An Introduction to Local Historiography (Its Background, Characteristics and Disadvantages)

Although its history can be found in much older centuries., local history is a type of history writing that became popular in the third century. What caused the prosperity of this type of history was patriotism and love of the hometown, sense of boasting about other places, encouragement and persuasion of the rulers, various political, scientific, cultural and economic interests, etc. Although this type of history writing has advantages over general histories, it also has some disadvantages. Virtue-telling, mythmaking, lack of cause-finding and analysis, exaggeration of events, conflict with solidarity and national unity are among these disadvantages that the local historian must pay the utmost attention to them. In this article, in addition to the definition and background of local history, it has been tried to investigate its differences and characteristics compared to general histories, the motivations of historians in writing this type of history and its disadvantages.