Master History Pages

"Historiography is concerned with historical interpretations and representations of the past - put another way, the writing of history as opposed to history itself."

"Historiography." The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Ed. Lisa M. Given. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008. 399-400. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.  

To find background on the historiography in a certain area of history--including discussion on the major schools of thought and key historians--it can be helpful to consult reference books such as specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Gale Virtual Reference Library is one powerful tool for this. A search for historiography along with a keyword related to a certain area of history--for example, historiography and "American Revolution"--will find relevant entries from reference books.

If your first search for a historical topic is unsuccessful, try browsing instead:
- Search for historiography;
- after the results are displayed, look in the left side-bar for the heading Subjects;
- click the View More link;
- (note that the Subject list shows narrower subject options each time you click on a subject;)
- browse the list of subjects for a relevant concept and click on it to see reference book entries.

Once you identify a promising entry on a topic's historiography:
- read the entry's sub-headings;
- these often reflect major periods or schools of thought in the historical writing on this topic;
- each sections will then explain the perspective used in that school;
- usually it will name the most important or representative historians that wrote in that school.

Other useful tools for digging into reference works include Oxford Reference Online and Reference Universe. You can also search the SHSU library catalog, for books and ebooks that cover the historiography of different areas of History.