A historian is someone who knows the events that had occurred in the past. He studies, examines, analyzes and writes about the history (Maddox, 2015). One of the earliest historians, whose work has survived over the course of time, is Herodotus. He was a Greek historian, who is considered as one of the first historians. With the advent of the researchers that were being done in Europe, especially Germany in the 19th century, the historian work was considered a professional job.
A historian studies the past and interprets it in his way, by taking all the aspects and facets into account. Over the course of history, historians have written on everything that has happened in the past. The topics varied from time, place, war, famous or notorious people, etc. When they write about something, they examine the era and the society and explain why the particular event took place or why the person did what he did.
If someone is a historian, it does not mean he can or should write about everything. There are further specializations regarding history. Some historians are experts in writing about people; some have expertise dealing with regions or countries etc. When the historian starts to write on something, he travels to those places where a certain event had happened, or a particular person lived. He then reads about all the documented work pertinent to the research he is doing. The historian needs to present a logical narrative, and it is done by thorough reading and examining of the documents and his interpretations and understanding on that subject.
I want to do a Ph.D. and the most important thing for that is the ability to discern nuances and subtleties and an eye for research. Basically what historian does is, he researches extensively about everything that pertains to his work. These skills would be vital for me to acquire to do research. I want to read about Alexander the great and his desire to conquer the world. I am interested in his personality and to know what made him conquer the world.
References
Maddox, R. J. (2015). The new left and the origins of the cold war. Princeton University Press.
