Research Catalog

Title

The Princeton guide to historical research / Zachary M. Schrag.

Author

Schrag, Zachary M.

Publication

• Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2021]
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 411 pages : illustrations (black and white); 24 cm.

Summary

"The Princeton Guide to Historical Research provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian's craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries. Zachary Schrag begins by explaining how to ask good questions and then guides readers step-by-step through all phases of historical research, from narrowing a topic and locating sources to taking notes, crafting a narrative, and connecting one's work to existing scholarship. He shows how researchers extract knowledge from the widest range of sources, such as government documents, newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, images, interviews, and datasets. He demonstrates how to use archives and libraries, read sources critically, present claims supported by evidence, tell compelling stories, and much more. Featuring a wealth of examples that illustrate the methods used by seasoned experts, The Princeton Guide to Historical Research reveals that, however varied the subject matter and sources, historians share basic tools in their quest to understand people and the choices they made"--

Series Statement

Skills for scholars

Uniform Title

Skills for scholars (Princeton University Press)

Subject

History > Research

Genre/Form

Informational works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction: History is for everyone -- Part I: Definitions -- Defining history -- History is the study of people and the choices they made -- History is a means to understand today's world -- History combines storytelling and analysis -- History is an ongoing debate -- Historians' ethics -- Curiosity -- Accuracy -- Judgment -- Empathy -- Gratitude -- Truth -- Part II: Questions -- Asking questions -- Wonder -- Autobiography -- Everything has a history -- Narrative expansion -- From the source -- Public history -- Research agenda -- Questions -- Factual questions -- Interpretive questions -- Dialectics -- Opposing forces -- Internal contradictions -- Competing priorities -- Determining factors -- Hidden or contested meanings -- Before and after -- Dialectics create questions, not answers -- Research design -- Scope -- Copy other works -- History big and small -- Pick your people -- Add and subtract -- Narrative versus thematic schemes -- Periodization -- Beginnings -- Endings -- Pace -- The balky time machine -- Geography -- National -- Local and regional -- Transnational and global -- Comparative -- Historiography -- What is new about your approach? -- Are you working in a specific theoretical tradition? -- What have others written? -- Are others working on it? -- What might your critics say? -- Proposal -- Part III: Sources -- Sources: An introduction -- Primary versus secondary sources -- Balancing your use of secondary sources -- Sets of sources -- Sources as records of the powerful -- No source speaks for itself -- Languages and specialized reading -- Choose sources that you love -- Texts as sources -- First-person accounts -- Diaries -- Letters -- Memoirs -- Interviews -- Workaday documents -- Periodicals -- Newspapers -- Magazines -- Specialized periodicals -- Government documents -- Criminal investigations and trials -- Censuses -- Official reports -- Letters and petitions -- Institutional records -- Scholarship -- Fiction -- Words -- Big data -- Sources beyond traditional texts -- Numbers -- Maps -- Images -- Portraits -- Motion pictures and recordings -- Artifacts -- Buildings and plans -- Places -- Finding sources -- The working bibliography -- The open web -- Limits of the open web -- Bibliographic databases -- Full-text databases -- Libraries -- Oral history -- Archival research -- What is an archive? -- Archives and access -- Workings in archives -- Read the finding aid -- Follow the rules -- Work with archivists -- Research with digital photography -- Types of cameras -- How much to shoot? -- Managing expectations -- Interpreting sources -- Pattern recognition -- Worldview -- Duck, duck, goose -- Critical reading -- Agenda -- Credibility -- Nuance -- Context -- Change -- Causation -- Part IV: Projects -- Project management -- Goals of project management -- Avoid catastrophe -- Complete tasks-ideally just once, and in the right order -- Maintain momentum -- Tools of the trade -- Hardware -- Kinds of software -- Word processors -- Means of entry -- Productivity -- A good day's work -- Word count is your friend -- Managing research assistants -- Research diary -- When to stop -- Taking notes -- Goals -- Note-taking as mining -- Note-taking as assembly -- The good-enough note -- Identify the source, so you can go back and consult if needed -- Distinguish others' words and ideas from your own -- Allow sorting and retrieval of related pieces of information -- Provide the right level of detail -- Simple tools for notes -- Notebooks and index cards -- Word processors for note-taking -- Plain text and markdown -- Database software -- Reference managers -- Note-taking apps -- Relational databases -- Spreadsheets -- Specialized tools -- Timelines -- Glossaries and alphabetical lists -- Image catalogs -- Mapping -- Other specialized formats -- The working draft -- Organization -- Scale -- The foundational five-paragraph essay -- Variants: The ten- and thirty-page papers -- Introductions -- Ledes -- Thesis statement -- Historiography -- Body -- Sections -- Background -- Sections as independent essays -- Topic sentences -- Conclusions -- Answering questions -- Invisible bullet points -- The perils of policy prescriptions -- Outlines -- A model (T) outline -- Flexibility -- Part V: Stories -- Storytelling -- Characters -- Protagonists -- Antagonists -- Witnesses -- Bit players -- Chorus -- Plots -- The shape of the story -- The controlling idea -- Events -- Alchemy: Turning sources to stories -- Chronology -- Turning points -- Agones -- Resolution -- Counterfactuals -- Like a (realist) novel -- Scene -- Dialogue -- Point of view -- Symbolic details -- Combinations -- Speculation -- Style -- Words -- Is your jargon really necessary? -- Defining terms -- Word choice as analysis -- Period vocabulary or anachronism? -- Quotation -- Nontextual information -- Integrate images into your story -- Put numbers in context -- Summarize data in tables and graphs -- Citation -- Why we cite -- Citation styles -- Rhetorical devices -- Active verbs -- People as subjects -- Metaphors -- Signposting -- Questions -- First person -- Titles -- Revision -- Putting it aside -- Reverse outlining -- Auditing your word budget -- Writing for the ear -- Cuts -- Publication -- Playing with others -- Conferences -- Social media -- Coauthorship -- Peer review -- Tough, fair, and encouraging -- Manuscript and book reviews -- Print -- Journal articles -- Book chapters -- Books -- Public engagement -- Websites and social media -- Museums and historic sites -- Press appearances and op-eds -- Law and policy -- Graphic history, movies, and Broadway musicals -- Letting go.

Call Number

D16 2021

ISBN

• 9780691210964
• 0691210969
• 9780691198224
• 0691198225

LCCN

2020049221

OCLC

1201298698

Author

Schrag, Zachary M., author.

Title

The Princeton guide to historical research / Zachary M. Schrag.

Publisher

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2021]

Copyright Date

©2021

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Creator/Contributor Characteristics

Gender group: Men

Nationality/regional group: Americans

Occupational/field of activity group: University and college faculty members

Series

Skills for scholars

Skills for scholars (Princeton University Press)

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Note

AUTH: GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY. NEW SERIES.

Other Form:

Online version: Schrag, Zachary M. Princeton guide to historical research. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2021 9780691215488 (DLC) 2020049222

Research Call Number

*R-RMRR D16 2021