Before doing work in primary sources, historians must know what has been written on their topic. They must be familiar with theories and arguments–as well as facts–that appear in secondary sources.
Before you proceed with your research project, you too must be familiar with the literature: you do not want to waste time on theories that others have disproved and you want to take full advantage of what others have argued. You want to be able to discuss and analyze your topic.
- Susan Fernsebner, Talking History Series, History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington.
Historiography
Historians need to know what has been written on their topic–facts, theories, and arguments–so they can place their own thesis in the context of that body of work. Historiography is the study of what historians have written and argued about a given topic.
"Historiography deals with the writing of history. In the broadest sense, it is the study of the history of history (as it is described by historians). Historiography has several facets, but for the purposes of a researcher trying to situate his work in the context of other historians' work on a particular topic, the most useful thing is the historiographic essay or review article that summarizes changing ideas about and approaches to the topic. A really good historiographic essay will also address why historians' ideas have changed."
- Steven Knowlton, Librarian for History and African American Studies, Princeton University Library.
There are two common uses of the term "Historiography."
The historiography (general descriptor) of a topic is the sum total of the interpretations of a specific topic written by past and current historians.
The major purpose of writing a historiographical paper is to convey the scholarship of other historians on a particular subject, rather than to analyze the subject itself.
A good historiography does the following:
A quick search in the library catalog using "Historiography" as a keyword will get you a host of books on a variety of subjects.
To find a historiography of a particular subject, you can use the following search structure: specific topic name AND historiography
"Historiographic essays:
As noted in Chapter 1, historians frequently disagree about how to interpret the events they study. These differences in interpretation reflect the varying approaches that historians take to their subject. For example, individual historians might be interested primarily in social, cultural, political, economic, legal, or intellectual history. They might approach their work from a Marxist, Freudian, feminist, or postmodernist point of view. Such orientations and affiliations affect the ways in which historians explore and interpret the past; thus, historians interested in the same historical event might examine different sets of sources to answer the same question. For example, in studying the causes of the French Revolution, Marxist historians might focus on economic and class issues, while intellectual historians might concentrate on how the writings of the philosophes (a group of French Enlightenment writers) affected political thought and practice. Moreover, since the historian’s work is embedded in a particular social and cultural context, historical interpretations and methodologies change over time. For example, the growth of the civil rights and feminist movements in the 1960s led to a greater interest in African American and women’s history. Historiographic essays are thus a particularly effective way to introduce students to diverse perspectives and invite them to enter the exciting world of historical discussion and debate."
Books:
Journal Articles:
The Guide is an adaptation of How to Create a Historiography from the University of Rhode Island Libraries created by Alan Witt, updated by Michaela Keating.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.