and unfortunately confuses the two somewhat in places (e.g. at Osiris). Wheras the mythology evolved substantially, including at one point Osiris having a more pro-active role that was later taken by Horus, and at an earlier point Seth being the hero, as well as missing out the early period.

Really, to fix this you need articles or sections like the History of the Horus myths. This situation probably occurs in non-mythological subjects as well, although it is not quite so obvious.

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Participants

Participants can add a userbox to their page, Template:Tl. Template:User WPH




  1. XylyX | (talk)
  2. Ctifumdope
  3. New Rock Star
  4. User:Neddyseagoon
  5. User:Kyriakos
  6. UnDeadGoat
  7. HRE
  8. Ragesoss -- especially late-19th and 20th century American history and the history of science
  9. Phnx2ashes --Classical, Medieval, Colonial-American History, and Mythology.
  10. Aldous Hooplah
  11. Litany
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See also

sv:Wikipedia:Historia standard

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