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HIST 4900 Capstone - Orgill Fall 2024

Historiographic Essays

Writing Historiography

McLaughlin Library University of Guelph Write a Historiography

Finding historiographic essays - first steps

For topics that are of wide interest, you may be able to find an essay that reviews the literature on that topic, and that sets it in context by discussing how other historians have approached that topic. This kind of essay is invaluable when you are starting a research project. There are easy ways to find them:

If your topic is covered, check Oxford Bibliographies Online (currently, covers African Studies, Atlantic History, Medieval Studies, Military History, Classics, Criminology, Islamic Studies, Philosophy, and Renaissance and the Reformation, and many other fields)

America: History & Life
In this and many bibliographic databases, "historiography" is a Subject. For example, in AHL, to find historiography on the American Civil war, do a Subject search for:
civil war historiography

Historiography in library catalogs

When you are searching the library catalog for books on your topic, "historiography" is a useful keyword, because it is used in Library of Congress Subject Headings. For example:

  • Historiography--Great Britain.
  • United States --Politics and government --1783-1865 --Historiography.
  • World War, 1914-1918 --Historiography.
  • Europe--Historiography.

From Finding historiographic essays -- first steps by Princeton University Library https://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=84196&p=544246