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Historical Research – Types, Methods and Examples

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Historical Research

Definition:

Historical research is the process of investigating and studying past events, people, and societies using a variety of sources and methods. This type of research aims to reconstruct and interpret the past based on the available evidence.

Types of Historical Research

There are several types of historical research, including:

Descriptive Research

This type of historical research focuses on describing events, people, or cultures in detail. It can involve examining artifacts, documents, or other sources of information to create a detailed account of what happened or existed.

Analytical Research

This type of historical research aims to explain why events, people, or cultures occurred in a certain way. It involves analyzing data to identify patterns, causes, and effects, and making interpretations based on this analysis.

Comparative Research

This type of historical research involves comparing two or more events, people, or cultures to identify similarities and differences. This can help researchers understand the unique characteristics of each and how they interacted with each other.

Interpretive Research

This type of historical research focuses on interpreting the meaning of past events, people, or cultures. It can involve analyzing cultural symbols, beliefs, and practices to understand their significance in a particular historical context.

Quantitative Research

This type of historical research involves using statistical methods to analyze historical data. It can involve examining demographic information, economic indicators, or other quantitative data to identify patterns and trends.

Qualitative Research

This type of historical research involves examining non-numerical data such as personal accounts, letters, or diaries. It can provide insights into the experiences and perspectives of individuals during a particular historical period.

Data Collection Methods

Data Collection Methods are as follows:

• Archival research : This involves analyzing documents and records that have been preserved over time, such as government records, diaries, letters, newspapers, and photographs. Archival research is often conducted in libraries, archives, and museums.
• Oral history : This involves conducting interviews with individuals who have lived through a particular historical period or event. Oral history can provide a unique perspective on past events and can help to fill gaps in the historical record.
• Artifact analysis: This involves examining physical objects from the past, such as tools, clothing, and artwork, to gain insights into past cultures and practices.
• Secondary sources: This involves analyzing published works, such as books, articles, and academic papers, that discuss past events and cultures. Secondary sources can provide context and insights into the historical period being studied.
• Statistical analysis : This involves analyzing numerical data from the past, such as census records or economic data, to identify patterns and trends.
• Fieldwork : This involves conducting on-site research in a particular location, such as visiting a historical site or conducting ethnographic research in a particular community. Fieldwork can provide a firsthand understanding of the culture and environment being studied.
• Content analysis: This involves analyzing the content of media from the past, such as films, television programs, and advertisements, to gain insights into cultural attitudes and beliefs.

Data Analysis Methods

• Content analysis : This involves analyzing the content of written or visual material, such as books, newspapers, or photographs, to identify patterns and themes. Content analysis can be used to identify changes in cultural values and beliefs over time.
• Textual analysis : This involves analyzing written texts, such as letters or diaries, to understand the experiences and perspectives of individuals during a particular historical period. Textual analysis can provide insights into how people lived and thought in the past.
• Discourse analysis : This involves analyzing how language is used to construct meaning and power relations in a particular historical period. Discourse analysis can help to identify how social and political ideologies were constructed and maintained over time.
• Statistical analysis: This involves using statistical methods to analyze numerical data, such as census records or economic data, to identify patterns and trends. Statistical analysis can help to identify changes in population demographics, economic conditions, and other factors over time.
• Comparative analysis : This involves comparing data from two or more historical periods or events to identify similarities and differences. Comparative analysis can help to identify patterns and trends that may not be apparent from analyzing data from a single historical period.
• Qualitative analysis: This involves analyzing non-numerical data, such as oral history interviews or ethnographic field notes, to identify themes and patterns. Qualitative analysis can provide a rich understanding of the experiences and perspectives of individuals in the past.

Historical Research Methodology

Here are the general steps involved in historical research methodology:

• Define the research question: Start by identifying a research question that you want to answer through your historical research. This question should be focused, specific, and relevant to your research goals.
• Review the literature: Conduct a review of the existing literature on the topic of your research question. This can involve reading books, articles, and academic papers to gain a thorough understanding of the existing research.
• Develop a research design : Develop a research design that outlines the methods you will use to collect and analyze data. This design should be based on the research question and should be feasible given the resources and time available.
• Collect data: Use the methods outlined in your research design to collect data on past events, people, and cultures. This can involve archival research, oral history interviews, artifact analysis, and other data collection methods.
• Analyze data : Analyze the data you have collected using the methods outlined in your research design. This can involve content analysis, textual analysis, statistical analysis, and other data analysis methods.
• Interpret findings : Use the results of your data analysis to draw meaningful insights and conclusions related to your research question. These insights should be grounded in the data and should be relevant to the research goals.
• Communicate results: Communicate your findings through a research report, academic paper, or other means. This should be done in a clear, concise, and well-organized manner, with appropriate citations and references to the literature.

Applications of Historical Research

Historical research has a wide range of applications in various fields, including:

• Education : Historical research can be used to develop curriculum materials that reflect a more accurate and inclusive representation of history. It can also be used to provide students with a deeper understanding of past events and cultures.
• Museums : Historical research is used to develop exhibits, programs, and other materials for museums. It can provide a more accurate and engaging presentation of historical events and artifacts.
• Public policy : Historical research is used to inform public policy decisions by providing insights into the historical context of current issues. It can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of past policies and programs.
• Business : Historical research can be used by businesses to understand the evolution of their industry and to identify trends that may affect their future success. It can also be used to develop marketing strategies that resonate with customers’ historical interests and values.
• Law : Historical research is used in legal proceedings to provide evidence and context for cases involving historical events or practices. It can also be used to inform the development of new laws and policies.
• Genealogy : Historical research can be used by individuals to trace their family history and to understand their ancestral roots.
• Cultural preservation : Historical research is used to preserve cultural heritage by documenting and interpreting past events, practices, and traditions. It can also be used to identify and preserve historical landmarks and artifacts.

Examples of Historical Research

Examples of Historical Research are as follows:

• Examining the history of race relations in the United States: Historical research could be used to explore the historical roots of racial inequality and injustice in the United States. This could help inform current efforts to address systemic racism and promote social justice.
• Tracing the evolution of political ideologies: Historical research could be used to study the development of political ideologies over time. This could help to contextualize current political debates and provide insights into the origins and evolution of political beliefs and values.
• Analyzing the impact of technology on society : Historical research could be used to explore the impact of technology on society over time. This could include examining the impact of previous technological revolutions (such as the industrial revolution) on society, as well as studying the current impact of emerging technologies on society and the environment.
• Documenting the history of marginalized communities : Historical research could be used to document the history of marginalized communities (such as LGBTQ+ communities or indigenous communities). This could help to preserve cultural heritage, promote social justice, and promote a more inclusive understanding of history.

Purpose of Historical Research

The purpose of historical research is to study the past in order to gain a better understanding of the present and to inform future decision-making. Some specific purposes of historical research include:

• To understand the origins of current events, practices, and institutions : Historical research can be used to explore the historical roots of current events, practices, and institutions. By understanding how things developed over time, we can gain a better understanding of the present.
• To develop a more accurate and inclusive understanding of history : Historical research can be used to correct inaccuracies and biases in historical narratives. By exploring different perspectives and sources of information, we can develop a more complete and nuanced understanding of history.
• To inform decision-making: Historical research can be used to inform decision-making in various fields, including education, public policy, business, and law. By understanding the historical context of current issues, we can make more informed decisions about how to address them.
• To preserve cultural heritage : Historical research can be used to document and preserve cultural heritage, including traditions, practices, and artifacts. By understanding the historical significance of these cultural elements, we can work to preserve them for future generations.
• To stimulate curiosity and critical thinking: Historical research can be used to stimulate curiosity and critical thinking about the past. By exploring different historical perspectives and interpretations, we can develop a more critical and reflective approach to understanding history and its relevance to the present.

When to use Historical Research

Historical research can be useful in a variety of contexts. Here are some examples of when historical research might be particularly appropriate:

• When examining the historical roots of current events: Historical research can be used to explore the historical roots of current events, practices, and institutions. By understanding how things developed over time, we can gain a better understanding of the present.
• When examining the historical context of a particular topic : Historical research can be used to explore the historical context of a particular topic, such as a social issue, political debate, or scientific development. By understanding the historical context, we can gain a more nuanced understanding of the topic and its significance.
• When exploring the evolution of a particular field or discipline : Historical research can be used to explore the evolution of a particular field or discipline, such as medicine, law, or art. By understanding the historical development of the field, we can gain a better understanding of its current state and future directions.
• When examining the impact of past events on current society : Historical research can be used to examine the impact of past events (such as wars, revolutions, or social movements) on current society. By understanding the historical context and impact of these events, we can gain insights into current social and political issues.
• When studying the cultural heritage of a particular community or group : Historical research can be used to document and preserve the cultural heritage of a particular community or group. By understanding the historical significance of cultural practices, traditions, and artifacts, we can work to preserve them for future generations.

Characteristics of Historical Research

The following are some characteristics of historical research:

• Focus on the past : Historical research focuses on events, people, and phenomena of the past. It seeks to understand how things developed over time and how they relate to current events.
• Reliance on primary sources: Historical research relies on primary sources such as letters, diaries, newspapers, government documents, and other artifacts from the period being studied. These sources provide firsthand accounts of events and can help researchers gain a more accurate understanding of the past.
• Interpretation of data : Historical research involves interpretation of data from primary sources. Researchers analyze and interpret data to draw conclusions about the past.
• Use of multiple sources: Historical research often involves using multiple sources of data to gain a more complete understanding of the past. By examining a range of sources, researchers can cross-reference information and validate their findings.
• Importance of context: Historical research emphasizes the importance of context. Researchers analyze the historical context in which events occurred and consider how that context influenced people’s actions and decisions.
• Subjectivity : Historical research is inherently subjective, as researchers interpret data and draw conclusions based on their own perspectives and biases. Researchers must be aware of their own biases and strive for objectivity in their analysis.
• Importance of historical significance: Historical research emphasizes the importance of historical significance. Researchers consider the historical significance of events, people, and phenomena and their impact on the present and future.
• Use of qualitative methods : Historical research often uses qualitative methods such as content analysis, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis to analyze data and draw conclusions about the past.

Advantages of Historical Research

There are several advantages to historical research:

• Provides a deeper understanding of the past : Historical research can provide a more comprehensive understanding of past events and how they have shaped current social, political, and economic conditions. This can help individuals and organizations make informed decisions about the future.
• Helps preserve cultural heritage: Historical research can be used to document and preserve cultural heritage. By studying the history of a particular culture, researchers can gain insights into the cultural practices and beliefs that have shaped that culture over time.
• Provides insights into long-term trends : Historical research can provide insights into long-term trends and patterns. By studying historical data over time, researchers can identify patterns and trends that may be difficult to discern from short-term data.
• Facilitates the development of hypotheses: Historical research can facilitate the development of hypotheses about how past events have influenced current conditions. These hypotheses can be tested using other research methods, such as experiments or surveys.
• Helps identify root causes of social problems : Historical research can help identify the root causes of social problems. By studying the historical context in which these problems developed, researchers can gain a better understanding of how they emerged and what factors may have contributed to their development.
• Provides a source of inspiration: Historical research can provide a source of inspiration for individuals and organizations seeking to address current social, political, and economic challenges. By studying the accomplishments and struggles of past generations, researchers can gain insights into how to address current challenges.

Limitations of Historical Research

Some Limitations of Historical Research are as follows:

• Reliance on incomplete or biased data: Historical research is often limited by the availability and quality of data. Many primary sources have been lost, destroyed, or are inaccessible, making it difficult to get a complete picture of historical events. Additionally, some primary sources may be biased or represent only one perspective on an event.
• Difficulty in generalizing findings: Historical research is often specific to a particular time and place and may not be easily generalized to other contexts. This makes it difficult to draw broad conclusions about human behavior or social phenomena.
• Lack of control over variables : Historical research often lacks control over variables. Researchers cannot manipulate or control historical events, making it difficult to establish cause-and-effect relationships.
• Subjectivity of interpretation : Historical research is often subjective because researchers must interpret data and draw conclusions based on their own biases and perspectives. Different researchers may interpret the same data differently, leading to different conclusions.
• Limited ability to test hypotheses: Historical research is often limited in its ability to test hypotheses. Because the events being studied have already occurred, researchers cannot manipulate variables or conduct experiments to test their hypotheses.
• Lack of objectivity: Historical research is often subjective, and researchers must be aware of their own biases and strive for objectivity in their analysis. However, it can be difficult to maintain objectivity when studying events that are emotionally charged or controversial.
• Limited generalizability: Historical research is often limited in its generalizability, as the events and conditions being studied may be specific to a particular time and place. This makes it difficult to draw broad conclusions that apply to other contexts or time periods.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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The Princeton Guide to Historical Research provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian’s craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries. Zachary Schrag begins by explaining how to ask good questions and then guides readers step-by-step through all phases of historical research, from narrowing a topic and locating sources to taking notes, crafting a narrative, and connecting one’s work to existing scholarship. He shows how researchers extract knowledge from the widest range of sources, such as government documents, newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, images, interviews, and datasets. He demonstrates how to use archives and libraries, read sources critically, present claims supported by evidence, tell compelling stories, and much more. Featuring a wealth of examples that illustrate the methods used by seasoned experts, The Princeton Guide to Historical Research reveals that, however varied the subject matter and sources, historians share basic tools in the quest to understand people and the choices they made.

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This guide is an introduction to selected resources available for historical research.  It covers both primary sources (such as diaries, letters, newspaper articles, photographs, government documents and first-hand accounts) and secondary materials (such as books and articles written by historians and devoted to the analysis and interpretation of historical events and evidence).

"Research in history involves developing an understanding of the past through the examination and interpretation of evidence. Evidence may exist in the form of texts, physical remains of historic sites, recorded data, pictures, maps, artifacts, and so on. The historian’s job is to find evidence, analyze its content and biases, corroborate it with further evidence, and use that evidence to develop an interpretation of past events that holds some significance for the present.

Historians use libraries to

• locate primary sources (first-hand information such as diaries, letters, and original documents) for evidence
• find secondary sources (historians’ interpretations and analyses of historical evidence)
• verify factual material as inconsistencies arise"

( Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, Fifth Edition, by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister, Bedford/St. Martin, 2010)

This guide is meant to help you work through these steps.

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If you are just starting out in HPS, this will be the first time for many years – perhaps ever – that you have done substantial library or museum based research. The number of general studies may seem overwhelming, yet digging out specific material relevant to your topic may seem like finding needles in a haystack. Before turning to the specific entries that make up this guide, there are a few general points that apply more widely.

Planning your research

Because good research and good writing go hand in hand, probably the single most important key to successful research is having a good topic. For that, all you need at the beginning are two things: (a) a problem that you are genuinely interested in and (b) a specific issue, controversy, technique, instrument, person, etc. that is likely to offer a fruitful way forward for exploring your problem. In the early stages, it's often a good idea to be general about (a) and very specific about (b). So you might be interested in why people decide to become doctors, and decide to look at the early career of a single practitioner from the early nineteenth century, when the evidence for this kind of question happens to be unusually good. You can get lots of advice from people in the Department about places to look for topics, especially if you combine this with reading in areas of potential interest. Remember that you're more likely to get good advice if you're able to mesh your interests with something that a potential supervisor knows about. HPS is such a broad field that it's impossible for any department to cover all aspects of it with an equal degree of expertise. It can be reassuring to know that your topic will evolve as your research develops, although it is vital that you establish some basic parameters relatively quickly. Otherwise you will end up doing the research for two, three or even four research papers or dissertations, when all you need is the material for one.

Before beginning detailed work, it's obviously a good idea to read some of the secondary literature surrounding your subject. The more general books are listed on the reading lists for the Part II lecture courses, and some of the specialist literature is listed in these research guides. This doesn't need to involve an exhaustive search, at least not at this stage, but you do need to master the fundamentals of what's been done if you're going to be in a position to judge the relevance of anything you find. If there are lectures being offered in your topic, make sure to attend them; and if they are offered later in the year, try to see if you can obtain a preliminary bibliography from the lecturer.

After that, it's usually a good idea to immerse yourself in your main primary sources as soon as possible. If you are studying a museum object, this is the time to look at it closely; if you're writing about a debate, get together the main papers relevant to it and give them a close read; if you're writing about a specific experiment, look at the published papers, the laboratory notebook, and the relevant letters. Don't spend hours in the early stages of research ferreting out hard-to-find details, unless you're absolutely positive that they are of central importance to the viability of your topic. Start to get a feel for the material you have, and the questions that might be explored further. Make an outline of the main topics that you hope to cover, organized along what you see as the most interesting themes (and remember, 'background' is not usually an interesting theme on its own).

At this stage, research can go in many different directions. At some point, you'll want to read more about the techniques other historians have used for exploring similar questions. Most fields have an established repertoire of ways of approaching problems, and you need to know what these are, especially if you decide to reject them. One of the advantages of an interdisciplinary field like HPS is that you are exposed to different and often conflicting ways of tackling similar questions. Remember that this is true within history itself, and you need to be aware of alternatives. This may well involve looking further afield, at classic books or articles that are not specifically on 'your' subject. For example, it may be that you could find some helpful ideas for a study of modern scientific portraiture in a book on the eighteenth century. The best books dealing with educational maps may not be on the astronomical ones you are studying, but on ones used for teaching classical geography. See where the inspiration for works you admire comes from, and have a look at the sources they have used. This will help you develop the kind of focussed questions that make for a successful piece of work.

As you develop an outline and begin to think through your topic in more detail, you'll be in good position to plan possible lines of research. Don't try to find out everything about your topic: pick those aspects that are likely to prove most fruitful for the direction your essay seems to be heading. For example, it may be worth spending a long time searching for biographical details about a person if their career and life are central to your analysis; but in many other cases, such issues may not be very important. If your interest is in the reception of a work, it is likely to be more fruitful to learn a lot about a few commentaries or reviews (where they appeared, who wrote them, and so forth) than to gather in randomly all the comments you can find.

Follow up hints in other people's footnotes. Works that are otherwise dull or outdated in approach are sometimes based on very solid research. One secondary reference to a crucial letter or newspaper article can save you hours of mindless trawling, and lead you straight to the information you need. Moreover, good historians often signal questions or sources that they think would be worth investigating further.

Remember that the best history almost always depends on developing new approaches and interpretations, not on knowing about a secret archive no one has used before. If you give your work time to develop, and combine research with writing, you will discover new sources, and (better still) a fresh importance for material that has supposedly been known for a long time. As you become familiar with your topic, you are likely to find that evidence you dug out at the beginning of your project is much more significant than you thought it was. In historical research, the most important evidence often isn't sitting there on the surface – it's something you need to dig out through close reading and an understanding of the situation in which the document you are studying was written, or in which the object was produced. This is especially true of instruments, paintings and other non-textual sources.

Some standard reference works

Your research should become more focussed as time goes on. Don't just gather randomly: you should always have at least some idea of why you are looking for something, and what you might hope to find. Make guesses, follow up hunches, see if an idea you have has the possibility to work out. At the beginning, it can be valuable to learn the full range of what is available, but eventually you should be following up specific issues, a bit like a detective tracing the clues to a mystery. It is at this stage of research, which is often best done in conjunction with writing up sections of your project, that knowing where to find answers to specific questions is most useful. There is nothing more disheartening than spending a week to find a crucial fact, only to discover that it's been sitting on the shelf next to you all term. The Whipple has a wide variety of guides, biographical dictionaries and bibliographies, so spend a few minutes early on looking at the reference shelves.

Every major country has a national biographical dictionary (the new version of the British one is the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , available 2004 online). For better-known scientists, a good place to start is Charles C. Gillispie (ed.) Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970–1980). There are more specialized dictionaries for every scientific field, from entomology to astronomy. The University Library has a huge selection of biographical sources; ask your supervisor about the best ones for your purpose.

Preliminary searching for book titles and other bibliographical information is now often best done online, and every historian should know how to use the British Library's online search facility; COPAC (the UK national library database); and WorldCat (an international database). All of these are accessible through the HPS Whipple Library website (under 'other catalogues'). At the time of writing, the University Library is remains one of the few libraries of its size to have many of its records not available online, so remember that you have to check the green guard-book catalogues (and the supplementary catalogues) for most items published before 1977. It is hoped that this situation will be rectified soon. There are also numerous bibliographies for individual sciences and subjects, together with catalogues of relevant manuscripts. Most of these are listed elsewhere in this guide.

As questions arise, you will want to be able to access books and articles by other historians that touch upon your subject. There are many sources for this listed elsewhere in this guide, but you should definitely know about the Isis Current Bibliography and The Wellcome Bibliography for the History of Medicine . Both are available online, the former through the RLG History of Science, Technology and Medicine database, the latter through the website of the Wellcome Library.

Libraries and museums

Finally, a word in praise of libraries and museums. As the comments above make clear, the internet is invaluable for searching for specific pieces of information. If you need a bibliographical reference or a general reading list from a course at another university, it is an excellent place to begin. If you are looking for the source of an unidentified quotation, typing it into Google (or an appropriate database held by the University Library) will often turn up the source in seconds. Many academic journals are now online, as are the texts of many books, though not always in a paginated or citable form.

For almost all historical topics, however, libraries filled with printed books and journals will remain the principal tools for research, just as museums will continue to be essential to any work dealing with the material culture of past science. The reason for this is simple: what is on the internet is the result of decisions by people in the past decade, while libraries and museums are the product of a continuous history of collecting over several thousand years. Cambridge has some of the best collections for the history of science anywhere. Despite what is often said, this is not because of the famous manuscripts or showpiece books (these are mostly available in other ways), but because of the depth and range of its collections across the whole field. The Whipple Library is small and friendly, and has an unparalleled selection of secondary works selected over many years – don't just go for specific titles you've found in the catalogue, try browsing around, and ask the librarians for help if you can't see what you are looking for. Explore the Whipple Museum and talk to the curator and the staff. There are rich troves of material in these departmental collections, on topics ranging from phrenology and microscopy to the early development of pocket calculators. Become familiar with what the University Library has to offer: it is large and sometimes idiosyncratic, but worth getting to know well if you are at all serious about research. It is a fantastic instrument for studying the human past – the historian's equivalent of CERN or the Hubble Telescope. And all you need to get in is a student ID.

Further reading

Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. William, The Craft of Research , 2nd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2003).

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Theories and methods in the study of history, course description.

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How Institutions Use Historical Research Methods to Provide Historical Perspectives

An Overview of Historical Research Methods

Historical research methods enable institutions to collect facts, chronological data, and other information relevant to their interests. But historical research is more than compiling a record of past events; it provides institutions with valuable insights about the past to inform current cultural, political, and social dynamics.

Historical research methods primarily involve collecting information from primary and secondary sources. While differences exist between these sources, organizations and institutions can use both types of sources to assess historical events and provide proper context comprehensively.

Using historical research methods, historians provide institutions with historical insights that can give perspectives on the future.

Individuals interested in advancing their careers as historians can pursue an advanced degree, such as a Master of Arts in History , to help them develop a systematic understanding of historical research and learn about the use of digital tools for acquiring, accessing, and managing historical information.

Historians use historical research methods to obtain data from primary and secondary sources and, then, assess how the information contributes to understanding a historical period or event. Historical research methods are used with primary and secondary sources. Below is a description of each type of source.

What Is a Primary Source?              

Primary sources—raw data containing first-person accounts and documents—are foundational to historical and academic research. Examples of primary sources include eyewitness accounts of historical events, written testimonies, public records, oral representations, legal documents, artifacts, photographs, art, newspaper articles, diaries, and letters. Individuals often can find primary sources in archives and collections in universities, libraries, and historical societies.

A primary source, also known as primary data, is often characterized by the time of its creation. For example, individuals studying the U.S. Constitution’s beginnings can use The Federalist Papers, a collection of essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, written from October 1787 to May 1788, as a primary source for their research. In this example, the information was witnessed firsthand and created at the time of the event.

What Is a Secondary Source?              

Primary sources are not always easy to find. In the absence of primary sources, secondary sources can play a vital role in describing historical events. A historian can create a secondary source by analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting information or data provided in primary sources. For example, a modern-day historian may use The Federalist Papers and other primary sources to reveal historical insights about the series of events that led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution. As a result, the secondary source, based on historical facts, becomes a reliable source of historical data for others to use to create a comprehensive picture of an event and its significance.

The Value of Historical Research for Providing Historical Perspectives

Current global politics has its roots in the past. Historical research offers an essential context for understanding our modern society. It can inform global concepts, such as foreign policy development or international relations. The study of historical events can help leaders make informed decisions that impact society, culture, and the economy.

Take, for example, the Industrial Revolution. Studying the history of the rise of industry in the West helps to put the current world order in perspective. The recorded events of that age reveal that the first designers of the systems of industry, including the United States, dominated the global landscape in the following decades and centuries. Similarly, the digital revolution is creating massive shifts in international politics and society. Historians play a pivotal role in using historical research methods to record and analyze information about these trends to provide future generations with insightful historical perspectives.

In addition to creating meaningful knowledge of global and economic affairs, studying history highlights the perspectives of people and groups who triumphed over adversity. For example, the historical fights for freedom and equality, such as the struggle for women’s voting rights or ending the Jim Crow era in the South, offer relevant context for current events, such as efforts at criminal justice reform.

History also is the story of the collective identity of people and regions. Historical research can help promote a sense of community and highlight the vibrancy of different cultures, creating opportunities for people to become more culturally aware and empowered.

The Tools and Techniques of Historical Research Methods

A primary source is not necessarily an original source. For example, not everyone can access the original essays written by Hamilton because they are precious and must be preserved and protected. However, thanks to digitization, institutions can access, manage, and interpret essential information, artifacts, and images from the essays without fear of degradation.

Using technology to digitize historical information creates what is known as digital history. It offers opportunities to advance scholarly research and expand knowledge to new audiences. For example, individuals can access a digital copy of The Federalist Papers from the Library of Congress’s website anytime, from anywhere. This digital copy can still serve as a primary source because it contains the same content as the original paper version created hundreds of years ago.

As more primary and secondary sources are digitized, researchers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to search, gather, and analyze these sources. An AI method known as optical character recognition can help historians with digital research. Historians also can use AI techniques to close gaps in historical information. For example, an AI system developed by DeepMind uses deep neural networks to help historians recreate missing pieces and restore ancient Greek texts on stone tablets that are thousands of years old.

As digital tools associated with historical research proliferate, individuals seeking to advance in a history career need to develop technical skills to use advanced technology in their research. Norwich University’s online Master of Arts in History program prepares students with knowledge of historical research methods and critical technology skills to advance in the field of history.

Prepare to Make an Impact

Through effective historical research methods, institutions, organizations, and individuals can learn the significance of past events and communicate important insights for a better future. In museums, government agencies, universities and colleges, nonprofits, and historical associations, the combination of technology and historical research plays a central role in extending the reach of historical information to new audiences. It can also guide leaders charged with making important decisions that can impact geopolitics, society, economic development, community building, and more.

Norwich University’s online Master of Arts in History prepares students with knowledge of historical research methods and skills to use technology to advance their careers across many industries and fields of study. The program’s curriculum offers students the flexibility to choose from four concentrations—Public History, American History, World History, or Legal and Constitutional History—to customize their studies based on their career goals and personal interests.

Learn how Norwich University’s online Master of Arts in History degree can prepare individuals for career success in the field of history.

Recommended Readings

What Is Digital History? A Guide to Digital History Resources, Museums, and Job Description Old World vs. New World History: A Curriculum Comparison How to Become a Researcher

Getting Started with Primary Sources , Library of Congress What Is a Primary Source? , ThoughtCo. Full Text of The Federalist Papers , Library of Congress Digital History , The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook Historians in Archives , American Historical Association How AI Helps Historians Solve Ancient Puzzles , Financial Times  

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Historical Associations

Professional associations and academic communities are often a good place to start for scholarly information and materials on methods and research.

• American Historical Association This link opens in a new window The professional and academic organization of academic historians, this organization has a wealth of information about careers in history as well as a directory of historians and historical programs
• H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online This link opens in a new window H-Net "creates and coordinates Internet networks with the common objective of advancing teaching and research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences." Contains public discussion lists related to numerous disciplines.
• National Council on Public History This link opens in a new window The professional association for public historians, the NCPH serves practitioners by "building community among historians, expanding professional skills and tools, fostering critical reflection on historical practice, and publicly advocating for history and historians."
• Organization of American Historians This link opens in a new window Less focused on academic history, the OAH nonetheless provides quite a bit of information about the profession, jobs, and current topics in history.

Professional Organizations

• Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations This link opens in a new window
• American Association for the History of Medicine This link opens in a new window
• American Historical Association This link opens in a new window
• Association of Ancient Historians This link opens in a new window
• Association for Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
• Association for Political History This link opens in a new window
• Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies This link opens in a new window
• Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies This link opens in a new window
• Association for the Study of African American Life and History This link opens in a new window
• Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa This link opens in a new window
• American Society for Environmental History This link opens in a new window
• American Studies Organization This link opens in a new window
• Central European History Society This link opens in a new window
• Chinese Historians in the United States This link opens in a new window
• Economic History Association This link opens in a new window
• Historical Society of Israel This link opens in a new window
• History of Science Society This link opens in a new window
• Historical Society for Twentieth-Century China This link opens in a new window
• Immigration and Ethnic History Society This link opens in a new window
• International Council of Museums This link opens in a new window
• International Documentary Association This link opens in a new window
• International Network for Theory of History This link opens in a new window
• International Society for Cultural History This link opens in a new window
• International Society for Cultural-Historical Activity Research This link opens in a new window
• Labor and Working-Class History Association This link opens in a new window
• Medieval Academy of America This link opens in a new window
• Mediterranean Studies Association This link opens in a new window
• Middle Eastern Studies Association This link opens in a new window
• National Council on Public History This link opens in a new window
• National Women’s Historical Society This link opens in a new window
• Organization of American Historians This link opens in a new window
• Renaissance Society of America This link opens in a new window
• Society for the History of Technology This link opens in a new window
• Society of American Archivists This link opens in a new window
• Society of Ancient Military Historians This link opens in a new window
• Society of Civil War Historians This link opens in a new window
• Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations This link opens in a new window
• Society for Historians of the Early Republic This link opens in a new window
• Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era This link opens in a new window
• Society for Military History This link opens in a new window
• Society for Reformation Research This link opens in a new window
• Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender This link opens in a new window
• Society for US Intellectual History This link opens in a new window
• Social Science History Association This link opens in a new window
• Southern Historical Association This link opens in a new window
• Western History Association This link opens in a new window
• World History Association This link opens in a new window

Historical Research and Methods

Guides and major works.

The following is a list of works on Historical methods, philosophy, and subfields of history.

Writing Guide

A series of guides on reading, researching and writing history This link opens in a new window by Patrick Rael, professor of History at Bowdoin College.

Source: Patrick Rael, Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students (Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 2004).

Research Methods

The Shapiro Library subscribes to the SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window database, a resource designed for those who are doing research or who are learning how to do research. Methods and practices covered include writing research questions and literature reviews, choosing research methods, conducting oral histories, and more. 

• << Previous: Primary Sources
• Next: Citing Your Sources >>

• UTEP Library
• UTEP Library Research Guides

Graduate-Level Historical Research

• Research Methods
• Archival Research
• Historiography
• Select Databases
• Historical Newspapers
• Theses and Dissertations
• Media and Microfilm
• Government Documents
• UTEP Special Collections
• Citing Sources

Qualitative and Quantitive Research

Historians rely on primary and secondary sources when conducting research and writing historical works. They also use qualitative and/or quantitative research methods to support their arguments and conclusions.

Here are some sources about research design and writing:

• Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research
• Using Photographs in Social and Historical Research by Penny Tinkler, Special Collections Reference HM511.T56 2013
• Historical Research: A Guide by W.H. McDowell, ebook
• A Concise Companion to History edited by Ulinka Rublack, Main Stacks D13.C663 2011
• Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing by Anthony Brundage, Main Stacks D16.B893 2013
• Research Methods for History edited by Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire, ebook
• A Short Guide to Writing about History by Richard Marius, Main Stacks D13.M294 2002
• Historian's Guide to Statistics: Quantitative Analysis and Historical Research by Charles M. Dollar and Richard J. Jensen, Main Stacks HA29.D645
• Writing the Winning Thesis or Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Guide by Randy Joyner, William A. Rouse, and Allan A. Glathorn, Main Stacks LB2369.G56 2013
• The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth, ebook
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White, Main Stacks PE1408.S772 1972

Historians use the Chicago Manual of Style when writing papers, books, and articles and documenting sources. The manual is available here .

What is a Scholarly Article?

A scholarly or peer-reviewed article is one that is reviewed by a panel of experts in the field. The following are a few characteristics of a scholarly article:

• An abstract, or summary, before the main text of the article
• Footnotes and/or bibliographies that cite sources
• Graphs or charts detailing the research process and/or results
• Publication by a professional or academic organization
• Discipline-specific language
• << Previous: Home
• Next: Archival Research >>
• Last Updated: Apr 4, 2024 4:27 PM
• URL: https://libguides.utep.edu/hist_grads

Historical Methods

Through this choice of papers students are encouraged to reflect on the variety of approaches used by modern historians, or on the ways in which history has been written in the past, to read historical classics written in a range of ancient and modern languages, or to acquire the numerical skills needed for certain types of historical investigation. 

Students can choose any one option of:

Approaches to History

This paper introduces students to ways of looking at the past that will probably be novel to them. The course explores both the strengths and the weaknesses of looking at the past from the perspective of other intellectual disciplines, with their varied methodologies and their different types of evidence (Anthropology; Archaeology; Art History; Economics and Sociology). The paper also offers a chance to examine the particular perspective on History offered by an awareness of the role of gender and gender difference, an approach that has been developed powerfully in recent decades. Classes and tutorials are supported by a comprehensive lecture-course which runs in the Michaelmas Term. Students are encouraged to attend lectures on all the different disciplines, since these include a number of overlapping themes and interests; in contrast tutorials normally concentrate on only two or three of the disciplines. The study of each Approach is organized around a series of broad sub-topics which are described more fully below and are supported by short bibliographies. However none of the reading is prescribed and a course-tutor could perfectly well approach each subject with a different set of examples, chosen from any period.

Prescribed topics

The paper is concerned with the ways in which the writing of history has been influenced by other disciplines, methods and techniques. Candidates will be required to show knowledge of at least two different ‘approaches’ out of the six set out below. The sub-headings give guidance to areas in which questions will be set:

Anthropology and History

This Approach introduces students to the work of cultural and social anthropologists, and to the way it has influenced the thinking of historians in recent decades. As with the other Approaches, the aim is to offer students new broader perspectives on the ways in which the past can be studied and to think more carefully about the concepts they use. The four broad subthemes and supporting bibliographies allow students to read some of the classic works of anthropology and thereby appreciate the diversity of ways in which anthropologists have approached the study of humans in the present. Students can consider the extent to which functionalism and field studies at a micro level have influenced historical work, or the possibilities for historians of the cultural anthropology exemplified by the work of Clifford Geertz. Students will also be encouraged to take note of the extent to which there is a two-way interaction between anthropology and history and to consider the implications of the intense self-criticism of anthropology as an agent of colonialism.

Family and kinship

This topic offers students the chance to analyse how anthropological work has sharpened historians’ understanding of the central role of family and kinship structures in societies and of the diversity of forms which these structures may take. As a central topic of much anthropological work it exemplifies the way anthropological approaches have been contested and have developed over the last half century – from the stress on scientific categorization in the mid-twentieth century to the more recent emphasis of Pierre Bourdieu on fluidity and improvisation.

Authority and Power

This topic introduces students to another central interest of anthropologists – to the way authority is constructed and maintained in small face-to-face societies and to the role of rituals in legitimizing power or authority. Areas of particular study might include the strengths and limitations of the functionalist approach to feuds and rebellions, or the way in which historians have learnt from anthropologists’ attempts to analyse how rituals work.

Religion, Magic and Popular Culture

This topic examines an area where the debt of many historians to the work of anthropologists has been extensive and has opened up a number of lively debates. The work of Evans-Pritchard or Clifford Geertz and its influence on historians such as Keith Thomas or Robert Darnton offers a classic example. At a general level the topic encourages students to examine why religion and magic make sense to their participants and to consider the limitations of concepts such as popular culture.

The construction of history

This topic explores the way anthropologists have looked at and thought about the past, be it myths, genealogies, oral histories, or the work of professional historians, as an attempt by participants within a society to explain who they are and to legitimize, contest or make sense of the world as it is. Students are encouraged to consider the applicability of such interpretations to historical testimonies and records from the past or indeed to the work of professional historians and anthropologists in the present.

Archaeology and History

The aim of this Approach is to introduce history students, very familiar with working with the evidence of words and texts, to a different type of evidence for the human past: mute material remains. The course underlines the very considerable strengths of material objects as evidence, but also their limitations, and how they are subject to varying interpretations. It also offers a chance to show how an archaeological approach has altered historians’ perceptions of the past. The course, while arranged thematically, introduces students to aspects of archaeological methodology (such as how to find and interpret traces of buried landscapes). It is not centred around theoretical debates within ‘Archaeology’ itself, though students may engage with these if they wish. The introductory explanations and attached bibliographies give some idea of how each theme might be studied though each can equally be approached with a different set of examples, chosen from any period. It is also possible to centre a topic on a specific site or group of material (e.g. for ‘Burials’ the Spitalfields crypt, or the Sutton Hoo barrows).

This topic will introduce students to many of the different types of surviving evidence for ancient and capes (crop-marks revealed through air photography; pottery-scatters through field-survey; modern topographical features; etc.). It will show how we can read in the landscape changing patterns of economic exploitation, settlement and ideology. Production and exchange This topic explores the evidence for the manufacture and exchange of goods examining both production sites and the distribution patterns of archaeologically identifiable products.

Burial: belief and social status

In this topic students are invited to consider the extent to which the dead, and what is buried with them, can provide evidence of belief and social differentiation.

The built environment: form and function

By looking at both whole townscapes and individual buildings, this topic encourages the student to explore the builders’ intentions and the way that people have used the built environment.

Art and History

The goal of this Approach is to broaden the historian’s sensitivity to an infinite variety of visual evidence. In most history writing, disproportionate attention is paid to written sources: this course is designed to foster a more balanced approach. However, using visual evidence is far from simple. ‘Art’ in this context is very broadly defined, to include not merely the western canon of ‘high art’, but the entire gamut of material cultural production, and its consumption. The short bibliography can be supplemented with case-studies from different periods and places. Indeed, students should be encouraged to engage in detail with particular images – including any to be found in Oxford’s museums and galleries. While for brevity and convenience it is largely focused on western art traditions, this is not intended as any constraint on the scope of the course. The course is structured around four broad – and overlapping – themes.

Creation and consumption

The first theme relates to the social context of art: how, precisely, are the variety and changes in artistic production (styles of painting, forms of architecture, etc.) related to contemporary social developments? Consideration needs to be given not only to structures of patronage, but also to broader issues of markets and consumption.

Art and politics

The second theme includes, but extends beyond, the use of visual imagery as a form of propaganda. Images have been deployed for subversive, no less than authoritarian, purposes. Analysis often reveals a creative tension in the interpretation of an image, whose ‘true’ meaning is contested.

The power of images: ways of seeing

The third theme explores varieties of visual response. Intense emotional identification with a picture, or a violent desire to destroy a statue, are repeatedly documented phenomena. To study these responses in context is to shed new light on historical societies.

The idea of the history of art: displaying, writing and collecting

The last theme is the particularly western way in which ‘the history of art’ has been conceived. This notion has been profoundly influential (through collecting, the construction of museums, art writing and art history), and rewards study. The post-medieval European idea of ‘fine art’ is a highly particular category: to recognize it as such is to become more fully aware of the richness of a far more inclusive realm of visual culture beyond the ‘fine’ arts, both in European and non-European traditions.

Economics and History

The aim of this Approach is to introduce students to the ways in which economic models and statistical sources can be used to understand history. It encourages students to tackle the central issue of how economic development has changed the character and quality of human life and, to this end, to look at the ways in which political, social, and cultural institutions have determined long-run economic and demographic outcomes, and simultaneously been determined by them. The course takes a global perspective, with particular attention to the analysis of cross-country and cross-time differences in capital and labour market institutions and technological change, and the effects of those differences on economic and human development. In the course of these four lectures, students will be introduced to economic approaches to collecting and using quantitative historical data to identify causal links between historical factors and economic outcomes.

The Great Divergence, Living Standards and Institutions

How do economists measure economic activity and living standards?  And how do economists think about institutions and their effect on the economy? The ‘Great Divergence’ between Western Europe and Asia provides a particular focus for thinking about these general questions.

How do economists think about how humans interact with the natural environment? The ‘Malthusian model’ of population and living standards is a central theory. The recurring problem of famine raises the issues of the relative importance of nature’s constraints (scarcity, climate shocks) and human agency and institutions (markets, policies).

How do economists approach slavery? What is the significance of slavery for the broader economy? How viable is a slave-based economy? Slavery in antiquity provides one possible focus, as do the importance of slavery to the British economy, and the North American experience more generally.

How do economists define money, understand the determinants of inflation, and evaluate its consequences? Historical financial crises (e.g. Europe’s Price Revolution, the South Sea Bubble, bank runs in Depression-era America or the German hyperinflation of 1923) provide a focus for questions around the rationality or otherwise of economic behaviour, collective and individual.

History of Women, Gender and Sexuality

This Approach introduces students to the historiography of gender, women’s history and the history of sexualities and to explore the contributions these approaches have to other historical agendas. The contributions of women’s history are explored, underlining the importance of recovering the experiences of women in the past, the methodological challenges of doings so, and interrogating key concepts like patriarchy. The work of historians using gender as a category of historical analysis uncovers the degree to which masculinity and femininity are contested social categories, and the ways in which gender norms shape social, political, economic and cultural structures and processes, allowing students to look at the means by which gender and sex hierarchies are maintained and contested. Examining the history of sexuality and the body introduces students to work exploring the cultural, social and scientific categories of sexuality and gender as historically and geographically specific and malleable, and to studies highlighting the differences between laws, norms and experience.

Women, Gender, Sexuality and Work This topic looks at the ways in which men and women’s work has been differentiated, at the relationship between the social and sexual division of labour, the ways gender and race have intersected in shaping labour regimes and the definitions of ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled’ work. Students are introduced to work examining the determinants and processes of change in male and female roles in the household and workplace.

Women, Gender, Sexuality and Politics This topic examines the way the language and practice of politics, colonialism, nationalism and citizenship have been gendered. It introduces students to work contesting narrow understandings of political participation to uncover the way women have exercised political power both formally and informally, and challenged their political exclusion. The intersections of race and gender in the establishment and evolution of political structures are explored.

Women, Gender, Sexuality and the Body

This topic introduces students to scholarship exploring the history of sexuality, looking at the ways in which the sexual identities of men and women are culturally variable, and at changing understandings of the sexed body. Students are introduced to scholarship exploring the relationship between queer theory and history, and to work examining the intersections between norms and practice.

Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion

This topic explores the ways in which gender norms have been constructed and subverted by religious discourses. The variety of forms of religious expression available to men and women is discussed. The complex relationships between intellectual and religious change and the positions of women and men are assessed.

Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Empire This topic explores in more detail the way that ideas about gender have shaped the political, social, economic and cultural structures of empire, and the ways that policing gender and reproduction have been important tools of empire and domination. It highlights the intersections of ideas about gender and race in imperialism and colonialism.

Sociology and History

The aim of this Approach is to introduce students to the discipline of sociology, to explore ways in which sociological method has influenced historians, and to look at ways in which sociology and history over the years have diverged or converged. Students are introduced to the discipline of sociology as the study of man as a social animal, shaped by social institutions but at the same time able to construct or reconstruct them. How much scope different sociologists give to the individual and human agency is discussed. The course is organized around four broad themes.

Sociological techniques

The approach of sociology to sources, concepts, the comparative method and ‘grand theory’ is compared to that of historians, and examples from the hybrid of historical sociology are examined. The traffic is not all one way and the appeal to some sociologists of the narrative and biographical approach is also illustrated.

Social stratification

This topic introduces students to the sociological theories of social stratification, especially those of Marx on class and Weber on social status, and examines how they have set the agenda for much social history. It also explores how such concepts have lost some of their explanatory force and how historians have refined them in new and exciting ways.

Power and authority

This topic examines ways in which sociologists have conceptualized the state and political institutions and at how they have analysed political obedience in terms of power (coercion) and authority (the recognition of legitimacy). It explores different notions of power developed by theorists such as Foucault, and ideas of bureaucracy, social discipline, revolt and revolution. Ways in which historians have used or developed these ideas are discussed.

Sociology and religion

This topic examines ways in which religion has been treated by sociologists. It looks in particular at the concept of the secularization of modern society, both as a debate among sociologists of religion and as a research question for historians who have refined and challenged the theory in the light of empirical evidence.

Histories of Race

This Approach enables students to look at both the historiography of histories of race and ethnicity and at the contribution this large body of scholarship has made to other historical agendas and methodologies. Work on the histories of race and racialised people are evaluated while each topic explores the potential of treating race as a category of analysis in historical work more broadly. This strand allows students to explore how knowledge about race has been historically produced, how racialised political, economic, and social structures have been historically sustained, and how racialised systems have been contested, resisted, and subverted. The methodological challenges faced by scholars writing histories of racialised, colonialised, and marginalised peoples are explored and the contribution of other disciplines – including gender studies, anthropology, and the history of science and medicine – are also assessed. Examples span classical antiquity to the twentieth century.

Race as a category of historical analysis

What do historians mean when they employ the term “race”? This topic assesses important discussions surrounding the use of race as an analytical category, including debates on the applicability of race to premodern periods. The topic also introduces scholarship on the relationship between race and other categories of historical analysis, including gender, class, and religion.

Race, labour, and law

This topic looks at the ways in which race and racial theories have arisen from – and in turn helped to sustain and legitimate – a variety of labour regimes and legal and penal systems in the past. Particular attention will be paid to scholarship on slavery in the Atlantic world but readings will be drawn from across different parts of the world and across time periods.

Racial theories in the past  

This topic surveys the ways in which people and societies have conceptualised race and racial difference since classical antiquity, and the forms of classification and ordering that have ensued. This topic will ask how and why certain racial theories have been intellectually, politically, socially, and culturally influential in the past.

Recovering voices

This topic introduces key strategies for uncovering and writing about the histories of people who have been silenced in traditional historical records. As well as evaluating influential methodological interventions, including the work of postcolonialism, this topic will draw attention to some of the newest and most innovative attempts to write histories of historically marginalised people.

Challenging race

This topic centres histories of resistance, antiracism, and racial solidarity movements. In so doing, this topic asks to what extent attention to race can produce histories that challenge our conventional chronological and geographic frameworks. 

Historiography

Tacitus to weber.

Historians commonly approach the study of historical writing in two quite distinct ways: either by study of the techniques which we hold to be immediately relevant today, or by looking at the “history of history”, as for example by focussing on classic texts in Western historical writing. This paper takes the second road. Its principal agenda are as follows:

• The close reading of texts which really will bear close reading — reading being still the most fundamental of all historical “methods”.
• Consideration of central problems which affect all historical writing: the scope and proper subject matter of history; historical objectivity; the interrelation between the author’s past and present; the relation of literature to history; the question of whether there is a “Whiggish” progression in historical writing, so that modern writing is necessarily better than that of earlier periods; and (not least) why we should bother with history at all.
• The outlines of how the Western historical tradition has evolved in fact.

Those writers considered are Tacitus, Augustine, Machiavelli, Gibbon, Ranke, Macaulay, Weber

Foreign Texts (Texts in a Foreign Language)

HERODOTUS, V. 26 - VI. 131 to be read in Greek, ed. C. Hude (Oxford Classical Texts, 3rd edn., 1927)

The central part of Herodotus’ Histories studied in this paper analyses the causes and course of the Ionian Revolt and the first Persian invasion of Greece, which ended in defeat at the hands of the Athenians and Plataeans on the plain of Marathon in 490 BC. Included in Herodotus’ account of these events, however, is also his account of the circumstances in which Kleisthenes got the constitutional reforms which created democracy passed at Athens, a long speech on tyranny at Corinth, and much discussion of internal politics at Sparta and of Spartan foreign policy during the reign of King Kleomenes (c.520-c.490).

Herodotus’ text is our major source for all these events, and our understanding of them depends upon an understanding of Herodotus’ sources and his historical methods. By close study of the way in which Herodotus tells his story, making comparison where possible with evidence contemporary with the events described and with other later accounts, it is possible to understand both what Greeks of the middle of the fifth century had come to regard as the foundations of their current political arrangements, and also to assess the reliability of the traditions which Herodotus exploits. Problems concerning the nature of Athenian and Spartan politics in these years, as well as of the state of relations between Persia and Greece, for which there is also some Persian evidence, are the central historical concerns. But understanding Herodotus is important not only for our comprehension of the events of the period but for our understanding of the development of western historiography at whose head Herodotus stands.

Candidates are required to comment on gobbets set in Greek but are not required to translate Greek in the examination paper.

Einhard and Asser

EINHARD, Vita Karoli Magnis Imperatoris

ASSER, De Rebus Gestis Aelfredi

The paper offers students the chance to engage with two of the most famous Latin texts of the early middle ages: Einhard’s biography of Charlemagne and Asser’s of Alfred.

These texts bring the student face to face with the nature of early medieval kingship and, more specifically, with two momentous transformations in European and British history. From whatever angle we look at the Carolingian and Alfredian ages, the Emperor Charlemagne and King Alfred emerge as great instigators in the process by which military greed and opportunism were wrought into new political, religious and literary cultures.

Einhard’s Vita Karoli (written within a decade or two of Charlemagne's death in 814) and Asser’s De Rebus Gestis Aelfredi (written in the 890s during Alfred’s lifetime) are the preeminent texts by which these transformations were captured. Both authors were alive to the achievements of their subjects and to the attitudes and aspirations of their times. Moreover as learned scholars and powerful figures in their own right they also had their own agendas. Despite the brevity of Einhard’s Vita (a mere 40 pages in Penguin) every phrase bristles with undertones and allusions; the extent of Einhard’s debt to classical writers and the significance of what he does and does not say have continued to generate enormous scholarly attention and debate.

By closely focusing on these works and their interpretation students can gain experience and practice of how to approach primary sources at the start of their Oxford careers, thereby acquiring a skill which will prove invaluable for their work on subsequent papers. Passages from the texts are set in Latin for detailed comment but the modest length of the texts means that students with basic Latin should have little difficulty coping with them. Students studying this paper may attend the Latin reading classes offered for graduate students (subject to the agreement of the tutor concerned).

Helpful translations are readily available (the Penguin Classics: Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne, trans., L. Thorpe and Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred and other Contemporary Sources, trans., S. Keynes & M. Lapidge).

Tocqueville

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution

Tocqueville’s L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution, first published in 1856, is one of the most famous accounts of the origins of the French Revolution ever written. Noted for its wide-ranging and subtle analysis of the government, society and culture of eighteenth-century France, it has always been an essential point of departure for any student working on the Revolution, admired not so much as a piece of historical research but as a brilliant study of political economy. Moreover, the text is more than just a study of the causes of the French Revolution. Written in the aftermath of the coup d’état of Napoleon III in 1851, it was intended as an oeuvre à thèse, which would explain to contemporary mid-nineteenthcentury Frenchmen their failure to establish a permanent liberal democracy.

Traditionally L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution is taught by a wide cross-section of college tutors. Students will be introduced to the complexity of Tocqueville’s argument, in particular his conception of the centralised French absolute state, his views on the genesis and significance of class conflict, and his understanding of the role of the Enlightenment in causing the French Revolution. Beyond this, there are various way in which the text may be placed in a wider context. Students may examine the historiography of the causes of the French Revolution in order to compare and contrast Tocqueville’s analysis with earlier and subsequent explanations. They may seek a deeper understanding of the more recent historiography of eighteenth-century France to see how Tocqueville’s vision has been refined or challenged. Finally they may re-examine the text in the light of Tocqueville’s own intellectual development and political career.

The course is intended to give students the opportunity to develop their reading ability in the French language, and in the first term at least they should expect to spend much of the time getting to know the text in the original. It also enables students to get to grips with an extremely rich and influential work of history that will give them a graphic insight into the problems of historical method and the historian’s craft. 

Meinecke and Kehr

FRIEDRICH MEINECKE, Die Deutsche Katastrophe: Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen (Wiesbaden, 1949) pp. 5-104.

ECKART KEHR, Der Primat der Innenpolitik: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur preussisch-deutschen Sozialgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Berlin 1970) pp. 87-129, 149-83.

This paper is intended to introduce German-reading undergraduates to two of the most influential twentieth-century historians of modern Germany: Eckart Kehr and Friedrich Meinecke.

Each made a distinctive contribution to the development of modern German historiography: Meinecke was perhaps the most influential of all the later historicists and Kehr was an inspiration to the so-called critical school of social history, whose emphasis on the primacy of socio-economic factors in politics has informed an immense literature since he was ‘rediscovered’ by Hans-Ulrich Wehler in the 1960s.

The set passages of the two authors not only give students a flavour of their methodology, but also introduce some of the key historical debates which relate to the period 1870-1945. In general, the paper provides an introduction to the continuing debate on the ‘peculiarity’ of modern German history and allows students to become familiar with the so-called Sonderweg (‘special path’) theory. 

Machiavelli

MACHIAVELLI, Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, Bk I

Machiavelli’s reputation as an advocate of ruthless and unscrupulous politics does serious injustice to the richness, generosity and subtlety of his political thought. The Discourses on Livy (written c. 1513- 1519) reveal these latter qualities well. They provide an indispensable corrective to the familiar picture found in his better-known treatise The Prince. In the Discourses Machiavelli uses historical examples from ancient and modern times to illustrate the ways in which rulers and people habitually behave in the political life of republics and kingdoms. He asserts his belief that history can be used by citizens and statesmen to build up the kind of ‘case-lore’ already utilized in the practice of medicine and of law.

The text is a powerful and attractive example of Renaissance historical writing and at the same time an introduction to the Florentine genre of critical political analysis. Classical stories are set to work by Machiavelli to teach his fellow-Florentines how to rescue their city from the disasters which beset it in his day and how to capture for themselves by emulation something of the glory of Republican Rome.

A capacity to read straightforward material in present-day Italian will be enough to enable candidates to cope with the language in which this text is written. Any modern Italian edition will suffice: those published by Rizzoli, Feltrinelli and Einaudi have good introductions and notes. Machiavelli’s The Prince should certainly also be read; the best recent edition in English is that by Quentin Skinner and Russell Price in the series Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (1988). 

Vicens Vives

Vicens Vives JAIME VICENS VIVES, Aproximación a la historia de España Vicens Vives’s Aproximación a la historia de España, first published in 1952, is one of the most important reflections on the history of Spain never written. Relatively short, this text is not a synthesis but more of an innovative recapitulation of the main historiographical problems of Spain’s past from ancient times to the outbreak of the Civil War (1936). Written in a time of dictatorship, instead of pursuing the metahistorical debate on the uniqueness of Spain that had held the centre stage until then, Vicens Vives’s book marked a turning point calling for the adoption of more rigorous and modern methods then dominant in the rest of Europe, above all in France.

Aproximación a la historia de España is taught through seven tutorials and four classes (or lectures, depending on the number of takers). Students will be introduced to the figure and the work of Jaime Vicens Vives (1910–1960), as well asto the complexity of his rethinking of Spanish history over the longue durée. Beyond this, there are various ways in which the Aproximación may be placed in a broader context. Students may consider the constraints on historical writing in Francoist Spain, of which Vicens Vives was an opponent despite the fact that he never abandoned the country. They will be invited to explore the main characteristics of the so-called ‘new history’ (nueva historia) that Vicens Vives inaugurated in close dialogue with the Annales school, as well as considering his wider contacts with other historians both in Spain and abroad, including Sir John Elliott. Finally, they will be asked to reflect on the legacy of Vicens Vives in regard to the historiography of Spain in the second half of the twentieth-century, as well as on the new directions that it has taken more recently.

This course is intended to give students the opportunity to develop their reading ability in the Spanish language through an accessible academic text, while acquainting them with a number of key issues in the study of the history of Spain. It will also enable students to engage with an influential work of history that will give them an insight into general problems of historical method.

Students will be asked to read the work in its entirety on the basis of the 2nd edition, or one of its many reprints: J. Vicens Vives, Aproximación a la historia de España (1960). An annotated English translation of the work is also available: J. Vicens Vives, Approaches to the history of Spain, translated and edited by J.C. Ullman, 2nd edition corrected and revised (1970).

TROTSKY 1905 pp. 1-9, 17-245 (available for purchase as a photocopy from the History Faculty Library)

A study of Trotsky’s 1905 aims to examine Trotsky’s ideas as expressed in his history and to place them within the context of Russian Marxism in general.

Issues raised by the study of the period include: the development of the Russian Social Democratic movement, the worker’s movement, the development of Russian liberalism and the part it played in the events of 1905, the nature of the Russian Imperial Government and the effect of the Russo-Japanese war on Russian society and politics, the Russian agrarian question.

There are a number of recent monographs on these subjects and the study of this period provides the opportunity to discuss many of the problems associated with the last years of the Russian autocracy. 

Quantification

Quantification in history.

The purpose of this course is to introduce historians to the statistical exploration of historical problems. It imparts statistical skills which enable students to read and understand quantitative economic and social history research, and also to undertake elementary quantitative work on their own. The aims of the course are to:

• To provide an introduction to elementary topics in parametric and non-parametric statistics, culminating in basic regressions. No prior knowledge of statistics is assumed and A-level mathematics is not required.
• To examine computer-based historical datasets throughout the course. Additionally, students explore and evaluate the uses and limitations of quantification in history through writing two short applied essays on a secondary source of their choice that they are studying in another history class.
• To introduce students to history and computing, providing basic training in one of the most widely used statistical package in economic and social history.

Candidates will be required to show understanding of the following:

• the application and limitation of quantitative methods to historical problems
• levels of measurement and the appropriate classification and arrangement of historical data (tables, charts, graphs, histograms, etc.)
• summarizing historical facts: univariate descriptive statistics (frequency distributions, means, medians and modes, measures of dispersion, concepts of normality) 
• exploring historical relationships: bivariate descriptive statistics (correlation, measures of association including correlation coefficients, linear regression) 
• drawing inferences from historical data (sampling, distributions and confidence intervals; hypothesis testing; significance and probability, parametric and non-parametric measures of association and sample statistics; multivariate analysis)
• use of computer-based statistical packages (data entry and verification, classification and transformations, statistical manipulation, interpretation and presentation)
• Understanding basic ANOVA, and running their own basic regressions. 

Please note that the options listed above are illustrative and may be subject to change.

Teaching: Faculty lectures or classes, as well as college classes or tutorials, held over one or two terms.

Assessment: This paper is assessed with a 3-hour written examination.

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• Introduction
• Egypt and Mesopotamia
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The historian’s sources

• From explanation to interpretation
• The presentation of history

Methodology of historiography

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• Table Of Contents

This concluding section surveys contemporary historical practice and theory. As the previous section has demonstrated, there are many branches of history today, each with different kinds of evidence, particular canons of interpretation, and distinctive conventions of writing. This diversity has led some to wonder whether the term history still designates an integral body of or approach to knowledge. Although the emphasis of this article falls on what historians share, it is well to remember that deviations from these norms are always lurking.

The oldest source, oral history, is also in some ways the newest. As the emphasis of many historians has turned to social history , especially history “from the bottom up,” they have had to create their own evidence through interviews with those shut out of the documentary record. Students of Victorian England have long depended on the interviews with costermongers and other street people by Henry Mayhew , the author of London Labour and the London Poor , 4 vol. (1851–62); without these we would not know of their attitudes toward marriage and organized religion (casual for both). One of the first great collaborative efforts in oral history was the interviews with former African American slaves conducted in the 1930s by researchers working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Although anyone who could remember slavery would by then have been well over 70 years old, the subsequently published interviews nevertheless tapped a rich vein of family stories as well as personal memories. An enterprise on a similar scale is being carried out with survivors of the Holocaust ; now, however, thanks to videotaping, one can see the interviews and not merely read edited transcripts of them.

Getting permission to do an interview, and if possible to tape it, is the first task of the oral historian. Arrangements may have to be made to protect confidentiality; elaborate protocols about this have been worked out by anthropologists, which historians may emulate. People remember things that historians have no independent way of discovering; however, they also seem to remember things that did not happen or that happened quite differently. And, of course, they often fail to remember things that did happen. Correcting for the fallibility of memory is the critical task, and for this there is no substitute for preparation. An entire workweek spent preparing for a single interview is none too lavish. If the interviewer knows a good deal already, he may be able to jog or correct an otherwise recalcitrant memory or to know what is reliable and what is not. Except for the tape or video recorder , techniques for verifying oral testimony have perhaps progressed little since Thucydides .

Different techniques are required for investigating the history of peoples who adopted writing only recently. These used to be regarded as “people without history,” but historians are now beginning to isolate the historical content of their oral traditions. Oral epic poetry is still being performed today, in Nigeria , Serbia , and elsewhere, and studying it not only has revealed a great deal about classical epics such as the Iliad but also has shown how remarkable feats of memory could be performed by trained singers of tales, preserving the memory of historical events with much less distortion than was once suspected and recovering at least some of the early history of Africa and America.

The historian confronting written documents can also draw on a long history of criticism . Manuals for beginning historians often dwell on the problem of forged documents, but this is seldom a problem, except occasionally for the medieval historian. A spectacular exception was the alleged diary of Adolf Hitler , a forgery that temporarily deceived the distinguished British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper in 1983. A more formidable challenge is simply to read well. This sometimes starts with learning to read at all. Modern advances in deciphering codes (stimulated by World War II) enabled classicists to translate Linear B , yielding evidence about the Mycenaean language used on Crete in the 2nd millennium bce . Computerized technology promises to assist in deciphering other languages not presently understood.

A much more usual problem calls for paleography —the study of ancient or medieval handwriting. Once the handwriting styles of past epochs become familiar, anything written by a professional scribe should be legible, but one can expect the wildest variations of spelling and handwriting in personal documents. Printing stabilizes texts but also leads to a long-term decline in handwriting. The British historian Lewis Namier , (1888–1960), who owed much of his success to being able to read the execrable handwriting of the duke of Newcastle , argued that the two “sciences” the historian must know are psychoanalysis and graphology.

Reading is, of course, far more than making out the letters and words. Establishing the plain sense is only the first step; here the pitfalls are unrecognized technical language or terms of art. Also, the words may have changed their meaning since they were written. Furthermore, texts of any length are almost always metaphorical. Irony may be obvious ( Jonathan Swift ’s “A Modest Proposal” was not seriously advocating raising Irish babies for the English table), but it may also be so subtle as to escape detection (did Niccolò Machiavelli really intend that his praise for Cesare Borgia be taken seriously?). What is not said is often the most important part of a text. Historians have to establish the genre to which a document belongs in order to begin to attack these hermeneutical questions (a step they sometimes omit, to their peril). Almost all English wills in the early modern period, for example, started with a bequest of the body to the graveyard and the soul to God; omission of this might be highly significant but would be noticed only if one knew what to expect from a will. The British historian G.M. Young said that the ideal historian has read so much about the people he is writing about that he knows what they will say next—a counsel of perfection, no doubt, but a goal to aspire to.

Written documents of quite a different kind have come to prominence in social and economic history . These are administrative records of actions that individually mean little but lend themselves to aggregation over long time spans. Social history differs from sociology , it has been said, by having “long time series and bad data.” Records of dowries, baptisms, bread prices, customs receipts, or direct taxes are typical of such sources, and all of them are bad in their own way. Estimating a population by counting baptisms, for example, is hazardous if priests were negligent in keeping their registers or if the custom of baptism immediately after birth gave way to long delays between birth and baptism (giving the baby a good chance to die before the rite could be performed). Tax evasion is as ancient as taxation, and tax records as indexes of economic activity are likely to measure instead the fluctuation of mercantile honesty or effective law enforcement, not to mention the ever-present possibility that the records were poorly compiled or preserved. Cost-of-living figures are particularly difficult to compute even today and were more so in earlier periods. Records of prices paid usually come from institutions and may not be typical of what individuals bought, especially since they usually did not have to buy everything they ate or used. On the other hand, their wage rates cannot simply be multiplied by the number of hours or days in the working year, since they were seldom lucky enough not to be laid off seasonally or during recessions.

Even if historians find the evidence solid, records like this are usually too numerous not to require sampling, and drawing a truly random sample of historical records is much more complex than when doing survey research. Handbooks of statistics do not always reflect this fact. Nobody would think of undertaking a quantitative study nowadays without a computer (although desk calculators are quite adequate for some projects), and this raises a further difficulty insofar as historical records usually vary so much in terminology that they have to be encoded for computer use. Coding conventions are themselves interpretations, and few quantitative historians have never had occasion to curse themselves for premature or inconsistent coding. There is no foolproof remedy against this, but providing a database and a copy of coding conventions has become the recommended practice to enable other historians to evaluate the work.

Handbooks of historical method at the end of the 19th century assured students that if they mastered the interpretation of written documents, they would have done everything required to be a historian. “No documents, no history,” one said. In this century the notion of a document has been enormously expanded so that any artifact surviving from the past can serve as the answer to some historian’s question. Aerial photography, for example, can reveal settlement patterns long since buried. Napoleon ’s hair can be examined to see whether he died a natural death or was poisoned; analysis of Newton’s hair showed that he was an alchemist. The architecture along Vienna’s Ringstrasse can be construed as revealing the ambitions of the liberal bourgeoisie . The history of sexuality cannot be written without the history of clothing—even the nudes in classical paintings pose in postures influenced by the clothes they are not wearing. Indeed, the ordinary things of all kinds to be found in a folk museum are one of the best sources for the everyday life of people in the past.

Artifacts do not usually tell their own stories. When written documents can be juxtaposed to them, the results are more illuminating than either can be by themselves. Unfortunately, virtually the whole training of historians is devoted to reading written texts, so that skill is hypertrophied, while the ability to interpret material objects is underdeveloped. When historians can, for example, accurately describe how the machines of the early Industrial Revolution really worked, they will have met this challenge—which is, of course, a challenge to know almost everything.

Historians today benefit from much more integrated and comprehensive archival and library systems than existed in previous centuries. The state papers of the United States , for example, were not in usable condition in 1933. Thanks again in part to the efforts of WPA workers, great improvements were made in cataloguing and preservation; now a new archive building in suburban Maryland has been built to cope with the tide of documents produced by the U.S. government. The same step has been taken in Britain , and both Britain and France have new national libraries. Less spectacular, but invaluable to many historians, are the local historical societies, county record offices, and the like, which have been established in many countries. These have allowed the collection and preservation of documents that originated in a great variety of places—churches, courts, city and county governments, legal offices, and collections of letters. One of the remarkable developments of the period since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 has been the widespread sale of public and private records to Western collectors. Libraries such as Yale or the Hoover Institution (at Stanford University) are now in many ways better places to study the Soviet period than any in Russia, and if one can fault the failure of the Russian government to pay its librarians and the wild capitalism of the new Russia for dispersing these treasures, at least they will be safely preserved. They have already answered many questions about how the Soviet Union was run.

The proliferation of libraries and archives illustrates what is in some ways the greatest difficulty with regard to modern sources—there are too many of them. Most discussions of historiography focus on how historians tease out the exiguous meanings of documents when they are very scarce. The problem facing the historian of the 19th century and even more of the 20th is how to cope with the vast array sources open to him. Computers and the Internet have vastly enhanced the speed with which printed sources can be searched—titles of all the books in all the major Western libraries are online—but the historian must know a great many descriptors to do a reasonable subject search. Furthermore, the Internet has brought as much misinformation as information, if not more.

In the 16th and 17th centuries it was taken for granted that the historian would work alone and would usually own many of his books. The library of Göttingen, the pride of 18th-century Germany, would be small even for a new university or a modest liberal-arts college today. Great reputations could be made in the 19th century for the discovery of a new archive (such as Ranke’s discovery of the Venetian relazioni ). Nothing like this could possibly happen today, yet such is the conservatism of the historical profession that the model is still the single scholar exhausting the archives. The archives for modern history are inexhaustible, and collaboratively written works, already becoming somewhat common, will almost certainly have to become even more so if historians are to meet their traditional goals of comprehensive research.

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1 Historiographic Approaches

• Published: September 2008
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This chapter discusses a range of classical and contemporary historiographic approaches to social work and social welfare history research. These include empirical or descriptive historiography, social historiography, cultural historiography; feminist, gender-based, and queer historiography, postmodern historiography, Marxist historiography, and quantitative historiography.

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Research Methodologies for the Creative Arts & Humanities: Historical research

Historical research.

Definition:

“ Historical method refers to the use of primary historical data to answer a question. Because the nature of the data depends on the question being asked, data may include demographic records, such as birth and death certificates; newspapers articles; letters and diaries; government records; or even architectural drawings.

The use of historical data poses several broad questions:

1. Are the data appropriate to the theoretical question being posed?

2. How were these data originally collected, or what meanings were embedded in them at the time of collection?

3. How should these data be interpreted, or what meanings do these data hold now?"

See Tuchman: The historical method (2004)

• Moore, T. Australia's Bohemian tradition (2010)
• Goodall, H. A history of aboriginal communities in N.S.W., 1909-1939 (2007)
• Kuskens, G. The grandest improvement in the country... (2006)

ECU Library Resources - Historical Research

• The critical historian
• Deconstructing history
• The discourse of musicology
• Empirical musicology: aims, methods, prospects
• Fact and relevance : essays on historical method
• Fortunes of history
• Framing public memory
• The historian as detective : essays on evidence
• The historical method of Herodotus
• Modern methods for musicology
• On "what is history?"
• Research methods for history
• Historical Research Method Library Guide

Further Reading

• Evidence and proof in documentary research
• Historical Methods
• << Previous: Grounded theory research
• Next: Longitudinal analysis >>
• Action Research
• Case studies
• Constructivism
• Constructivist grounded theory
• Content analysis
• Critical discourse analysis
• Ethnographic research
• Focus groups research
• Grounded theory research
• Historical research
• Longitudinal analysis
• Life histories/ autobiographies
• Media Analysis
• Mixed methodology
• Narrative inquiry research method
• Other related creative arts research methodologies
• Participant observation research
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• Social constructivism
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• Theses, Books & eBooks
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• Last Updated: May 23, 2024 10:35 AM
• URL: https://ecu.au.libguides.com/research-methodologies-creative-arts-humanities

Edith Cowan University acknowledges and respects the Noongar people, who are the traditional custodians of the land upon which its campuses stand and its programs operate. In particular ECU pays its respects to the Elders, past and present, of the Noongar people, and embrace their culture, wisdom and knowledge.

HIST 290 Historical Methods & Theory

"balancing" the history scales, history scholarship vs. history propogands, primary sources, secondary sources, grey area sources.

• Acknowledgement
• Finding Books & Videos
• Finding Articles
• Historiographical Essays
• Citing Sources This link opens in a new window
• Need Help? Ask a Librarian This link opens in a new window

Your Librarian

A  primary source  is first hand evidence. It was there at the time of an event.

A  primary source  is contemporary to the period being studied.

Examples  of primary sources are: speeches, letters, comics/cartoons, songs, legislation, court decisions, journals/diaries, interviews, artifacts, autobiographies, statistics, experiments, and photographs.

Secondary sources interpret original documents and give you background information about the topic you want to research.

Examples of secondary sources are: articles, dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks and books that interpret or review research works.

Sometimes secondary sources can become primary sources. It all depends on how you are using the source.

If you use the source as supporting material for your argument and you are not interpreting the author's intentions or societal influences, it is a secondary source. However, if you use the source as an example for your argument and are interpreting the material, it is a primary source.

For example, if you are doing research on the current economic crisis and you are using newspaper articles to cite what the situation is (such as the banks declaring bankruptcy, unemployment, etc.), the articles are secondary sources. On the other hand, if you are doing research on the economic crisis in the 1930s and discussing the climate of the time, the articles become primary sources.

Common grey areas of historic research include:

• Newspapers/Magazines
• Encyclopedias
• History Texts

All materials from: Historiography: Ramapo College,   https://libguides.ramapo.edu/HIST201rice

• Next: Finding Books & Videos >>
• Last Updated: Aug 28, 2024 3:23 PM
• URL: https://library.mcla.edu/historiography

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries
• Library Research Guide for the History of Science
• Research Methods
• Newsletter September 2024

HS 303b Research Methods and Practices in the History of Science

• HOLLIS (and other) Catalogs

Finding Primary Sources Online

• Outline of Primary Sources for History
• Background/Context
• Bibliographies

Secondary Sources

• Digital Libraries/Collections
• Public Health Reports
• League of Nations/WHO
• Personal Writings/Oral History

Archives and Manuscripts

• Images & Film
• Harvard Collections
• Countway Library
• Boston-Area Repositories
• Citing Sources & Organizing Research
• Digital Collections List

About the libraries :

• 73 libraries. Widener is largest FAS library and the  primary social sciences & humanities research library. Science libraries within FAS include, Botany, Zoology and Cabot (for chemistry, hysics, geology.
• Each of the professional schools like Baker Business, Andover-Harvard Divinity (sermons as general sources, etc.), Countway Medical etc has its own library. Most med stuff overall is at med school library though there’s a good section in Widener.

38 special collections of various sorts across the libraries

History/History of Science Research Guides for Harvard Library:

• Library Research Guide for the History of Science: Introduction
• Specialized Sources for the History of Science
• Outline of primary source types
• Civil Rights

HOLLIS is Harvard's online search engine for our physical and online collections. There are two different options for searching :

• Library Catalog searches books, journals, videos, images, government documents, manuscripts, digital resources, etc. It searches the full text of archival finding aids.
• Everything searches periodical articles and a vast range of other electronic resources, some of which Harvard does not possess, plus the Library Catalog.

Books vs Articles: HOLLIS for books; for known articles.  Other databases often better for searching articles.

HOLLIS Search example

Getting Books once you’ve found they exist

Show only  –  Display  --  Harvard Direct  --  Scan&Deliver  -- Borrow Direct  --  ILL (scans of archival material :  Explained on guides ( Getting What You Need section )

You can limit to Show only: Online , BUT ):

• You can request Scan&Deliver for two chapters from a book.  Tables of contents are often included in HOLLIS records, in Google Books, Amazon Look Inside, or can be requested via Scan&Deliver
• Journals and some book series are not linked from HOLLIS, so check HathiTrust directly.
• Full text may be available outside of HOLLIS/HathiTrust .

Background & Context

Reference entries: HOLLIS Everything Advanced Search: topic as Title, Refine to Resource Type: Reference entries. Example

Whole books: Your topic AND KW: encyclopedias OR Dictionaries OR handbooks OR companion (OR must be in caps). Example

Current vs. contemporary encyclopedias :

If a word was used differently in past, helps to look at older dictionaries

Harvard E-Resources

Three ways to find

•  HOLLIS: Sources (Bottom of Refine Your Search column on results page)
•   HOLLIS Databases
• Harvard Library research guides

Secondary Sources pages of History of Science & History guides

Four major databases for secondary sources:

• America History & Life covers US and Canada from prehistory to the present.
•  Both offer era/date limitations as well as publication date limitations, Can usually use LC terms, not always
• HSTM is made up of four separate indexes with four different subject term systems. Note results of keyword searches to be sure that you know the proper subject terms for your topic in each of the relevant component databases. 
• If you want to limit the coverage of your sources to a particular era, put one of these terms in a search box: Antiquity or Ancient - “Greek and Roman” - “Middle Ages” or Medieval - 13th  century - 14th century - 15th century - 16th century - 17th century - 18th century - 19th century - 20th century
• Pubmed (1946- ) is the largest index of medical literature.  Can limit to historical articles

Types of Primary Sources - Outline of general historical primary sources with links to  research guides and sample HOLLIS searches

Finding Articles

For history of science, HOLLIS Everything good for known items, books and book reviews. Better off in other places for articles.

Periodical types

• General  (Scientific/Medical periodicals)
• Specialized  (Science, Medicine, Technology)
• Other professional/disciplinary
• Popular (Magazines)

PubMed 1946- .

MESH (Example: for shell shock use Combat disorders)

               Index Catalogue pre 1946 (some overlap)     We have instructions

Mainly for full text searching and for finding early articles. 

You can search the "Notes and News" sections of journals (Science is especially rich in this material) in JSTOR. Also Recent Literature sections (e.g., Recent Literature section in American Journal of Sociology)

• Choose <Search JSTOR>
• Choose <Advanced Search>
• Enter desired journal or expand journal list and select
• At <Narrow by: Item type, check <Miscellaneous>

Notes & News sections are sometimes dropped from other databases.

Search: Curie  1921-1922 in Science

Web of science Science, 1900- ; Social Science, 1900- ; Arts/Humanities, 1975- .

Cited Reference search:   Forbes sa 1887-1925

Use to revivify old bibliographies

Archives sections in history of science guides will lead to special collections within and outside Harvard

Other Boston area repositories

General  Guide

If you can specify exactly what you want ILL and obtain the cost from the repository, ILL will chip in $$ for scanning.  Do a request for scanning an article and put the info in the notes field; this opens the negotiation

Many US government documents in HathiTrust

WorldCat (the OCLC Union Catalog).

A collective catalog holding records from over 75,000 libraries worldwide but largely U.S. Includes books, periodicals, archives and manuscripts, maps, videotapes, computer readable files, etc. Includes Boston-area libraries.  Importance :

• 1. Subject searching beyond Harvard.
• 2. Clues for finding items in the HOLLIS Catalog, e.g., unanalysed series.
• 3. Finding non-Harvard books locally. No ILL for periodical volumes
• 4. Verifying references for InterLibrary Loan. Give them the Accession no. at the bottom of the record

Subject Bibliographies

Look for specialized subject bibliographies in the HOLLIS Library Catalog: <ornithology [Keyword search] and bibliography [Subject search]>. On Advanced Search screen.

“Bibliography” has to be Subject search)

Also many online. Listed in guides, especially Specialized HistSci

Other Research Guides

Harvard guides

Google Advanced Search

• All of these words: Library [Your topic keywords)
• Phrase (if needed)
• Any of these words: guide research resources
• Domain: edu

Digital Libraries

Harvard Library E-Resources

HathiTrust and Internet Archive

HathiTrust Advanced Full Text search -- Sample: “lake as a microcosm”   See its citation history.

General and historical digital libraries   --  History of Science digital libraries

DPLA and state lists

Biographical Sources

Biographical sections on history of science guides.There is a separate guide for general biography  

World Biographical Information System

Specialized sources guide has regular biographical section for various disciplines

Citation and Research Management Tools at Harvard:

• Comparisons, recommended tools, help getting started
• Upcoming citation tool basics workshops
• Help form: connects you with librarians who provide citation tool instruction for answers and one-on-one assistance.
• Fred Burchsted, ([email protected]) Research Librarian and Liaison to the Department of the History of Science, Widener Library.
• Emily Bell ([email protected]) Research Librarian and Liaison to the Department of the History of Science, Lamont Library.
• << Previous: Newsletter September 2024
• Next: HOLLIS (and other) Catalogs >>
• Last Updated: Sep 13, 2024 4:22 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/histsci

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Faculty of Philosophy Historical Methodology

Students of historical methodology explore historical records and sources of various different types. The degree programme prepares them for the complex and challenging task of conducting fundamental and contemporary research across historical disciplines.

Auxiliary, or methodological historical sciences are those disciplines and methods which help historians evaluate and analyse historical source materials. The most commonly recognised historical methodologies include: Palaeography (study of historical handwriting), diplomatics, the study of documents, records and archives, chronology (establishing the dates of past events), the study of publications, epigraphy (study of ancient inscriptions). genealogy (study of individuals and families), historical geography, heraldry (study of weapons), codicology (the study of handwritten documents), numismatics (the study of coins), sphragistics (study of seals), and the study of new media (historical E-literacy).

Special Features and Characteristics

Long-term cooperation agreements mean that representatives from numerous important cultural and scientific institutions in Heidelberg, in the region, and across the federal state, are regularly involved in the courses offered across the degree programme. Such actors play a critical role in ensuring that specialist topics with relevance to professional practice are integrated in teaching and learning. Such institutions include the University Library and the University Archives, the Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg. Further afield, across the region and state more widely, the department collaborates with the Worms town archive, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe and the UNESCO world heritage site, Kloster Lorsch. Beyond this, the department collaborates with the German Historical Institute Paris. Students are strongly encouraged to complete work placements during the course in order to gain insight into potential areas of employment. Students are also given the opportunity to develop their practical skills by participating in various field trips.

International research and access to high quality research literature is essential for the effective study of historical methodologies. Students are therefore advised to spend a semester or a year abroad during the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology. This is not, however, a compulsory component of the academic programme. The exchange programmes organised by the Department of History (e.g. Erasmus programmes, European Liberal Arts Network) supports students should they wish to study abroad. Heidelberg University cooperates with a number of universities across the world at which students might spend a period of study. Lectures and courses attended abroad, and any credits gained, may be recognised by the Department.

• Department of History (DE)

The targeted focus on research throughout the course ensures that students of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology become familiar with the basic principles of carrying out independent, academic work. The course is enriched and informed by the experiences of researchers in the specialist research unit 933, “material text cultures”. Lectures and seminars resulting from projects conducted at the Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage (HCCH) also form part of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology. 

Heidelberg University focusses on research in the following areas: 

• Paleography and codicology 
• Diplomatics

Occupational Areas

Graduates of the Bachelor’s degree programme in Historical Methodology are qualified to work independently in a range of sectors, or to continue on to study at Master’s level. Graduates might pursue a career in any of the following fields: 

• archiving 
• historical museums and exhibitions 
• universities and research institutes 
• adult education and continuing education 
• media and communications 
• cultural institutions 
• publishing and libraries 
• journalism and specialist journalism 
• academic work 
• administration and public service 

Many of these fields require students to complete a Master’s degree programme before entering employment. Certain professions require that students gain a doctorate. The Master’s degree programme is therefore designed to meet the needs of students looking to apply for doctoral study, as well as those wishing to enter employment.

Degree variants

Bachelor 25%

I am particularly interested in working with original source material that, at first glance, do not always appear to be comprehensible or even legible. The academic programme in Historical Methodology conveys the necessary skills and knowledge to appropriately deal with records and inscriptions.

Lena von den Driesch, 25, Historical Methodology, 5th semester Bachelor

Further Interesting Subjects

Global History

Latin / Classical Philology

Medieval Studies