What is a python’s favorite school subject?…

Hissstory.

The section of digital history I have been dreading the most is learning how to code. Most of my fears were purely in my mind, after years of hearing horror stories from my computer science major friends about searching for hours for a single misplaced bracket in a sea of code. I swore that would never be me, I would never strain my eyes for something like that, yet I had already encountered similar horror stories while learning HGIS. If I could survive the .csv files and spreadsheets with a single error hidden like a needle in a haystack, I could survive learning how to use Python.

The most valuable thing I have learnt while attempting to learn and run code is that anything is possible with a good tutorial. While the tutorials provided by The Programming Historian were of the absolute beginner level, they were exactly what is needed for the digitally inept historian to learn exactly what is needed without going above and beyond the needed skills. Tutorials by the Programming Historian are specifically designed to be simple and useful to historians who want to branch out into digital history without becoming overwhelmed by how difficult and confusing venturing into digital technology can be. Even with the tutorials being aimed towards people like me, I still found myself becoming frustrated when things were not working immediately for me. It is disheartening when the absolutely beginner level stumps you, but returning after a week allowed me the needed space to attempt to try again. I enjoyed coding with Python the second week, as compared to the first. Although I never did complete the entire set of tutorials, which came down to running out of class time more than anything. 

I was able to power my way to the sixth lesson Manipulating Strings in Python, but not fully complete it. The tutorials up until that point were quite simple, and I believe that if I advanced past that point I would have become more stumped. I will admit there is something satisfying about being able to produce many different versions of “Hello World” through code. 

Even though I was not particularly thrilled about learning to code, I understand its importance, especially for historians that are venturing into historical questions and projects that utilize digital technology. If historians plan to use digital technology to further their historical argument, then they should have an understanding of how to use technology in the most efficient ways possible. Technology should not be used solely for clout or attempting to showcase proficiency in a skill, it should directly impact the project. Coding can be a valuable skill for historians to use, but only if it is useful to the project. In this day and age, coding can be useful for everyone to know, not just computer scientists and potentially historians. Future contemporary historians can use digital resources, such as coding, to help contextualize an immense amount of data and sources in the historical record, but there are still ways to utilize technology to enrich arguments. Living in the digital age requires adaptation to digital technology not only to survive but to thrive. In order to keep history innovative and relevant, historians must begin to adapt their approach. Adaptation does not mean changing the discipline as we know it, just changing it accordingly and I think that including digital aspects such as coding (when relevant) is a step towards adaptation.