Holly Holt
Professor Van Bebber
Writing 100
25 February 2009
Journal 6: Knowledge Within Disciplines
History is a unique disciple in which we look to the past for references rather than just the
present. Many other disciplines look for the latest research or most recent articles, where as historians
cherish primary source documents and use them to develop new theories of history.
The idea of collaboration is also a unique aspect of history. Historians don’t necessary team up
to write about history, but they do use each other’s work as spring boards. In many cases, historians
write or research depending on previous works done and many times the research is to prove the
previous theory wrong. For example, Marco Polo’s Travels is a famous memoir wrote by Marco Polo
during his travels through Europe and Asia. Frances Wood wrote a book entitled, Did Marco Polo go to
China? Wood used Marco Polo’s own writing to try to prove that he did in fact no travel to China. This
is what makes history interesting, because unlike other disciplines much of the research is done
hundreds of years after the fact and the researchers cannot go back in time to prove or disprove their
theory.
Political science is another discipline that I study. The interesting thing about studying history
and political science at the same time is that historians and political scientist do not get along. Both
historians and political scientist will often argue that the other side is wrong and is taking the wrong
approach. However, they do not often realize that historians and political scientist collaborate on my
projects because both are often necessary to understand one discipline.