Historiography: Historiography

Historiography is the study of the methods and conclusions of historians concerning a specific topic.  Mastering historiography is a foundational activity of graduate education in history and related fields.  This guide provides suggestions to find already written historiographies and to gather sources to write such an original historiographical essay. The tools and suggestions here are only starting points. Please contact me if you need additional assistance. 

Historiographies are rarely published as monographs. Most are articles, essays or book chapters. One of the best methods to find this type of scholarship is via a scholarly index. The two man indexes for historical research are America, History and Life (United States and Canada) and Historical Abstracts (the rest of the world). The two keywords that retrieve this type of material are "historiograph*" (the * will return all words starting with that root) and "review essay." Enter these in one line and use the Boolean connector "or" between them. In the next line type the desired subject. If the initial search does not work, broaden the term. 

There are no journals devoted to historiography. There are a few journals that run historiographical essays frequently. For those interested in American history, Reviews in American History is always worth the effort.

The majority of historiography is published in scholarly journals.Still, it is worth searching the KU Catalog for relevant monograph sources. Use the advanced search screen to search "historiography" and the relevant subject. 

Blackwell Companions explore the historiography of various themes, eras, and/or people. The links below are to various subsets of the series. Please note that it is hard to tell from the series title what topics it includes--poke around at all the titles until you find what you need. Titles are in print and e-book formats.

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