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Understanding both the history of the discipline you are interested in and understanding the cultural, political, and social era of the particular text you are studying depends on reading and knowing history. History’s major activity is to gather evidence regarding the past, evaluate that evidence within the temporal scope of the period under study, and then access how that evidence contributes to our understanding of that period.
Historical research relies on a wide variety of sources, primary and secondary and oral tradition.
Found in public records or legal documents, minutes of meetings, newspapers, diaries, letters, artifacts such as posters, billboards, photographs, drawings, papers
Located in university archives or special collections, or local historical society collections or privately owned collections
Are scholarly interpretations and critiques of the historical period of interest that you are studying. In the study of modern history the difference between primary and secondary sources are usually clear. In ancient and medieval history this distinction is not so clear.
Secondhand accounts of events
Oral or written
Found in textbooks, encyclopedias, journal articles, newspapers, biographies, media such as film or tape recordings
Going to the Sources by Anthony BrundageThe updated fifth edition of Going to the Sources presents a practical guide to historical research and writing for all students of history. Focuses on the basics of historians? craft, introducing students to concepts including refining a topic, selecting sources, and engaging critically with their reading
Research Methods for History by Simon Gunn (Editor); Lucy Faire (Editor)The first guide to the sources, techniques and concepts needed for effective historical research. Research Methods for History encourages those researching the past to think creatively about the wide range of methods currently in use, to understand how these methods are used and what historical insights they can provide.
Call Number: Doheny Library: D16 .R37 2012
Publication Date: 2011-11-30
Thinking History Globally by Diego OlsteinThe book brings together many recent trends in writing history under a common framework: thinking history globally. By thinking history globally, the book explains, applies, and exemplifies the four basic strategies of analysis, the big C's: comparing, connecting, conceptualizing, and contextualizing, using twelve different branches of history.