能夠被稱為歷史學嘅研究，必定挑選同真實嘅過去有關嘅主題，歷史學家唔可以捏造同過去事實不符嘅人物同事件，呢樣同文學係唔同，歷史學需要有證據做論證基礎，每講一句說話都要有充足嘅證據作為背後嘅支持，而歷史學家攞嚟引證嘅證據，就叫做「史料」。但係，喺20世紀七十年代之後，隨住所謂後現代思潮嘅興起，西方史學界就出現咗較為激進嘅理論家，例如海登·懷特等，佢從語言學同修辭學嘅角度去分析歷史書寫結構，主張歷史同文學係冇本質上嘅區別。
Historians cannot fabricate people and events that are inconsistent with past facts, which is different from literature, history needs to have evidence as the basis for argumentation, and every sentence must be supported by sufficient evidence, and the evidence cited by historians is called "historical data". However, after the seventies of the 20th century, with the rise of the so-called postmodern thought, more radical theorists appeared in the Western historical circles, such as Hayden · White, who analyzed the structure of historical writing from the perspective of linguistics and rhetoric, and advocated that there is no essential difference between history and literature.