Mr. Qian Mu believes that historiography is beneficial to reality, especially to increase self-confidence and strengthen China. From the standpoint of national culture, his consciousness of national salvation stimulated by national crisis is the realistic motivation of his cultural nationalism thought. During the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, when the defeatist atmosphere was once pervasive and China people urgently needed to regain their self-esteem and self-confidence from the historical memory of the nation, the cultural nationalism thought elaborated in the Outline of National History really played a very important role in stimulating national consciousness and awakening the soul of China at that time. As Mou Runsun said when commenting on the Outline of National History:

"Qian's patriotic thoughts in this book are full of paper, and his theory of inferiority and inferiority is distressing, and his argument is extremely touching. Reading money books should make the coward determined, make the sick man angry, make his blood boil, make him think excitedly and save himself. This is the great use of reading history and the contribution of historians to the world. All the valuable things in the Outline of National History are here. "

Qian Mu's thought of historical methodology is determined by his unique national culture and historical view of national life. Because he insisted on reviving and establishing China's modern new historiography on the basis of China's traditional historiography, despised western historiography and opposed the westernization tendency and ethos of China's modern historiography research methods, his historical methodology thought was both traditional and realistic.