Research Guides: HIST 3372 / HIST 5380: Historiography: Find the Historiography of a Topic

Historiography: Specific Topics

Below is just a small sampling of the historiographical topics you can find in the SHSU Library; just click a link to see books on that topic.

To explore additional topics:
To explore additional topics (broader, narrower, or entirely different than those below), follow these steps: Open the library catalog; click "Exact Search" in the blue toolbar; type Historiography; and click "subject." A list of topics will be displayed; use the Backward and Forward buttons in the blue toolbar to browse, then click on a subject to view a list of books.

"Interpreting American History" Series from Kent State University Press

Each work in this series presents historiographic essays centered around the book's theme or area of focus, addressing all major schools of historical writing and thought on the topic.

The New Deal and the Great Depression by Aaron D. Purcell, ed.
Call Number: E806 .N4146 2014, 4th floor

Historians have argued that the New Deal went too far, that it did not go far enough, that it created more problems than it solved, and even that its shaky foundations are the reason for the economic and social instability of the Great Recession of the early twenty-first century. The contributors to this volume explore how historians have judged the nature, effects, and outcomes of the New Deal. The New Deal and the Great Depression introduces readers to this important period by examining the major historical debates that surround the 1930s and provides a succinct and indispensable historiographic overview.
The Age of Andrew Jackson by Brian Dallas McKnight & James Scott Humphreys, ed.
Call Number: E381 .I58 2011, 4th floor

Experts on Jacksonian America address the changing views of historians over the past century on a watershed era in U.S. history. A two-term president of the United States, Jackson was a powerful leader who widened constitutional boundaries on the presidency, shaping policy himself instead of deferring to the wishes of Congress. Interpreting American History: The Age of Andrew Jackson will acquaint readers with the nineteenth century world of Andrew Jackson and the ways in which historians have interpreted his life and times.
Reconstruction
Call Number: Available Soon!

In topically arranged historiographical essays, eight historians focus on the changing interpretations of Reconstruction from the so-called Dunning School of the early twentieth century to the "revisionists" of the World War II era, the "postrevisionists" of the Vietnam era, and the most current "post-postrevisionists" writing on Reconstruction today. The essays treat the two main chronological periods of Reconstruction history, Presidential and Radical Reconstruction, and provide coverage of emancipation and race, national politics, intellectual life and historical memory, gender and labor, and Reconstruction's transnational history.
The New South
Call Number: Available Soon!
The concept of the "New South" has elicited fierce debate among historians since the mid-twentieth century. At the heart of the argument is the question of whether the post-Civil War South transformed itself into something genuinely new or simply held firm to patterns of life established before 1861. The South did change in significant ways after the Civil War ended, but many of its enduring trademarks, the most prominent being white supremacy, remained constant well into the twentieth century. Scholars have yet to meet the vexing challenge of proving or disproving the existence of a New South. Even in the twenty-first century, amid the South's sprawling cities, expanding suburbia, and high-tech environment, vestiges of the Old South remain. Bringing order out of the voluminous canon of writing on the New South poses a challenge. The essays here trace the lineaments of historical debate on the most important questions related to the South's history since 1865 and how that argument has changed over time as modernity descended on Dixie. Interpreting American History: The New South consists of essays written by noted scholars that address topics relating to the New South, such as the Populist era, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement, and emerging fields such as Reconstruction in a global context, New South environmental history, and southern women.

Oxford Bibliographies

Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new window These authoritative guides combine the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia in these 14 subject areas: American Literature; Art History; Atlantic History; British and Irish Literature; Childhood Studies; Cinema & Media Studies; Criminology; Education; Medieval Studies; Military History; Music; Psychology; Sociology; Victorian Literature.

If you can find a bibliography on your broad topic area, it will often include a summary of historiographical coverage and a list of sources to explore.

Search the Library Catalog

Tips for Using the Library Catalog

Click on a book's title to view more details, including (in many cases) a summary or the complete table of contents.
Always make note of a book's call number and location if you want to retrieve it.
Use the "Keep" checkbox beside books of interest to bookmark them.
Then click "Print or email kept records" in the blue toolbar to print a handy list of all the books you want to check out.
When viewing one book, click on any of its Subject Terms to see a list of more books on that subject.
When viewing a book, click the "Nearby items on shelf" link beside the title to virtually browse the bookshelf.