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They viewed the New World as a place without sin, which was virgin and untouched. These Baric Historians methods contained a narrow focus, focusing on certain great heroes, which ere predominantly white. The sources of the data that the Baric Historians used when writing about these heroes came from documents, such as letters, diaries, and memoirs, rather than scientific or statistical data from the geology or biology Of the time. One such historian was George Bancroft, who wrote about Columbus, on his discovery of the New World.
He wrote how Columbus had discovered two new continents, which were populated by “savages,” with some signs of early civilization. He went on to describe the superiority of the conquistadors, along with other European imperialists, and heir ease of conquering the native citizens. Although, many Baric Historians choose to leave out how the natives were conquered, such as the decimation of the American Indian peoples through the biological warfare tactic of spreading small pox with blankets.
Finally Bancroft ends with how many of the colonized countries under the rule of European countries rebelled, ending European Imperialism, but thanks to the influx of European citizens, the Americas matured quickly. The obsolescence of old information caused society to approach the past with a new look in order to have an accurate, Analytical Interpretation of what had occurred, which with, history had become a science.
The method the Analytical Historians used to reach the level of a science comes from the incorporation of many other fields of science, such as Geology, Climatology, and Biology and the statistical data they bring with. Analytical Historians focus on the larger picture, concerning themselves with things of a global scale, and masses of people. The Columbian Voyage and Expeditions are just that, a historical event on a global scale, and as such to accurately document them they have to be viewed as such.
Crosby presents a few main themes throughout book, which include the importance of statistical data for an accurate recounting of the past, the importance of not taking everything as historical fact without checking, and the possible growth and diversification from expanding oneself. Finally, by reading Crosby s book, my perspective of these events and even history has changed. Had always seen history as a social study, but to see how the Analytical Interpretation incorporates the hard statistics of many scientific fields, I came to realize that history can be a science as well.