The
Historiography of American History
An
Exploratory Guide and Bibliography
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XVII. America's Past in Popular Memory XVIII. Historiography and What Never Happened XIX. Historians in the News |
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What is historiography?
History
is not the past, history does not stand still, history is never finished
-- it is who we are today.
From an advertisement for Reviews in American History.
Historiography is used in two senses by English-speaking historians: broadly, to refer to written history in general or to the act of writing history (historiographer is a synonym for historian, now rare); and, more narrowly, as a technical term to designate the study of the history of historical writing, methods, interpretation, and controversy (Hexter, 1967: 3). . . The second, technical meaning has grown in popularity since the early twentieth century, as appreciation for the history of historical scholarship has increased (e.g., Flint, 1874; Robinson, 1912) and professionalization has led to conflicting interpretations creatng, in turn, the need for a specialized term to designate the study of historical controversy. Harry Ritter, Dictionary of Comncepts in History (1986). p. 189. What follows focuses on this second defitintion.
Writers the most learned, the most accurate in details, and the soundest in tendency, frequently fall into a habit which can neither be cured nor pardoned -- the habit of making history into the proof of their theories. -- Lord Acton 521:8
Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research; however patient and scrupulous into special facts. Such facts may be detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as a whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in their bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of those who took part in them. He must himself be, as it were, a sharer or a spectator of the action he describes. -- Francis Parkman, "Introduction" to Pioneers of France in the New World (1865).
The historian must not try to know what is truth, if he values his honesty; for, if he cares for his truths, he is certain to falsify his facts. -- Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907), p. 31.
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son.
Truth is a totality, the sum of many overlapping partial images. History, on the other hand, sacrifieces totality in the inetrest of continutity. Edmund Leach, "Brain-Twister," New York review of Books (12 October 1967).
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In their writings about the American past, the nation's historians have identified and distinguished the American people. They have spelled out American ideals and institutions and explained how they originated and evolved. They have narrated America's collective memory. Because American historians speak from the present, every age writes a different history. But American historians have over the years shared key perspectives about their past because American society, more than many others, has rested on certain premises that have been fairly consistently held. This does not mean that there has been no significant conflicts over American principles but rather that the conflicts did not make radical changes and that, however redefined, the principles seemed to flow from one age to the next. Abraham Esienstadt, "History and Historians" in
American history has been dominated over the past century by a few great historiographic schools. The sequence of patrician, progressive, consensus, and new history forms the backbone of any treatment of American historiography. These schools of thought are peculiar to the American experience and grew up largely uninfluenced by historical wiring in the rest of the world. American historians have generally steered clear of theory and ideology as well. Emil Pocock, "Historiography," pp. 325-326 in A Readers Guide to American History
Probably the written history of few people has been so influuenced by the preent as that of Americans. As a people admittedly more tuned to the future than the past, they have, none the less, found it necessary to draw upon history to explain themselves. Carl N. Degler, "Modern American Historiography," p. 709 in The Companion to Historiography
For additional quotes with a historical focus see:
The Meaning of History: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1991. Lockwood Reference Collection D9.C37 1991. Also interesting are the "history" quotations collected in vol. 19, Social Science Quotations of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciencekwos, Locod Reference Collection H41.I6.
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Some Brief Comments
on America's Early Years
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Why is history classified as a social science?
•
Why are there historiography courses?
Perhaps the most basic historiographical discussion of recent times has focused on whether or not history is a humanity or a social science. And, as one would expect, this discussion has left important bibliographic sign posts. Another interesting historiographiocal study is the emergence of historiography as a field of study in American graduate education. And it also has a bibliographic history. All of this begs the point, because we can know things only by the "traces" they leave behind; of course there are sign posts.
Among the many ways in which it might be traced, the humnaity/socialscience discussion is traceable through the three major social science encyclopedias. It is reflected in the failed attempt of Social Science Abstracts and in the heavy social science inclusions of America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts. Earlier there had been a belief in a unified social science, but by the turn of the century a number of separate social sciences had established themselves. "This gave rise to a revised conception of history and the social sciences that history should be more than the study of past politics." All of this resulted in history being classified as a social science. The most practical manifestation of this is the placement of history departments within social science faculties. This social science movement began in Europe and its American manifestation was the New History, which flourished from 1900 to 1935. It directly led the way into the interdisciplinary history movement. By the 1950s (time of the the emergence of the contemporary social history movemenet, with its emphasis on theory and genralization) history and the social sciences had forged an enduring partnership. New History's most prominent spokesperson was historian James Harvey Robinson. In 1912 Robinson wrote, ""Each so-called science or discipline is ever and always dependent on other sciences and disciplines. It draws its life from them, and to them it owes, consciously or unconsciously, a great part of its chances of success." No less prominent a historian than Frederick Jackson Turner had argued for a broad historical orientation in 1891: ".. . no one department of social life can be understood in isolation from the others . . . all kinds of history are essential--history as politics, history as art, history as economics, history as religion--all are truly parts of society's endeavor to understand itself by understanduing its past." The concerns and orientation of the New History movement were made apparent in:
The New History: Essays Illustrating the Modern Historical Outlook (1912)
New History scholars retained a faith in the utilitarian value of research as a means to social reform and in the use of theory as a guide to inquiry. Quantification as a viable methodology after the Second World War made the comparative and even predictive power of the social sciences more attractive to historians. The emphasis was now on the application of theory to historical practice, not philosophical theories, but the testable hypotheses of the social sciences. This orientation led to pleas for increased cooperation between history and the social sciences. These pleas were made through several influential publications:
Theory and Practice
in Historical Study
(1946)
The Social Sciences
in Historical Study. [Bulletin 64.] New York: Social Sciences
Research Council, 1954. x, 181p.
Generalizations in
the Writing of History
(1963)
Members of the New History "school" were active in promoting the study of historiography. Barnes wrote: ". . . like other forms of culture, [historical writing] is truly a historical product and must be considered agianst the background of the civilization out of which it grew."
A History of Historical Writing (1937)
The push gathered force in the 1940s. In 1942 Thompson explicitly wrote his won History of Historical Writing to encourage the creation of historiography courses in American colleges and universitieis.
History of Historical
Writing
Today an appreciation of historiography is written into all levels of the curriculum. Benchmarks for Professional Development in Teaching History as a Discipline, designed to support the collaboration between k-12 teachers, professional historians, and public historians supported by the Treating American History Grants, was drafted by representatives of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the National Council for the Social Studies. Two points under the Historical Thinking Benchmarks demonstrate this concern.
The National Standrads for History. Development of the Standards was administered by the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles under the guidance of the National Center for History Standards. Funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education. Organized in parts: National Standards for History (K-4), National Standards for United States and World History (5-12). The overview of Historical Thinking requires "that students examine the interpratative nature of history, comparing, for example, alternative historical natrratives written by historians whoc have given different weight to the poltiical, social, and/or technological causes of events and ho have developed comating intertations of the significance of those events." The elaboration of the standard states:
Teaching
The Historiography of American American
Selected recent articles and books on the teaching of the historiography --not necessarily the methodlogy of history -- of American history.
Kars, Marjoleine. "History in a Grain of Sand: Teaching the Historian's Craft." Journal of American History 83, no. 4 (1997): 1340-1345.
Smth, Daniel Scott. "Noble Dream, Dead Certainties, Sophomoric Stance: Historical Objectivity for Adults." Historical Methods 26, no. 4 (1993): 183-188.
Bogue, Allan G. "Frederick Jackson Turner Reconsidered." History Teacher 27, no. 2 (1994): 95-221.
Mackey, Thomas. "It's Nolan Ryan: A Historiography Teaching Technique." History Teacher 24, no, 3 (1991): 353-356.
Taylor, Gordon. "Teaching History Students to Read: The Jefferson Scandal." History Teacher 22, no. 4 (1989): 357-374.
Drake, Frederick D. "Using Primary Sources and Historians' Interpretations in the Classroom." Teaching History: A Journal of Methods 11, no. 2 (986): 50-61.
Cassara, Ernest. "The Student as Detective: An Undergraduate Exercise in Historiographical Analysis." History Teacher 18, no. 4 (1985): 581-592.
Shenton, James P. and Robert E. Jakoubek. "Rethinking the Teaching of American History." Social Education 44, no, 6 (1980): 461-469.
Hanke, Lewis Ulysses. "American Historians and the World Today: Responsibilities and Opportunities." American Historical Review 80, no. 1 (1975): 1-20.
Goldmark, Bruce and Morris Schmieder. "Not 'History' but 'Historiography'." Social Education 31, no. 3 (1967): 201-206.
Green, Robert P., Jr. "Reconstructioin Histirography: A Source of Teaching Ideas." The Social Studies (July/August 1991): 153-157.
Teaching the Journal of American History. Paul Kramer: Empires, Exceptions
I.
Book Reviews and Historiographical Articles
On the nature of book reviews of historical texts see:
Bilhartz, Terry. "In 500 Words or Less: Academic Book Reviewing in American History." The History Teacher 17, no. 4 (August 1984): 526-536.
"What criteria do scholars use to asses "good History"; how has the criteria shifted over the past several decades; and in what ways do changes in evaluative preferencs reflect changes in the historical professions?" These are the basic questions Bihartz seeks to answer in a sample of reviews that have appeared in the Journal of American History (for earlier years, the Mississippi Historical Review). His analysis spans 30 years, the 1950s through the 1980s. From the uncritical '50s, to the more critical 60s, where quality and depth of research were prized, to the 70s when method and the application of the social sciences were applauded, to the '80s when the mere application of qualification and social science methodology alone were not enough to garner a positive review. In addition to these are other critical remarks, Bilhartz identified trends in the eras and subjects that were written about. And he concludes that ". . . the art of analyzing historical writing has undergone considerable changes over the past three decades [1950 through 1980] and that these changes often correspond with shifting patterns within the culture at large."
In scholarly journals book reviews are generally a discussion of the merits of an argument and a comparison of the text with its competitors and complementary texts. Often such a review will include a detailed description of the thesis of the work and a consideration of its methodological merits. Collecting multiple reviews of a text, presumably from journals with differing methodological and ideological approaches -- or at least foci -- often will place a text within a historiographical context. Not all reviews are equal in seriousness or in comprehensiveness, for instance, texts reviewed in The New York Review of Books (consult the catalog for current and microform availability, some online at http://www.nybooks.com/) and the The Time Literary Supplement (consult the catalog for current and microform availability, some online at http://www.the-tls.co.uk/subscribe/non_subscribers.asp) are generally given a full summary of argument or story as well as other comment. And the simple inclusion in the book review pages of some journals is -- in itself -- testimony to a work's importance -- even if a poor review is received. One can never be totally certain where a valuable review will be found, but there are likely places to look and these places are covered in the following indexes.
America: History and Life. America: History and Life indexes the literature about the history of the United States and Canada. See Historical Abstracts for indexing of world history. Citations lead to and abstracts for the contents of over 2,000 scholarly journals, dissertations, and book and media reviews from over 100 key historical journals. Also includes full text articles from The History Cooperative, Project Muse, and JSTOR. Searchable online at: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/amerhist.html
JSTOR. JSTOR (Journal STORage) presents the full text, in facsimile form, of the complete back files of important scholarly journals, generally from the first volume through issues published prior to the most recent three years. Current issues are not available in JSTOR. Among historical journals covered are: American Historical Review, American Quarterly, History and Theory, Journal of American History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Negro History, Journal of Southern History, New England Quarterly, Reviews in American History, and William and Mary Quarterly. JSTOR is continually expanding and presently covers the following disciplines: Searchable online at: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/jstor.html
Project MUSE: Project Muse provides full-text online editions of over 100 scholarly journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences that are published by The Johns Hopkins University Press and other scholarly publishers. Searchers can conduct queries across all included journals, or choose selected or individual journals. Among history journals included are: Social Science History, Reviews in American History, Journal of Women’s History, Journal of Social History, Journal of Policy History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of he History of Ideas, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Asian American Studies, Hispanic American Historical review, Ethnohistory, American Quarterly, and American Jewish History. Searchable online at: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/muse.html
Periodical Contents Index or PCI. PCI Full Text indexes over 3,000 academic and popular periodicals published from as early as 1770 to the present in the humanities and social sciences. Full-text images are available for over 100 journals. Searchable online at: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/pci.html
Philosopher's Index indexes 480 philosophy journals published in nearly 40 nations as well as books and chapters in books. A descriptor search on "historiography" retireves over 500 citations. History and Theory is among the journals indexed, but historiographical articles of a theoretical bent appear in a wide spectrum of philosophy journals not covered in either America: History and Life or Historical Abstracts. Searchable online at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/pi.html
Literature and history have always been closely aligned and literary scholars regularly use and anlayze historical events. Since literatiure cannot be fully understood outside of a variety of contexts, this is understandable. A search on "historiography," for instance, retieves over a thousand records. Among these are: Dominick LaCapra's Wriing History, Writing Trauma (Cornell, 2002), Frances Richardson Keller's Fictions of the U.S. History: A Theory and Four Illustrations (Indiana University Press, 20020, and John Ernest's Liberation Historiography: African-American Historianns before the Civil War (American Literary History, 2002 Fall). The MLA International Bibliography, which is compiled by the Modern Language Association of America, contains citations to books, journal articles and dissertations published on literature, modern languages, linguistics, and folklore. In addition to English and American literature, it also covers European, Asian, African, and Latin American literatures, published in a great diversity of languages. The database has over 1.3 million citations from more than 4,000 journals and series published worldwide.http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/mla.html
While these standard academic indices are especially useful for historians, do not neglect PA Research II and InfoTrac.OneFile Just about every index will identify book reviews and a useful guide to a wide range of book review sources is Book Reviews: A Guide to Selected Resources, available at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/Collections/docs/bkreview.html
For many years American historians were served by the recurrent bibliography Writings on American History. This resource was complemented by Recently Published Articles of the American Historical Review and the Journal of American History's Recent Scholarship. Now Recent Scholarship Online (RSO) is a searchable, cumulative database. RSO begins with the June 2000 issue of the JAH and already has more than 13,000 citations from hundreds of history-related publications. It is available for members-only. Search it at: http://www.oah.org/rs/
WAH can be useful on a variety of levels, from a simple source for finding citations to an object of study in its own right. WAH is useful historiographically because its topically classified bibliography captures work in chronological capsules under headings which themselves have changed over time.
The genesis for Writing on American History occured in a turn of the century effort to compile a bibliography of the writing of American Historical Association members. This turned out to be unsatisfactory and the Bureau of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution took over the task publishing the first volume which was composed of 6,500 titles, in 1904. It was comprised of citations to books and to articles appearing in about 300 periodicals. Citations were grouped under headings which reflected the geographical and periodizations of the time" general, geographical, and period headings. From the first, reviewers were awed by the sheer size of the task. A 1906 review of the 1903 volume noted "the impossibility of the attempt of the student of American history to keep himself abreast of his material without some such aid."
When in 1985 the 1962-1973 compilation was published, minus annotations but including citations to both books and articles, the citations categorized as "social history" and "cultural and intellectual history" exceeded all others combined. The American Historical review reviewer, Robert A. Skotheim. offers historiographical observations. He also notes that his observations may be compromised "by arbitrary and inconsistent categorization over the years." Among his observations: "between 1918 and 1954 an average of approximately 15 percent [of citations] fell into categories now considered to be cultural and intellectual history" and "Despite the movement toward social and intellectual history during 1962-73, political figures continue to dominant biographical writing."
Skotheim concludes: "Readers will turn the pages of the bibliography with an appreciation for the glacial character of historical scholarship. The peaks and valleys of revisionist interpretation by the most visible historians are flattened out by the thousands of scholars whose smaller contributions move the field monograph by monograph."
The History Teacher regularly features historiographical overviews, because these articles are written with both college and high school history teachers in mind, they are especially accessible to students. Some of the articles focus on the work of a particular historian, while others address broad historiographical concerns. Among relatively recent articles are: "African American Historiography and the Works of Benjamin Quarles" (November 1998), "The Origin of Henry Steele Commager's Activist Ideas" (February 1996), "Frederick Jackson Turner Reconsidered" (February 1994), and "The Rise of American Civilization and the Contemporary Crisis in American Historiography" (November 1992).
II.
Knowing the Historian Whose Work You Are Studying
For a very general guide to biographical sources use Biographical Information at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/cgi-test/title.cgi?sortby=subject&subject=Biographical+Information
Especially useful as an overview of American history historiography is Abraham Eisenstadt's essay "History and Historians," pp. 499-504 in The Resader's Companion to American History. This source also includes entries for: Henry Adams, George Bancroft, Charles A. Beard, Richard Hofstadter, Thomas Hutchinson, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, Frederick Jackson Turner, John Winthrop, and Carter G. Woodson.
The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, eds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1991. Lockwood Reference Collection E174.R43.1991
Encyclopedia of American Cultural & Intellectual History. Mary Kupiec Cayton, Peter W. Williams, eds. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. ? vols. Mary Kupiec Cayton, "History and the Study of the Past," pp. 721-731. vol 3. Lockwood Reference Collection E169.1.E624.2001
American thought and expression are surveyed in this source, which like the Encyclopedia of American Social History is profoundly sensitive to the value laden nature of all historical inquiry. Some of the essayists in this collection are more interested in the assumptions used to reconstruct the past than in the past itself. The editors write: "To articulate an idea or communicate through a work of art, we must always construct a way of experiencing the world: What things, drawn from the vast array of human utterance and expression are worth examining, recording, and remembering? . . . What we say, or even think to say, depends on the experience and questions we bring to our investigation." The table of contents is arranged architecturally, rather than alphabetically. Essays are signed, conclude with bibliography and are sometimes illustrated. The general headings, with a sample of the essays grouped under each, are:. Early America (Africa and America, Colonial Images of Europe and America), Revolution, Consdtitution, and the Eraly Republic to 1838 (The Transformation of American Religion, The Print Revolution), Antebellum, Civil War, and reconstuurction, 1838-1877 (Slavery and race, Slave Culture and Conciousness), Commercial and national Consolidation, 1878-1912 (Gender and Political Activism, Racialism and Racial Uplift), World War I, The 1920s, and the Great Depression (Cultural Modernism, The Athlete as Cultural Icon), World War II and the 1950s (The Design of the Familiar, The World According to Hollywood), The 1960s and 1970s (Countercultural Visions, The Discovery of the Environment), The Reagan Era to the Present (Resurgent Conservatism, Multiculturalism in Theory and Practice), Cultural Groups (Gays and Lesbians, Working Class), Major Cultural regions (The Frontier and the West, Borderlands), Urban Clusters and Other Cultural Units (New York City, Utah nd Mormonism), Nature, Human nature, and the Supernatural (Intelligence and Human Difference, Anthropology and Cultural Relativism), The Political Order (Nationalism, Social reform), The Economic order (Success, Welfare), The Social Order and Social identity (Sexuality, Class), The Pursuit and exchange of Knowledge (Medicine, Libraries), The Arts and Cultural Expression (Books, Fashion), Methods and Concepts (The History of ideas, Hermeneutics and American Historiography).
Encyclopedia of American Social History. Edited by Mary Kupiec Cayton, Elliott J. Gorn, and Peter W. Williams. New York: Scribner, 1993. 3 vols. Lockwood Reference Collection E17.A53.1993
Social historians explore the relationships between groups; they "examine how people develop the cultures and ideologies that bind them together or set them at odds." A vitally important source, this is fully appreciated by its editors and explained in its preface, that defines the most recent thrust of contemporary American historiography. This change in emphasis has led to "a new questioning about the aims and assumptions of the historical enterprise." Social historians are more concerned with ethnic groups, women, and working people than with wars, battles, and presidential administrations. The state of the art of social history is discussed in carefully crafted signed essays with bibliography under the headings: Periods of Social Change; Methods and Contexts; The Construction of Social Identity; Processes of Social Change; Space and Place; Patterns of Everyday Life; Work and Labor; Popular Culture and Recreation; Family History; Social Problems, Social Control, and Social Protest; Science, Medicine, and Technology; and Education and Literacy. The section Methods and Contexts (The Old Social History and the New; Social History in Great Britain and Continental Europe; The United States as Interpreted by Foreign Observers; Anthropological Approaches to History; Community Studies; American Social and Cultural Geography; Feminist Approaches to Social History; Racial Ideology; Modernization Theory and Its Critics; Quantification and its Critics; Marxism and Its Critics; Mentalite and the Nature of Consciousness; Oral History; Material Cultural Studies, and Poststructural Theory). The third section is also theoretically oriented, dealing "with the construction of social identity through such contributed factors as race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and region."
Companion to Historiography. Edited by Michael Bentley. Is intened as an introduction to historiography, a book to be read, not merely consulted. Essays contrbuted by distinguished scholars survey all periods and regions and approaches. "Modern American History," pp. 709-727 is contributed by Carl N. Degler. Degler shows how changes in American society resulted in significant changes in American historiography.
Encyclopedia
of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Paul Finkelman,
editor in chief. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. ?
vols. Ian Mylchreest, "History," vol. 2, pp. 25-26. Lockwood
Reference Collection E169.1.E626.2001
For another general overview
use:
A Companion to American Thought.
Richard Wightmen Fox and James T. Kloppenberg, eds. Oxford
and Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1995. Lockwood Referrence Collection
E169.1.C685.1995
The standard source for identifying information on "contemporary" authors -- many of whom are historians -- is Contemporary Authors; however, depth of coverage is uneven.
Contemporary Authors. Searchable online at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/ugl/e-resources/authors.html
For scholars working today, the best source is the newly published Directory of American Scholars. This source went many years without updating. This is a “who’s who” type of publication.
Directory of American Scholars. 2002. Lockwood Reference Collection LA2311.D57 2002
Some of the most useful extended essays on American historians and historiography are found in the sources listed below. These essays are detailed treatments, often offering bibliographic suggestions, or lists of an author's major works, and sometimes critical comment. The six citations below are for volumes published in the multi-volume Dictionary of Literary Biography. This source is also searchable as a full text online resource.
Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Full-text access to over 9,000 critical and biographical essays on British
and American authors from all eras and genres. Personal information: birth/death
dates, nationality/ethnicity, principal genres, awards, family history,
and some entries include an author portrait. Principal Works: a list of
the author's most important writings. Further Readings about the Author:
a list of additional writings, published interviews, biographies, and a
bibliography of writings about the author. Searchable at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/dlb.html
American
Historians, 1607-1865. 1984. Lockwood Reference Collection
PS128.D5 v.30
American
Historians, 1866-1912. 1986. Lockwood Reference Collection
PS128.D5 v.47
Twentieth-Century
American Historians. 1983. Lockwood Reference Collection
PS128.D5 v.17
See also:
American
Literary Biographies. 1991. Lockwood Reference Collection
PS128.D5 v.130
American
Literary Critics and Scholars, 1800-1850. 1987. Lockwood
Reference Collection PS128.D5 v.59
American
Literary Critics and Scholars. 1988. Lockwood Reference
Collection PS128.D5 v.64
Biographical dictionaries with a broad coverage, which includes American historians, are:
Great Historians from Antiquity to 1800: An International Dictionary.
1989. Lockwood Reference Collection D14.G74 1989
Great Historians of the Modern Age: An International Dictionary.
1991. Lockwood Reference Collection D14.G75 1991
The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians.
1988. Lockwood Reference Collection D14.B58 1988
A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing.
2 vols. Lockwood Reference Collection D13.G47 1998
Encyclopedia
of Historians and Historical Writing. Kelley Boyd. Chicago:
Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999. 2 vols.
More focused American
sources are:
American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary.
1996. Lockwood Reference Collection E175.45.S27 1996
Historians of the American Frontier: A Biobibliographical Sourcebook.
John R. Wunder. New York: Greenwood, 1988.
As the memories of their time, historians are important members of their societies and are always included in a nation's major biographical sets. For the United States, the most major sets are the Dictionary of American Biography and the American National Biography. Comparing the essays in each against one another can itself be an interesting historiographical exercise. Different aspects of a subject’s life are sometimes emphasized – this may be because new materials have been discovered, but also because new interpretations and concerns have emerged.
There are individuals in the DAB that are not in the ANB, but the latter work is a critical update to the earlier set. Why was a new set needed? Is this the only reason? Some of what the DAB has been accused of it purposely set out to remedy. Stated in the ANB preface, ". . . priority was given to persons, especially women and minorities, about whom new information or new ways of interpreting data had become available." Not only were old essays updated, but many individuals formerly neglected were recognized. The focus of the DAB was enlarged.
The DAB was modeled after the British NDB and was largely executed by historians. While contemporary critics have accused the DAB for it narrowness in selecting individuals for inclusion, the editorial board'sintent was quite different. "The modern age," the editor observes, "with its greater complexity and dependence upon new arts and sciences has brought into view less spectacular, and possibly less heroic but certainly not less significant. . . The currents of American life and expression have both widened and deepened."
In fact, there was real pride in its breadth of coverage. In a regular series of AHR reviews of DAB volumes (as they appeared) Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., who never contributed an essay, served as the set's conscience and critic. Regularly he noted errors, wondered about inclusion decisions, and bemoaned the excluded. All told, together these are enough to convince anyone that no reference work, no matter how august, has the final word. More interesting is Schlesinger's observation "that biographers and historians might more fruitfully devote their energies to full-length critical lives of men and women of secondary rank rather than thresh over again the familiar data concerning major historical figures."
In 1935 Schlesinger noted
the set might aid efforts of statistical analysis and collective biography
by consistently striving to include the same tuype of information in each
entry. And, many years latter, John Garrarty noted the set's failure
to consistently provide the female ancestry of a subject.
The editors demanded of all individuals included "some significant contribution, achievement, or activity, whether or not they may have been long obscured." John Garrarty, reflecting on the DAB argues that the definition of the term was more operative than explicit prejudice. And he argues that some individuals were ignored, not consciously excluded. Nonetheless, , he believes that articles on African Americans reflect the prejudices of the time in which they were written. Although it is interesting to note that W.E. B. DuBois contributed essays.
Garrarty is sensitive to the historiographical significance of the set and its essays, noting that even though some are masterpieces they nonetheless require updating because new questions are now asked and new material has appeared. Further, he observes that some DAB essays are important simply because they reflect the views of one important person on another."
Dictionary of American Biography (DAB.
1928-1958. Lockwood Reference Collection E176.D56 1964. Also
available on CD-ROM at Lockwood Reference CD-ROM E176.D554 1998
American National Biography.
1999. Lockwood Reference Collection CT213.H68 1999. It is possible
to excute an online search that will "isolate" entries for historians.
Searchable online at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/e-resources/anbio.html
The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 18, Biographical Supplememnt covers some historians. Entries are analytical and conclude with bibliography of the biographee's works and, sometimes, critical materials. Among historians covered are: Hannah Arendt, Fernand Braudel, Richard Hofstadter, and Lewis U. Hanke. Lockwood Reference Collection H41.I6.
In addition to these two major national sources, there are many biographical sets defined by gender or racial/ethnic group. Among these are Notable American Women and The Dictionary of American Negro Biography. There are also several huge aggregations of biographical dictionaries that have been preserved in microform.
There are also historiographical overviews that are insightful but easy to overlook. There are many texts in which historians reveal themselves. Such texts are the subject of Michael Dintenfass' "Crafting Historians' Lives: Autobiographical Constructions and Disciplinary Discourses after the Linguistics Turn, " The Journal of Modern History 71, no, 1 (March 1999): 150-165. Some historians, most noitably William McNeil, contend that it is important that readers know a historians background to undertsabnd how it might have influenced his writing. Dintenfass, after reviwing several of these collections, notes that artistic undertsanding is a central preoccupation of prominent historians and that honesty is ther highest concern and that love of research is a common thtread throughout all their lives. Above all, and for all, is a concern with apporaching the past ethically, "to come to the past with a clean heart"-- quoting historian Thomas D. Clark.
Some examples of this wriitng, focusing on American historians are:
Visons of History. Lockwood Book Collection D13.V57.1983b Here are found historiographical statements by William Appleman Williams, Staughton Lynd, David Montgomery, Herbert Gutman, and Vincent Harding.
Fifty Key Thinkers on History. Marnie Hughes-Warrington. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Lockwood Book Collection D13.H75.2000. Critical and interpretative summaries explain the significance of the thinker profiled. Each entry concludes with notes, a bibliography of the individuals major works, and a bibliography of commentary. Included are Frederick Jackson Turner, and Carter G. Woodson.
Reading Southern History: Essays on Interpreters and Interpretations. Edited and introduction by Glenn Feldman. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2001. Included are David Hernert Donald, C. Vann Woodward, W. J. Cash, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, V. O. Key, Jr., Charles S. Sydnor, E. Merton Coulter, Broadus Mitchell, Kenneth Stampp, David M. Potter, W. E. B. Du Bois, and John Hope Franklin.
Slavery: History and Historians. Peter J. Parish. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
Speaking of History: Conversations with Historians. Roger Adelson, editor. Michigan State University Press. Features the text of interviews with American historians Thomas D. Clark, John Demos, Gilbert C. Fite, Darlene Clark Hine, Joan M. Jensen, and C. Vann Woodward. Editor Roger Adelson originally conducted these revealing and wonderfully intimate interviews for The Historian. Of those interviewed he observes, " their lives have affected their history; and their work as historians has affected their lives." Each interviewee was asked to comment on: his or her background; the way education altered his or her youth; career in terms of appointments, publications, and associations; perspective on his or her own work and fields of specialization; views on the profession in general; hie or her place as a historian in the contemporary world and how the past affects his or her views of the future; and hi or her advice to young historians. He observes that all those interviewed "have exploded myths about class, culture, geneder, environment, ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or work." All have drawn upon the social and natural sciences and all see their work in a global perspective.
ACLS Occassional Papers. Lawrence Stone, Milton V. Anastos, Carl E. Schorske, John Hope Franklin, Paul Oscar Kristeller, Robert illiam Fogel, and Natalie Zemo Davis.
Clio's Favorites is another way to achieve a more intimate image of the nation's leading historians. But this work is not without unfulfilled promises. Reviewer Paull Nickles notes that for each of the historians covered, critical aspects of their personal lives are neglected, for instance, involvement in the civil right movement, conscious objection to the Second World War, and reactions to student activism. And he concludes, ". . . historical scholarship suffers when historians crudely shape it to suit current political needs. But is also suffers when historian's [presumably the authors of this study] gain abstraction at the expense of completely detaching themselves from human experience."
Imagined Histories: American Historians Intrpret the Past. Edited by Anthony Molho and Gordon S. Wood. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Some essays focus on how American historians interpret the histories of other nations. Essays on aspects of American historiography -- exceptionalism, gender, economics, social theory, racism, ethnicity and national identity, American colonial history, nineteenth-century American history, and twentieth-century American history -- are contributed by Daniel T. Rogers, Linda K. Kerber, Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Dorothy Ross, Thomas C. Holt, Philip Gleason, Gordon S. Wood. George M. Fredrickson, and James T. Patterson. In their introduction the editors explore the changes in American society that led to a change in American historiography. The unrest and civil rights movement of the 1960s and the women's movement all contributed to a shift in historical perspectives. France's Annales historiography led to the ascendancy of social history, the study of new topics and the use of sources such as those capable of quantification and oral history that had previously been neglected. Women were especialy attracted to social and cultural history and "were keenly aware of the ways in which claims of objectivityhad been used to exclude them . . . "
Voice's of Women Historians. Edited by Eileen Boris and Nupur Chaudhuri. Essays by the leading members of the Coordinating Council for Women in History document the way women's history has emerged as a major concern well as how the entry of women into the historical profession has changed the profession and historiography forever. Americanist contributors, but all contributors are American historians, are Eileen Boris, Mollie C. Davis, Crystal Feimster, Joan Hoff, Frances Richardson Keller, Gerda Lerner, Nancy Raqual Mirabal, Mary Elizabeth Perry, Lynn Weiner, and Barbara Winslow.
Why become a historian? A publication by the American Historical Association available on the World Wide Web addresses this question and in so doing makes the focus of contemporary American historiography immediate. In its introduction Robert Blackey ". . . in this case, society's memoory. And since our memories tend to be selective . . . the purbden of the historians to to restore and retain that memory until it is as truse and complete as we can it." David Brody wirte, ". . . to make the past meaningful for one's own generation and people." Gordon H. Chang, "There is a need for new historians who can write about topics that were long neglected or who can write in a way that is more meaingful for those of us today who ere omitted or insulted in traaditional accounts." Spencer R. Crew, ". . . different ways of interporeting hsitircal data. The more people wiling to accept this challenge, the greater the likelihood that the interpretation offeerd by historians will better reflect that many differrent stories that are at the heart of an accurate and representative history of this country and the world." Robert Guitierrez, "We write the history we need, not the history we would likew, necessarily, but the history that will give us the knowledge to deal with the challenges of our day." Nadine Ishitani Hata, "Contemporary American society is a multicultural mosaic. . . And therein lies both the need and opportunity for you {the readers] to join in making American history and America's historians realistically reflective of all the people of the United Stateas." Thomas Cleveland Holt,". . . it enables me to work on the past but address the future." James Riding In, "Histoy has enabled me not only to wirte and teach about Indian culture and experiences, but it has also allowed me the chance to heop correct historical injustices."
Statistical information about the profession can also be significant, for this see AHA Data on the Historical Profession. Listings of avaiable positions over time can also be revealing, see such sources as The Libreal Arts and the Arts and Humanities Jobs (NationalEmployment Bulletin). The job listings themselves suggest the uses to which history may be put -- and in this regard public history and the commercialeffort, The History Factory. There are many other sites that may be useful in this regard. For a collectionof them see http://www.tntech.edu/history/research.html
The public history movement suggests new areas that are now perceived as appropriate for the work of professional historians: new specialities and new sources.
History Matters, of the Center for History and New Media, is compiling a collection of interviews with individuals who are distinguished for their teaching ability. Thus far interviews have been conducted with
The papers of America's historians are often preserved in the archives of the institutions at which they taught, in national repositories, or in the records of the organizations which they served. Therefore, when searching for a historian's papers always check with the appropriate archives These repositories -- as well as others that are online -- may be found by using Ready, 'Net, Go!, searchable online at http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/ArchivesResources.html. Also, always consult ArchivesUSA at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/archives/e-resources/archivesusa.html. ArchivesUSA is a database that provides information on primary source materials from over 4,800 archival and manuscript repositories in the United States. It draws from three major information sources: the Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the United States (DAMRUS), the National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), and the National Inventory of Documentory Sources in the United States (NIDS). For example, a search for anything concerning Frederick Jackson Turner retrieved 12 records (which may include from one to hundreds of pieces per record); while one on Charles Beard retrieved 61.
III.
(For Advanced Researchers) Citation Analysis: Uncovering Patterns of Influence
To discover who the historian you're studying is citing or who is citing him/her use the citation indexes (social sciences and arts and humanities) in the Institute for Scientific Information's Web of Science. For a specific number of years these sources make available the citations in core journals across a wide spectrum of disciplines. The citation that takes place in monographs is not captured, since only a set group of journals are covered. However, all footnotes are represented and one can determine, for instance, the frequrncy with which Das Kapital is cited. Before you begin searching, consult the introduction/help.
In 1989 Americanist Michael Frisch published "American History and the Structure of Collective Memory-- A Modest Exercise in Empirical Iconography" in the Journal of American History 75, no. 4 (March 1989), pp. 1130-1155. Frisch's work has 23 footnotes, ranging from the New York Times Magazine, Nation, and Commentary to xxxxxxxxx. An important New York Times Magazine article by Diane Ravitch was cited several times. But while Frisch's list is clearly appropriate, who cited him is far more useful and revealing. In fact, it is obvious that his article serves as a magnet or reference point -- an important contribution that became almost a mandatory attribution.
Articles which subsequently cited the piece came from a diverse group of journals and a diversity of topical and disciplinary perspectives. We know that historical work borrows from other disciplines but that, in turn, has an important impact on these disciplines. Arranged by date, with the most recent article first, the top few citations are:
Schatz, R. T., E. Staub, and H. Lavine. "On the Varieities of National Attachment: Blind Versius Constructive Patriotism." Political Psychology 20, no. 1 (1999): 151-174.
Tyack, D. ""Monuments Between Covers: The Politics of Textbooks." American Behavioral Scientist 42, no. 6 (1999): 922-932.
Schwartz, B. "Postmodernity and Historical Reputation: Abraham Lincoln in Late Twentieth-Century American Memory." Social Forces 77, no. 1 (1998): 63-103.
Rubin, D. C. "Knowledge and Judgments About Events That Occurred Prior to Birth: The Measurement of the Persistence of Information." Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 5, no. 3 (1998): 397-400.
Flores, R. R. "Memory-Place, Meaning, and the Alamo." American Literary History 10, no. 3 (1998): 428-445.
When one prints out the full record for these titles, an abstract (for most) and their references are included. Before the citation indexes became searchable online, the cycling of footnotes was -- except for the most determined -- better in theory than in practice. However, with the advent of online access this process is both easy and rewarding.
"Related Records" searches are a complement to these variation on "footnote tracing." These searchables would be virtually impossible without the aid of the computer. In a "Related Records" search articles are retrieved whose cited references include "at least one of the sources cited by the original (printed) article." The printed article in this case is, of course, Frisch's xxxxx. "Articles that share the largest number of sources with the original articles are listed first (earliest)." This list is different from the list of those which cite Frisch because it is based on identifying articles citing one or more of the same sources as frisch. The relevancy to the parent article is less, but the suggestiveness of the list is greater than the cited reference search. The broadest dimensions of conversation are revealed. Knowing the nature of Frsich's citations explains the heavy list of education references. Among especially interesting citations -- and perhaps some more relevant to an historiographical investigation -- are:
Fehn, A. C. "Relativism, Feminism, and the German-Connection in Bloom, Allan The 'Closing of the American Mind.'" German Quarterly 62, no. 3 (Summer 1989): 384-394.
Banks, W. M. and J. Jewell. "Intellectuals and the Persisting Significance of Race." Journal of Negro Education 64, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 75-86.
Fassin. E. "The Canons of Academia: Intellectuals, Politics and the University." Annales: Economies, Societes, Civilisations 48, no. 2 (March-April): 265-301.
Stanovich, K. E. and A. E. Cunningham. "Where Does Knowledge Come From: Specific Associations Between Print Exposure and Information Acquisition." Journal of Educational Psychology 85, no. 2 (June 1993): 211-229.
West, R. F. K. E. Stanovich, and H. R. Mitchell. "Reading in the Real World and Its Correlates." Reading Research Quarterly 28, no. 1 (January-March 1993): 34-50.
The next level to citation analysis is bibliometric analysis. Bibliometrics is defined as "essentially a quantitative analysis of publications for the purpose of ascertaining specific kinds of phenomena." Historical bibliometrics has been defined "as the bibliometric study of periodicals and books published in the framework of time and space." Publications . . . form the material artifacts to be examined for references, etc." Through such study one can establish the characteristics of disciplines, obsolesce of scholarship, institutional affiliations or scholarly communities, and the types of data considered. The above is offered by Jean-Pierre V. M. Herubel in his "Historical Bibliometrics: Its Purpose and Significance to the History of Disciplines," Libraries & Culture 34, no. 4 (Fall 1999): 380-388. See also:
Hertzel, Dorothy H. Bibliographical Approach to the History of Idea Development in Bibliomnetrics. Cleveland: Case Western Resesrve University, 1985. Phd Dissertation.
This author has written extensively on the topic, see especially his:
Herubel, Jean-Pierre V. M. and Anne L. Buchanan. "Citation Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences: A Selective and Annotated Bibliography." Collection Management 18 (1994): 89-137.
Herubel, Jean-Pierre V.M.. "The Nature of Three History Journals: A Citation Experiment." Collection Management 12 (1990): 57-67.
Herubel, Jean-Pierre V.M. and E. A. Goedeken. " Trends in Historical Scholarship as Evidenced in the American Historical Review, 1896-1990." Serials Review 18, no. 2 (1993): 79-84.
IV.
(For Advanced Researchers) Determining the Prominence of a Specific Journal
Knowing which journals are most often cited in relation to like journals will offer a sense of the prominence of a particular topic or mode of inquiry during a given time. This is because some journals have a pronounced topical or methodological focus. The Institute for Scientific Information's Journal Citation Reports (JCR), provide this information. Be sure to select JCR Social Science Edition and, on the right, Group of Journals by Subject, then select History. Other choices include Area Studies, History and Philosophy of Science, and History of Social Science. You can also construct sets of journals for comparative analysis. Unfortunately, most history journals are covered in Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and this source's journals are not part of Journal Citation Reports. Before using JCR, consult the online help.
JCR gives a variety of measures of significance for the journals it covers. Among some of the measures provided are the following. Cited Half-Life "is the number of publication years from the current year which account for 50% of the current citations received." Cited Journal Listing "identifies those publications that most frequently cited a particular journal." Citing Journal Listing "identifies those publications that were most frequently cited by a particular journals." These may reveal intellectual relationship between various publications and thus schools of thought. Immediacy Index "is a measure of how quickly the 'average article' in a journal is cited within the same year. Impact Factor "is a measure of the frequency with which the 'average article' in a journal has been cited in a particular year." This offers a ready comparison with another journal or group of journals.
Examples abound of journals that have appeared to announce the maturity of a field of historical study. A case in point. Comparative history is "An orientation toward the study of the past, based on the use of analogies between two or more societies or periods." In this definition of the field Harry Ritter further writes, "Post-war interest is reflected in numerous ways; new journals emphasize the comparative orientation (e.g., Comparative Studies in Society and History, 1958-, The Journal if Interdisciplinary History, 1970- ) . . . "''Comparative history served as the theme for the 1978 convention of the American Historical Association. Contemporary history -- the history of one's own life time -- exhibited a suniliar pattern with a general session at the 1951 annual meeting of the American Historical Association. A look through the thesmes of the annual concferences can be revealing.
Presumably the dissertations a scholar has supervised will reflect his or her methodological approaches and perspectives. While one can certainly find dissertations on historiographical topics, one can also search for dissertations supervised by a specific scholar. This can be done easily using Digital Dissertations. Enter the name of the advising scholar in a query box after defining it for the Adviser field. For instance, a search for the University at Buffalo's Michael Frisch as an adviser retrieves 15 dissertations.
VI.
Reference Books Reflect Change
The existence of certain types of reference books and what is included in them, or in their essays, can be excellent specimens for historiographical analysis. Reference sources may be compared across varying approaches or concerns or across time. For instance, study the interpretations in the New Catholic Encyclopedia and Encyclopaedia Judaica on the same topic or the essay on Thomas Jefferson in the Dictionary of American Biography and the American National Biography. Such comparisons are similar to studying textbooks across time.
Bibliographic sources such as editions of the Guide to Historical Literature may be studied to determine which works continue to deserve citation and which are no longer recommended. Some books persist in importance, while others do not.
The contemporary universe of historical reference source mirrors the interests of the profession. Over about the past 20 years there has been a 55% increase in the publication od research and reference tools in history. Blazek and Perrault's Guide to American History -- in which the above statistic appears -- mirrors this as well as the technological changes in publishing that have made the increase possible. The chapter on social, cultural, and intellectual history is the largest in the book. But a review of it in The Journal of American History reflects an emerging international interest among American historians when review Jules Benjamin notes a failure to include foreign sources and an implicit support of the still prevailing tendency "to study only their own history and to shield themselves from studies of their own culture written in foreign languages."
The proliferation of reference works on a particular topic clearly reflects trends. This can be obvious in such areas as women's studies or African American studies, and perhaps more subtle in such areas as the construction and celebration of national identity and memory as reflected, for instance, by the industry of creating battlefield guides to historic sites: America's National Battlefield Parks, Battlefields of the Civil War, and The Civil War Battlefield Guide. And there is the festival book.
Marlene Manoff, in her "The Symbolic Meaning of Libraries in a Digital Age" (Portal: Libraries and Academy 1, no. 4 (2001): 371-381. Since the late 1970 she observes thst there has been a popular interest in historical memory. Eraly in the century the future had claimed this attention. Movies, theme parks, museums, television programs, and movies all reflectr and feed this interest. Quotes in detail Dam Goodheart in The Way We Live Now -- New York Times Magazine 25 February 2001: 13-14; Andreas Huyssen Present Pasts: Media, Politics, Amnesia Public Culutre 12 (winter 2000); 21.
Historians are well aware that the major historical encyclopedias to which they contribute are themselves historical documents. In reviewing the Encyclopedia of the Twentieth Century Jackson Lears reefers to it as "a rich anthology of contemporary American thought" and "as a whole [it] tells us about how American historians view the twentieth century." He sees the century as a journey -- reflected in this encyclopedia and the nation's historians -- through integration, consolidation, and fragmentation.
Some reference sets that
were major innovations at their time if publication -- and are today
increasingly leaving reference shelves -- illustrate how a reference work
can announce or suggest a new historiographical or methodological approach
by suggesting new materials for analysis. The Pageant of American
History, an early twentieth century collection of historical images "illustrating"
the nation's history, is a case in point. A review in the Mississippi
Valley Historical Review seemingly grudgingly acknowledges the importance
of images in the study of history, "But since the visualization of history
has come to be considered important in its understanding. . . " And
he goes on to complain that the ratio between volumes on civilization and
political history, nine to six, is out of proportion to treatment in history
courses. While a review in the American Historical review appreciate
the historiographical possibilities of the collection but recognizes its
distortion of American history but its neglect of its dark spots, some
of which he says are difficult to represent visually.. Nonetheless,
he writes, "It will suggest to some historians new points of view and new
materials. We may hope that it will help to overthrow that narrow
view of history that has been so conspicuous a feature of modern historiography."
VII.
Historiographical Definitions and Overviews
While general encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia and Britannica (available online at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/ugl/e-resources/eb.html) may well be useful to you, they serve a different purpose than the sources listed below. These special topical encyclopedias are intended to introduce and define a discipline for scholars and students. Essays conclude with bibliographies.
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 15 vols. 1930-1935. The historiography section on the United States, vol. 7, pp. 385-389, is by distinguished American historian Allan Nevins. It is a traditional historiographical overview and history of the evolution of writing on American history, it is not a philosophical piece. The section on history in general, vol 7, pp. 357-368, is by renowned French historians Henri Berr and Lucien Febrve. Lockwood Reference Collection H41.E6
The Encyclopedia of the
Social sciences was sponsored by ten "constituent societies," including
the American Historical Association. Historians Sidney B. Fay and
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. represented history as advisory editors.
It was strong historical and problem rather than methodology oriented.
In this respect it is markedly different from the International Encyclopedia
of the Social sciences. The most obvious move away from the historical
is apparent in the dramatic decrease in biographical entries in the latter
work. In fact, the main set includes biographies only for historians
Harry Elmer Barnes, Charles A. Beard, James Harvey Robinson, George Sarton,
and Frederick Jackson Turner. The 350 page history of the social
sciences which introduced the first work is omitted and not replaced with
a similar piece. Nor are there histories of the various social science
disciplines. Nonetheless, both have history and historiography sections,
but they are different in intent and focus.
Iinternational Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
26 vols. 1968-1991. None of the history/historiography essays are
specifically about the United States. American history references
appear throughout appropriate essays. The emphasis is on methodology
rather than a history of historical writing. See "The Rhetoric of
History," by J. H. Hexter, vol.6, pp. 368-394; "The Philosophy of History,"
by Patrick Gardiner, vol. 6, pp. 428-434; "History and the Social Sciences,"
by xxxxx, vol. 6, pp. 434-440; "Ethnohistory," by Bernard S. Cohn, vol.
6, pp. 440-448; "Cultural History," by Joseph H. Greenberg, vol. 6, pp.
448-459; "Social History," by J. Jean Hecht, vol. 6, pp. 455-462; "Intellectual
History," by Crane Brinton, vol. 6, pp. 462-468; "Economic History," by
Douglass C. North, vol. 6, pp. 468-474; and "Business History," by Ralph
W. Hidy, vol. 6, pp. 474-480. Be sure to consult the biographical
volume for brief biographies on some major historians. Lockwood Reference
Collection H41.I6
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.
26 vols. 2001. Lockwood Reference Collection H41.I58 2001
The language of historiography is defined in Harry Ritter’s
Dictionary of Concepts in History. 1986. Lockwood Book Collection and Undergraduate Reference Collection D13.R49 1986
The evolution of historical thought is traced in:
Dictionary of the History of Ideas. 5 vols. 1973-1964. Lockwood and Undergraduate Library Reference Collections CB5.D52
In addition, specialized encyclopedias on the full range of topics and disciplines may be useful. What you are studying – or the approach you are taking --will determine what you use. Assume that just about any major topic – and certainly every discipline – is served by such sources. The work cited below indexes the essays in many of these works. It will be of some use, but don’t rely on it alone.
Subject Encyclopedias: User Guide, Review Citations, and Keyword Index. 2 vols. 1999. Lockwood Reference Desk AE1.M57 1999
VIII.
The History of the American Historical Association and the Addresses of
Its Presidents and Addresses of the Presidents of the Organization of American
Historians
A brief history of the American Historical Association is available at http://www.theaha.org/info/AHA_History/History.htm. The piece ends with a list of references. The addresses of AHA presidents may be accessed full text by name or by date from this site. They are a quick way to gain a sensitivity to evolving historical concerns within the American historical profession. The membership, programs, publications, and concerns (including bibliography and instruction) of the Associaiton over its first hundred years are reviewed in Arthur S. Link's "The American Historical Association, 1884-1984: Retrospect and Prospect," American Historical Review 25, no. 2 (February 1992): 191-231.
See also the annual reports of the American Historical Association, which include copies of the programs of the annual meetings. These also will give a good sense of the concerns of the profession at a point in time. This is, of course, also true for the Organization of American Historians.
For the presidential addresses of the Organization of American Historians search JSTOR. Restrict your searching to the Journal of American History and enter presidential addresses as a full-text entry.
IX.
Historical Associations and History Departments
The two major historical associations applicable to students of American history are the American Historical Association <http://www.theaha.org/> and the Organization of American Historians <http://www.oah.org/>. The former is the umbrella organization for all historians practicing in the United States and the latter, the association focused on the history of the nation. But there are many other historical organizations.
In fact, the diversity of historical associations testifies to the tremendous diversity of interests and approaches to the study and writing of history. Some associations have a geographic focus, while others are methodological or thematic. Among the most useful sources for identifying these organizations are Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historians. Associations Unlimited, and Scholarly Societies Project. When runs of these, or similar sources, are held, one can use them to trace the "changes" and evolution of the studied body.
The primary guide to historical organizations is published by the American Historical Association. It gives faculty members, their specilaizations, educational background, and also lists currently awarded doctorates, with dissertation titles. The section on historical organizations provides detailed paragraphs on the collections and libraries, programs, publications, and fellowships and awards of the listed organization. A list of professional staff, with their educational backgrounds and areas of specialization, is included.
Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historians.
27th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association, 2001/02-
Lockwood Reference Collection
D16.3.G83, older editions
beginning with the superseding of this edition will be housed in the Lockwood
Book Collection. Aslo available in condensed form at: http://www.theaha.org/pubs/directory/index.cfm
Continues Directory of History Departments and Organizations in the United States and Canada. Published 1990-2000 and available as D16.3.G83, 20th (1994/95) - 26th (2000/01) housed in Lockwood Book Collection and 16th (1990/91) - 19th (1993/94) housed in Storage.
To search Associations Unlimited for a list of historical organizations enter History in the Subject Descriptor query box and Cultural Organizations in the Subject Category query box. Entries retrieved include contact information, budget and membership figures, meeting information, and a listing of the organization's publications.
For a list of major scholarly historical associations worldwide, search the University of Waterloo's Scholarly Societies Project, the history component. This resource is a listing of the URLs for included organizations.
Often the Web site of a history department will list resources useful for its faculty and students. Further, if you wish to have a sense of the nature of the department within which your historian author works, the Web site of his/her department may be useful. For a hyperlinked listing of history departments around the world, use the Center for History and New Media's Guide to History Departments Around the World.
X.
Guides to Historical Writing
What are the most important books and articles to read on a given topic?
There is no better source of guidance than the most recent guide to writing on American history, Reader's Guide to American History. In his opening note its editor observes that the range of historical writing has expanded profoundly in the area of social history, with a concentration on issues of class, race, ethnicity, and gender. It is this tremendous breathe and the particular works within these categories -- although political and economic history is heavily covered as well -- that makes this guide necessary. It "takes the form of a series of essays which describe and assess books on some 600 different topics -- some specialized and very specific, others much broader and more general." Entries treat events, individuals, and themes. And access is provided by an alphabetical list of entries, a thematic list of entries, an alphabetical list by author of the books and articles discussed, a general subject index that gathers like entries across all contributions, and "see also" references that refer to other entries and that appear at the end of many essays. The thematic list presents entries in many worthwhile aggregations. The broad categories are: Periods of American History; Political, Economic, and Social History; and Specific Topics. The subcategorizes within these groupings are useful and revealing. Some examples, under Political, Economic, and Social History: Political History: Presidents and other Political Figures and under Social History, Social Structure: Class, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and family. Among Specific Topics are Ethnicity and Immigration; Ideas, Ideology, and Social Commentary; and Sports, Entertainment, and Leisure. The essay on historiography by Emil Pocock, which assesses, and compares and contrasts twelve pivotal texts on writing on American history, is found on pages 325-327.
Identical in design to the Reader's Guide to American History. Again, the purpose is "to guide the reader towards the key texts on specific topics. The individual entries present and critically review the literature on a range of topics from the social sciences." Major headings are: Economics, Human Geograsphy, Law, Management and Business, Prganizational behvaior, Philosophy, Politics and International Relations, Psychology, Research and Analysis Methods in the Social sciences, and Sociology,Many entries are implicitly or explicitly historical, for instance: History of Economic Thought, Political History, History of Sociological Thought, Slave Resistance. For those applying social science methods the section Research and Analysis Methods in the Social Sciences, with 56 entries, from Casual Relationships to Life History to Time-Series Design will be especially useful.
Reader's Guide to Amrican History.
Several magisterial historical guides seek to answer this question; two are relatively current: the most recent AHA Guide and The Harvard Guide to African American History.
Historical
Studies, Including the History of the United States
American
Historical Association. Guide to Historical Literature. 1931.
Lockwood Book Collection Z6201.G94
American
Historical Association. Guide to Historical Literature.
1961. Lockwood Reference Collection D20.A63
American
Historical Association. Guide to Historical Literature. 2 vols.
1995. See especially vol. 1 “Theory and Practice in Historical Study,”
pp. 1-32. But to find entries that are historiographical overviews
or explorations consult the index under "historiography." Lockwood
Reference Collection D20.A55 1995
The three editions of the American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature are different from one another in a variety of ways. The boundaries of historical discourse show profound expansion from edition to edition. As might be expected, the first edition focuses on political and constitutional history and biography, filing to capture the breadth of coverage existing in the profession at large. The second edition saw the addition of sections on "Women" and "Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Negroes do not in the first, but in the second edition 14 titles are listed under Negroes. In the United States history chapters of the third edition African American history is present is all chapters.
Students of historiography will note other changes between the editions of 1931 and 1961. For instance, in the 1961 edition, Africa and Asia receive fuller coverage and many more foreign-language books are listed. In fact, the editors of the 1961 edition advise would-be historians to learn "to use the languages pertinent to particular fields of history." To gauge historiographical change one can always determine the titles that appear and disappear between edition, but the evaluative annotations of the Guide provide yet another area for analysis -- as one reviewer pints out. Reviewers recognized from the very first that the Guide would be of benefit to historiographers by creating a universe of what was considered quality history at the time.
The first Guide was not
without precedent. Planning for it began with the appointment of
a committee in 1919 that was to cooperate with the American Library Association
to revise the Manual of C. K. Adams. It was intended for an English-reading
audience and "libraries, teachers, and graduate students." Ultimately
350 scholars contributed to it and it was heralded by one review as a monument
to cooperation. Reminiscent of current discussions, he went on to
recognize how quickly such a source would go out of date, suggesting annual
supplements and even blank page (for annotation) in a two volume paper
edition.
United
States History
The Harvard Guide to American History.
1954. Lockwood Book Collection Z1236.H27
The Harvard Guide to American History.
1967. Lockwood Book Collection Z1236.H27 1967
The Harvard Guide to American History.
1974. Lockwood Reference Collection Z1236.H27 1974
Inspired by the Society for Political Education in New York's The Reader's Guide to
Economic, Social, and Political Science. The success of which brought the matter before
the American Library Association in 1892 with the reading of a paper entitled "The
Evaluation of Literature." Other ALA sponsored evaluative lists followed. This large work
is the product of several hands. In addition to notes written specifically for the guide,
annotations have been taken from major periodicals. In the Introductory Larned writes: "At
the outset, those who consult this work should understand that it is intended to be neither
an exhaustive bibliography of American history, nor merely a selection of the best books in
the department of literature, nor does it name merely curious books. The selective aim in its
preparation has been to embrace the books of every character, good, bad, and indifferent,
concerning which it seems to be important that readers of various classes should be told
what their merit or demerit is." And further on: "With the counsel and guidance to be
found in the annotated lists given here, any person who has access to a public library in
this land of free books may study any part of American history with thoroughness. . . "
Several interesting features are included. Historian Paul Leicester Ford offers "A Syllabus
of Existing Materials for Original Study of American History" which presents an overview
of primary source materials available for the states and as foreign publications. In the later
case, foreign language materials included. A listing of historical socieiites included, which
gives an overview of the types of materials available in each. Historian Edward Channing
offers three lists of suggested books for: respectively: a school, town, and working library.
Annotated works are organized under headings, with many subheadings, for: America at
Large, The United States, The United States by Sections, Canada, and Spanish and
Portuguese America and the West Indies. Subheadings are quite interdisciplinary, but do
not include such topics as: women, children, ethnic studies. The special attention given to
the West Hemisphere, Canada and Spanish and Portuguese America and the West Indies
is noteworthy and indicative of the hemispheric aspirations of the period. The Canada
section, like the American one, includes sections on primary sources. Annotations are
lengthy. Access is provided by an extremely detailed index. So detailed and so small in
font size that one wonders if it was ever used -- or if this in itself indicative of a frame of
mind different from ours.
Even if outdated, still a powerful resource and a historiographical gold mine. The first Harvard Guide was published in 1896 by Albert Bushnel Hart and Edward Channing as an outline and bibliography for a course on American history to 1865. The American Historical Review reviewer of the Guide to the Study of American History noted two purposes for the publication of that text: "to convey a mass of suggestions respecting methods of work in American history, and to furnish a scheme of topics so supplied with refereneces that it will, in all the most important parts of the field, guide the student in his special inquiries." The reviewer went on to note that the content of the source succinctly presented the state of American historical writing at the time. Revealing its strengths as we;; as its deficiencies. Although the deficiencies that were noted reveal much about the time as well: ". . . our neglect of our economic history, excepting the history of the federal finances, the slightness of our studies into the colonial institutions of the eighteenth century, the lack of serious books or even minor studies upon the history of the states since 1783." And, of course, the reference and bibliographic aids listed, which comprise a large portion of the text, reveal the state of publishing in that area. In turn, of course, the various editions can be compared against one another. In 1912 the two were joined by Frederick Jackson Turner and the Guide to the Study and Reading of American History was published that year. It was a new edition of the Guide to the Study of American History. It did not go uncriticized. The AHR reviewer offered the following: "defective in adequate topics and references for the study of the social, economic and intellectual development of the colonies, as well as for the period 1783-1820," and "More space should have been given to manuscript sources."
In 1953 prominent Harvard historians Oscar Handlin, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Samuel Eliot Morison, Frederick Merk, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr., and Paul Herman Buck published a new guide.The most recent edition is the 1974 edition, apart from bibliorgapy the earlier edition is different in that it carries a valuable essay on the evolution of American historiography. Instead of this philosophoical piece, the 1974 Guide offers an essay on history as a literary art. This Guide is organized in several parts, each is accompanied by some commentary: Research Methods and Materials (Research, Writing, and Publication; Care and editing of Manuscripts; Materials of History; Aids to Historical Research; Printed Public Documents; Unpublished Primary Sources; Microfilm Materials; Printed Historical Works), Biographies and Personal Records (Travels and Description, Biographies and Writings), Comprehensive and Area Histories (Introduction to American History; Regional, State, and Local Histories; Westward Expansion and the Frontier), Histories of Special Subjects (Physical Environment; Government; Law; Politics; Economic History; Demography and Social Structure; Immigration and Ethnicity; Social Ills and Reform; Social Manners and Customs; Education; Religion; Intellectual History; Literature; Communication; The Arts; Pure and Applied Sciences). The folllowing parts and subscetions are topical under traditional periodizations, for instance, Colonial Period to 1789, Rise of Anglo-America, The Twneties. The parts and subparts define American historiography as of its publication. The AHA Guide to Historical Literature is an update.
Complementing the Harvard Guide, and in some sense serving the need now satisfied by the Reader's Companion series was, The Library of Congress Guide to Historical Literature. Beyond the texts it lists and annotates it can be seen, in part, as a reflection of the periodi's burgeoning American Studies movement. This is reflected in the intellectual history chapter which lists only books broadly synthetic in scope and which attempt to arrive at the nation's quintessential character.
Historians with an interest in curriculum design would do well to review -- and read as appropriate -- the early editions of the Harvard Guide. It shows the high regard in which historical education was held. In the section on school work the editors write, "History is almost the only subject in the grammar school curriculum dealing with human character and motives as a basis for study." At this stage the editors advised the use of a textbook. But in the high schools they recommend "use of materials, and more written works, and more instruction in kindred subjects, such as European history, economics, government." The "prejudices" reflect the time, but the scope and method are broad and critical. For college work, critical thinking skills are paramount. "With older minds, already accustomed to read, to study, and to digest history, the only textbook should be some brief and comprehensive book, intended merely to show the relation of the parts of the subject and the development of one period out of another. Details should be gained by extensive reading, so arranged as to take in a variety of authors (25)." Presumably one aid to such extensive reading is the use of the college library: :. . . in colleges every student should learn how to use library and periodical indexes; in investigation a knowledge of bibliography opens the gate to many important fields of material (2)."
The editors are also concerned with the structure of historical study and the historical narrative, in the section Convenient Subdivisions they list works which offer a variety of periodizations and structures. And in the section Points of View one sees that the ground has already be prepared for a history that transcends politics and individuals. The concerns of the new social history re not present, however. They write: ". . . true American history must take into account all the great factors of the life of a community: the character of the population; its spread upon the land; its pursuits; its social, and particularly its religious life; its efforts to create governments that would answer the needs of its complicated existence; the great principles of human rights and of human government which underlie all American laws and constitutions." Further, when commenting on slaver: "it is also a race question and an economic question, contest between rival forms of labor."
By 1954 the study of American history had grown in complexity. Social, cultural, and intellectual history had risen in importance and the universe from which to select entries for the Guide had grown as a result. The earlier guide had a more circumscribed purpose: "addressed to readers who were just beginning to know their own past, who worked in universities or lived in communities with inadequate libraries, and who had no other reference tools at hand." The 1954 guide's editors write, that there work is "a manual useful to readers who have been through schools and colleges in which American history was well taught, who have available the resources of numerous excellent libraries, and who find special bibliographies at their finger tips on almost every monograph."
The 1974 guide was created to "reflect the shifting interests and the spectacular growth in he literature of American history during the past two cedacdes." Social history now consumes a major portion of the text. Publication trends are also captured in the inclusion of a great number of anthologies and printed primary sources. But at least one reviewer notes that Simon important texts have been omitted and superceded by works whose major claim may be that hey are simply newer.
As noted previously, reviews
themselves are historiographically important. The same reviewer notes
an absence of works on American history by scholars outside of the United
States. He laments the absence of the historical overview of the
earlier guide -- and wonders why the history of history is itself no longer
important. A similar complaint is raised considering the deletion
of the essay Principles of Historical Criticism. Lastly, he sees
as still more revealing of the "generation gap" the omission of the essay
Theories of Historical Interpretation. For the reviewer the Guide
may be a testament to the industrial-scientific mind that rejects the past
-- perhaps, I might add, as it creates it.
African-American
History
The Harvard Guide to African-American History.
2001. Lockwood Reference Collection E185.H326 2001
XI.
Using the Online Catalog to Find Historiographical Writings
Search for this books by executing keyword searches which include the term historiography restricted to the subject field of the bibliographic record -- historiography.su. and the topic in which you are interested. For instance, k=historiography.su.. and civil war.su. or k=historiography.su. and women.su.
In addition, you should
also do a subject search on historiography. Below are examples of
subject headings from our online catalog.
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United
States--Historiography
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Historiography--United
States
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United
States--Historiography--
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Historiography--United
States--
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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Congresses
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Congresses
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Encyclopedias
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History
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Miscellanea
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History--19th
Century
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Periodicals
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Periodicals
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History--Philosophy
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History--Methodology
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History--Philosophy--
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History--Methodology--
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History
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Bibliography
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History--16th
Century
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Congresses
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History--17th
Century
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Handbooks
Manuals etc
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Call numbers to browse are:
XII.
The Diversity of History Journals Itself Is A Historiographical Indicator
Consider the diversity of historical journals. To identify historical journals use:
Magazines for Libraries: For the General Reader and School, Junior College,
College, University, and Public Libraries.
2000. Lockwood Reference Collection Z6941.K2 2000
Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory.
40th edition. 2002. Lockwood Reference Collection Z6941.U52.
Searchable online at http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/e-resources/ulrichs.html
Journals that have a particular historiographical focus include: the Journal of Interdiscilinary History, History and Theory, Journal of the History of Ideas, and Storia della Storiografia. The emphasis, of course, is not exclusively – or even primarily – on American history. Americanists should become familiar with Reviews in American History. The Journal of American History will often publish historiographical articles. Also, be sure to use the index/abstract America: History and Life, but flipping through journals can also be interesting and suggestive.
The most major journals are published by associations, such as the American Historical Association (American Historical Review, http://www.jstor.org/journals/00028762.htmland http://www.historycooperative.org/ahrindex.html) and the Organization of American Historians (Journal of American History, http://www.jstor.org/journals/00218723.html and http://www.historycooperative.org/jahindex.html), and -- in addition to journals -- these associations publish newsletters. Because of their content, studied over time, these newsletters will reveal the evolution and change of themes and topics of study as well as the changing nature of the profession itself. The newsletters of the AHA and OAH regularly carry pedagaogiucxal articles, extensive and detailed lists of positions open, and obituaries. Topics of particular concern to the profession are covered as they arise as is the demographic composition of the pool of historians and the prospects for employment and salary.
Perspectives. The Newsletter of the American Historical Association. Originally published as the AHA Newsletter and available vol 1, no. 1 (December 1962) - vol. 20, no. 5 (May/June 1982) as Per. E172.A5 and in microfilm as MicFilm E172.A43 and from vol. 22, no. 3 (March 1984) forward as Per E172.A57. Searchable and viewable online from vol. 33, 1995 onwards. http://www.theaha.org/perspectives/
OAH Newsletter. The Newsletter of the Organization of American Historians. Available in mirofiche as MicFiche E171.)73, vol. 10 (1982) - vol. 29 (2001). Searchable and viewable online beginning with vol. 23, no. 4 (November 1995). http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/index.html
XIII.
The Ways Others See Us: Foreign Perspectives on American History
Although dated, the most useful source for studying the ways in which American history is studied in other nations is:
Guide to the Study of United States History Outside the U.S., 1945-1980. Edited by Lewis Hanke with the assistance of many historians in many lands; sponsored by the American Historical Association & the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. White Plains, New York: Kraus International Publications, 1985. 5 vols. Lockwood Reference Collection E175.8.G85.1985
Even a work of such obvious expansive intent can reveal negative things about its compilers, who, nevertheless, have honestly had nothing but the very best of intentions. Robert H. Walker writes in the American Quarterly:
The work at hand offers
an impressive case of the AHA. There is, however, something about
the tone of the introductory remarks, and about many of the personal reminiscences
that punctuate these volumes, that is genuinely disturbing. . . The first
of the "perspective" essays uses the term "imperialism" in its title.
Although the context renders the term virtually harmless, its use does
awake a resonance that is echoed all too often. When his lists the
uses of this work, the editor starts with the American historians who will
find here the work of foreigners. Why not the English reading historian?
Why i it more important for the American to learn of work in Israel than
for the French scholar? Likewise, American scholars, s generously
present in the collection of foreign work, too often treat their experiences
abroad as though they had set out as missionaries among the savages.
Throughout these volumes -- in their language, assumptions, mechanics,
and recommendations -- there is all too much use of "us" and "them described
here undisturbed by American scholars.
Even Robin Winks, who is laudatory in his AHR review, ends with a negative not on the ability and willingness of American historians to consider the history from a "foreign" perspective.
These volumes attest to
the broad range of United States history but, one suspects, it will be
foreign scholars who most directly benefit from the. . .Will many American
scholars avail themselves of the opportunities? On the past record,
one would guess not, for language barriers, travel costs, time constraints,
and a certain parochialism and inertia will likely leave most of the manuscript
materials described here undisturbed by American scholars . . .
This work features essays on the states of the study of American history in many nations and also notes the manuscript sources in these nations for its study.Volumes IV and V are annotated bibliographies, arranged topically and chronologically. Many of the works cited are not in English, but their annotations are.
Well before the publication of this work, the International Committee of Historical Sciences sponsored the publication of the International Bibliography of Historical Sciences. This long practiced bibliographic effort enables one to identify works on the nation's history published worldwide. This can also be done with America: History and Life. Through its classified arrangement, it places writings on America within a broad international context by listing material in topical rather than geo-poliically defined groupings. Although there are sections devoted to the general history of individual nations. One of its long time strengths was the gathereing of scholarship written on the United States outside of the nation.
International Bibliography of Historical Sciences. Lockwood Reference Collection A review in 1970 in the American Historical Review notes that the work ably supports "the growing desire of scholars in many nations to examine the history of other nations from original sources." He goes on to note that in the IBHS one can find a French review of The Oxford History of the American People, a Russian article on antislavery, and a German study of Abraham Lincoln and the freeing of the slaves.
An ongoing montoring of foreign writing on American history is provided by the Recent Publications recurrent bibliography of the Journal of American History. This JAH database is searchable online.
JAH has recently placed a great emphasis on this. See David P. Thelen, JAH editor's "Making History and Making the United States," Journal of Amercian Studies 32 (1998): 373-397; "The Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United States History," Journal of American History 86 (1999): 965-975; and "Rethinking History and the Nation-State: Mexico and the United States," Journal of American History 86 (1999): 439-452. And Ian Tyrrell, "Making Nations/Marking States: American Historians in the Context of Empire," Journal of American History 86 (1999): 1015-1044.
Placing the themes of American history within a global context forces the historian to ask a critical question: "How does one understand, teach, and write a national history even as one recognizes that the territorial boundaries do not fully contain that history and that within that bounded territory the society is highly differentiated, marked by multiple solidarities and identities?" This is the theme of Rethinking American History in a Global Age, edited by Thomas Bender and the quoite is from its description.
Rethinking
American History In A Global Age. Edited by Thomas Bender.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Lockwood Book Collection
E175.R48.2002
XIV.
Some Books (in whole or in part) on the Historiography of American History
While it is now outdated, the most current bibliography to historiographical writing is:
Historiography: An Annotated Bibliography of Articles, Books, and Dissertations. Susan K. Kinnell. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1987. 2 vols.
It is not exclusively devoted to the United States. Over 8,000 citations have been drawn from America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts. The two volumes have separate author, title, and subject indexes. Volume one covers bibliographic resources, books, dissertations, and individual historians. Following sections cover historical subfields and methodology. Volume two is organized according to a geographical classification. A major section covers the United States and Canada. A foreward by historiographer Georg G. Iggers presents an overview of historiography.
The handbooks and encyclopedias noted above are perhaps even more important bibliographically.
Works that are discussed in the historiography essay of the Reader's Guide to American History are followed by an asterisk (*).
Appleby,
Joyce Oldham, et al.. Telling the Truth About History.
New York: Norton, 1994. Undergraduate Reserve E175.A67 1994
Bassett,
John Spencer. The Middle Group of American Historians. New
York: Macmillan, 1917.* Lockwood Book Collection E175 .B3
Benson,
Lee. Turner and Beard: American Historical Writing Reconsidered.
Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1960.* Lockwood Book Collection E175.9
.B4
Biersack,
Aletta and Lynn Avery Hunt, eds. The New Cultural History: Essays.
University of Califonia Press, 1989. Lockwood Book Collection
Buhle,
Paul. History and the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin, 1950-1970.
Temple University Press, 1990. Lockwood Book Collection
Carnes,
Mark C., ed. Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront
America's Past (and each other). New York: Simon & Schuster,
2001. Lockwood Book Collection PS374.H5N68.2001
Cartwright,
William H. and Richard L. Watson, Jr., eds. The Reinterpretation
of American History and Culture. Washington, D.C.: National Council
for the Social Studies, 1973.* Lockwood Book Collection E175
.C37
Cox,
Jeffrey and Shelton Stromquist, eds. Contesting the Master Narrative:
Essays in Social History. University of Iowa Press, 1998.
Lockwood Book Collection
Cunliffe,
Marcus and Robin W. Winks, eds. Pastmasters: Some Essays on American
Historians. New York: Harper, 1969.* Lockwood Book Collection
E175.45 C8
Davidson,
James West. After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection.
New York: Knopf, 1982. Lockwood and Undergraduate Book Collections
E175.D38 1982
FitzGerald,
Frances. America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Undergraduate Reserve and Lockwood Book
Collection E175.85.F57
Fischer,
David Hackett.Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought.
New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Lockwood Book Collection
Fitzpatrick,
Ellen F. History's Memory: Writing America's Past, 1880-1980.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. Lockwood Book Collection
E175.F58.2002
Foner,
Eric. For the American Historical Association. The New American
History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990.*
Lockwood Book Collection E175.N53 1990
Fox,
Richard Wightman and T. J. Jackson Lears, eds. The Power of Culture:
Critical Essays in American History. University of Chicago Press,
1993. Lockwood Book Collection
Gatell,
Frank Otto and Allen Weinstein. American Themes: Essays in Historiography.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.* Lockwood Book Collection
E175 .G3
Glassberg,
David. Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001. Lockwood Book Collection
E175.9.G58.2001
Handlin,
Oscar. Truth in History. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1979. Lockwood Book Coolection D13.H288
Harlan,
David.
The Degradation of American History. Chicagoand London:
vvvvvvvv, 1997. Lockwood Book Collection
E66666666
Higham,
John. History: Practice and Scholarship in America. New York: Harper,
1961; revised, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1989.*
Lockwood Book Collection
Hofstadter,
Richard. The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington.
New York: Knopf, 1968; London: Cape, 1969.* Undergraduate Reserve
E175.45.H6
Hollinger,
David A. and Charles Capper, eds. The American Intellectual Tradition:
A Sourcebook. 2 vols. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997. Lockwood Book Collection
Iggers,
Georg G. and Parker, Harold T., eds. International Handbook of Historical
Studies: Contemporary Research and Theory. Westport: Greenwood
Press, 1979. Lockwood Book Collection D13.I62
Jameson,
John Franklin. The History of Historical Writing in America.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1891. Lockwood Book Collection
E175.J31.1961
Kammen,
Michael, ed. For the American Historical Association. The Past
Before Us: Contemporary Historical Writing in the United States.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.* Lockwood Book Collection
D13.P36
Kraus,
Michael and Joyce, Davis D. The Writing of American History.
Revised edition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985
(earlier editions, by Kraus only, as A History of American History,
1937, and The Writing of American History, 1953).* Undergraduate
Reserve E175.K75 1985
Klein,
Kerwin.
Frontiers of Historical Imagination: Narrating the European
Conquest of Native America, 1890-1990. University of California
Press, 1997. Lockwood Book Collection
Kutler,
Stanley L., ed. American Retrospectives: Historians on Historians.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Lockwood Book Collection
Kutler,
Stanley and Tanley Katz, eds. New Perspectives on the American
Past. 2nd edition. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. 2
vols. Loockwood Book Collection
Molho,
Anthony and Gordon S. Wood, eds. Imagined Histories: American Historians
Interpret the Past. Princenton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Lockwood Book Collection D13.5.U6I57.1998
Novick,
Peter.
The Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American
Historical Profession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1988.* Undergraduate Reserve D13.5.U6N68 1988
Rutland,
Robert Allen, ed. Clio's Favorites: Leading Historians of the
United States, 1945-2000. Columbia: University of Missouri Press,
2000. Lockwood Book Collection E175.45.C58.2000
Scott,
Joan Wallach, ed. Feminism and History. Oxford University
Press, 1996. Lockwood Book Collection
Smith,
Bonnie G. The Gender of History: Men, Women, and Historical Practice.
Harvard University Press, 1998. Lockwood Book Collection
Stern,
Fritz Richard. The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present.
New York: Meridian Books, 1956. Lockwood Book Collection D13.S82
Stock,
Brian. Listening for the Text: On the Uses of the Past. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 199. Lockwood Book Collection D13.S837.1990
Tosh,
John. Historians on History: An Anthology. Longman, 2000.
Lockwood Book Collection
Wish,
Harvey. The American Historian. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1960.* Lockwood Book Collecvtion E175 .W5
Woodward,
C. Vann. The Future of the Past. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1989. Lockwood Book Collection E175.5.W66A2 1989
In addition to regularly reading Reviews in American History, the American Historical Review publishes a review essay on a selected topic in each issue. These are, of course, not exclusively about American topics. Among especially useful recent essays are: "Imperialism and History: A Century of Theory, from Marx to Postcolonialism" by Patrick Wolfe (April 1997), "American Synecdoche: Thomas Jefferson as Image, Icon, Character, and Self"by Jan Lewis and Peter S. Onuf (February 1998), "Race Culture: Recent P{erspectives on the Histoy of Eugenic" by Frank Dikotter (April 1998), "Histories of Childhood" by Hugh Cunningham (October 1998), and "Gender, Consumption, and Commodity Culture" by Mary Louise Roberts (June 1998) look them over . . .
"The Challenge of American History" Reviews in American History 26, no. 1 (March 1998).
Two recent books may serve as examples as the very different ways in which the nation's history may be viewed. A conservative history of the United States is Paul Johnson's A History of the American People, while a radical interpretation is offered by Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present.
For a very thoughtful historiographical overview that explores history from the perspective of the sources from which it is written -- and the preservation, organization, and mining of those sources, all with an appropriately heavily emphasis on contemporary information technology -- see:
McCrank, Lawrence J. Historical Information Science: An Emerging Unidiscipline. Medford, N.J.: Information Today, Inc., 2002. Lockwood Book Collection D16.2.M44.2001
This work is an extended bibliographic essay that cites in its bibliography over 6,000 sources -- in a great diversity of languages and from a host of fascinating perspectives -- of past and current trends and issues in the access, preservation, and analysis of historical information in research libraries, library special collections, digital archives and libraries, and museums. Beyond mere issues of quantification, McCrank explores how technology and ideas have and will continue to change the methodologies, possibilities, and opportunities of historical research.
For recent work on the impact of electronic bibliogtapics on historical work see the following.
Kitchens, Joel D.
"Electronic Scholarly Puiblishing and the Future of History." Journal
of the Associairtion for History and
Computing 3,
no, 2 (2000). No pagination on Web.
Graham, Suzanne R.
"Historians and Electronic Resources: A Citation Analysis." Journal
of the Associaition for History
and Computing 3,
no. 3 (2000). No pagination onWeb.
Explaining what it is that historians actually do is the topic of Ludmilla Jordanova's History in Practice. She writes "History in Practice has three goals: to give readers a sense of the issues in the discipline; to place the field in a wider context; and to sketch in what historians actually do and how and why they do it." Topics include: Mapping the Discipline of History, History and Other Disciplines, The Status of Historical Knowledge, Periodisation, Public History, and Historians' Skills. Easy to read, concise, and insightful, this text is an outstanding basic introduction. American examples are used only incidentally.
Jordanova, Ludmilla. History in Practice. London: Arnold and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Lockwood Book Collection D16.J74.2000
XV.
The Historical Monograph in the Electronic Age
Robert Darnton -- Princeton
University historian, specialist in book history, and past American Historical
Association president -- has led the way in thinking about the ways in
which e-books can lead to different forms of historical communication.
Through his leadership, AHA has established a program of turning exceptional
dissertations into e-books, Gutenberg-e http://www.theaha.org/prizes/gutenberg/
His thoughts on this are presented in his brief essay A Historian of
Books, Lost and Found in Cyberspace http://www.theaha.org/prizes/gutenberg/rdarnton.cfm.
Search our catalog using Gutenberg-e as a title for a list of monographs
available. See also his New York Review of Books (18 March
1999) article, The New Age of the Book, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/546
Darnton provides a personal
example of his suggestions in his AHA presidential address published in
the American Historical Review, vol. 105, no. 1, An Early Information
Society: News and Media in Eighteenth-Century Paris, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/105.1/ah000001.html
XVI.
The World Wide Web and Book TV
Some Web resources especially useful for students of American history historiography are:
The premier Web site for teachers and students of American history is History Matters and an immediate second is the Crossroads project. Both reflect the diversity of contemporary historical work, the later through the classifications under which it lists Web resources and, of course, through the sources selected. But the former offers excellent annotations of hundred of sites and a wonderful exploration of the ways in which a diversity of primary sources can be analyzed. This is important, because the types of sources analyzed is a prerequisite for the doing of various kinds of history. Further, different sources allow us to hear different voices from the past and thus to write "different" histories or fuller histories.
In a section entitled
"Making Sense of Evidence" of History Matters individually authored essays
address the interpretive use of oral history (all are excellent, but this
contribution is especially well developed), films, maps, and quantitative
data. Essays also include suggested primary and secondary sources,
along with an annotated bibliography of Web sites. This is the "Making
Sense of Documents" section; the second section, "Scholars in Action,"
thorough audio clips (accompanied by transcripts), brings an immediacy
to personal presentations. Each scholar includes a sample "exercise"
for the reader. Topics covered are: an 1804 inventory, political
cartoons, Blue's songs, photographs, letters, abolitionist speeches, a
story by Herman Melville, and a colonial newspaper article. Searchable
online at:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu
Crossroads
Eliohs. “This electronic library is designed to supply in electronic form the full text of classics of historiography, works of methodology, theory and philosophy of history, key works of the historiographical debates, classics of historical erudition, travel literature, historical narratives of the rise and development of particular sciences, arts or techniques, literary works of historiographical relevance, handbooks of history for schools and universities.”. Searchable online at http://www.eliohs.unifi.it/eliohs_eng/index.html
Voice of the Shuttle, University of California - Santa Barbara, lists many valuable links, largely European, under the heading Historiography (Philosophy and Methodology of History). Americanists will find a link to John Franklin Jameson's History of Historical Writing in America (1891) and Jennifer May Lee's discusion of agency and identity in historical texta and the debate over the National History Standards in the U.S. Searchable online at: http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2713#id1325
American Hypertexts, produced at the University of Virginia, offers the full texts of: Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, Frederick Lewis Allen Only Yesterday, Alexis de Tocquevile Democracy in America, and Frederick Jackson Turner The Frontier in American History. Searchable online at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/hypertex.html
Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Studying History, Fordham University, lists links to the full text of many major historiograpohical works under the headings: Writing History, Ancient Theories, 19th Century Philosophies of History, Professional Theories, History and Epistemology, History and Anthropology, History and Identity Politics, Post-Modern Theories, and Miscellaneous Discussions (among contibutors are C. Vann Woodward, David Lowenthal, Lynne V.Cheney, Natalie Zemon Davis , and Samuel P. Huntington). There is an entire section devoted to the "Nature of Historiography," which, fo course, is not totally devoted to American history. THere are sections on History and Epistemology, History and Anthropology, History and Identity Politics, Post-Modern Theories. Searcahble online at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook01.html
National Standards for History (1996). "The development of the History Standards was administered by the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles under the guidance of the National Council for History Standards. The standards were developed with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U.S. Department of Education." Searchable online at: ttp://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/
*
Book TV. “Each weekend, Book TV features 48 hours of nonfiction books from 8am Saturday to 8am Monday. This web site will enhance information on those books, provide an opportunity to watch or listen to programs you might have missed, and provide additional information not available on the network “ Of course, you can watch Book TV on CSpann-2, there is a heavy emphasis on history books. Book TV offers an opportunity to “see” the people whose work you may be reading – once you’ve seen an author discuss his or her work you’ll have special insights into it. Book TV is a wonderful aid to staying current with contemporary non-fiction writing. Search http://www.booktv.org/history/. You can watch many of the programs on your computer, visit: http://www.booktv.org/history/ And you can buy tapes of the programs – for your own work or for instructional purposes, visit: http://www.c-spanstore.com/c-spanstore/history.html
XVII.
America's Past in Popular Memory
How the past is remembered and portrayed in popular media -- historical fiction, film, historical sites and museums, and oral memories (original and interpreted) -- is an appropriate topic of historiographical investigation. This has been most recently appreciated in:
Thelen, David, ed. Memory and American History. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989. Lockwood Book Collection See especially Michael Frisch's " American History and the Structures of Collective Memory: A Modest Exercise in Empirical Iconography."
Rosenzweig, Roy and David Thelen. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Lockwood Book Collection E179.5.R67.1998
Winter, Jay. "The Memory Boom in Contemporary Historical Studies." Raritan 21, no. 1 (2001): 52-66.
Greenberg, Douglas. "History ia a Luxury': Mrs. Thatacher, Mr. Disney, and (Public) History. Reviews in American History 26, no. 1 (1998): 294-311.
Gedi,
Noa and Yigal Elam. "Collective Memory - What is It?" History
and Memory 8 (Spring/Summer 1996): 30-50.
Ellison, Ralph, William Styron, Robert Penn Warren, and C. Vann Woodward. "The Uses of History in Fiction." Southern Literary Journal 1, no. 2 (1969): 57-90.
Gearhart, Suzanne. "History as Criticism: The Dialogue of History and Literature." Diacritics 17, no. 3 (1987): 56-65.
Mink, Louis O. "History and Fiction as Modes of Comprehension." New Literary History 1 (1969/1970): 541-558.
American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999. Lockwood Reference Collection PS374.H5D47.1999
Historical Figures in Nineteenth Century Fiction. Donald K. Hartman. Kenmore, N.Y.: Epoch Books, 1999. Lockwood Reference Collection PN3441.H372.1999
American Historical Fiction: A Bibliographic Guide. Vandelia VanMeter. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1997. Lockwood reference Collection Z1231.F4V36.1997
Historical Figures in Fiction. Donald K. Hartman and Gregg Suypp. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1997. Lockwood Reference Collection PN3441.H37.1994
America as Story: Historical Fiction for Secondary Schools. Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard. Chicago: American Library Association, 1988. Lockwood Book Collection Z1232.H68.1988
Cowart, David. History of the Contemporary Novel. Carbondalre: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989. Lockwood Book Collection PN3343.C68.1089
Hellekson, Karen. The Alternate History: Refiuguring Historical Time. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2001. Lockwood Book Collection PS374.H5H44.2001
Henederson, Harry. Versions of the Past: The Historical Imagination in American Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974. Lockwood Book Collection PS374.H5.1974
Hughson, Lois. From Biography to History: The Historical Imagination and American Fiction, 1880-1940. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1988. Lockwood Book Collection PS374.H5H84.1988
Ramirez, Bruno. Clio in Words and in Moition: Practices of Narrating the Past." Journal of American History 86, no. 3 (1999): 987-1014.
Rosenstone, Robert A. "The Historical Film as Real History." Film and History 5 (1995): 2-23.
Rosenstone, Robert A., ed. Revisioning History: Film and the Constuction of a New Past. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Lockwood Book Collection PN1995.2.R48.1995
Rosenstone, Robert A., ed. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Cambridge: Lockwood Book Collection PN1995.2.R67.1995
Winkler, Karen J. "History in Hollywood: The Way Films Present the Past." The Chronicle of Higher Education 42, no. 16 (15 December 1995): A10-13.
The essay "Making Sense of Film" by Tom Gunning is available on the History Matters Website. In addition to explaining how to study film as an historical artifact, it offers Websites that are good exapmles of and for film study and a bibliography of historical works on film. Both are annotated.
Pohl, Frances K. Framing America: A Social History of American Art. Lockwood Book Collection
Trachtenberg,
Alan. "Contesting the West." Art in America 79, no.
9 (1991): 118-123, 152.
Crane, Susan A., ed. Museums and Memory. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2000. Lockwood Book Collection
Gable, Eric and Richard Handler. "The Authority of Documents at Some American History Museums." Journal of American History 81, no. 1 (June 199?): 118-128.
Kaplan, Flora S. Museums and the Making of Ourselves: The Role of Objects in National Identity. London: Cassell. 1996. Lockwood Book Collection E161 .S24 1990
Leon, Warren and Roy Rosenzweig, ed. History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989. Lockwood Book Collection E159 .H73 1989
Schlereth, Thomas J. Cultural History and Material Culture: Everyday Life, Landscapes, Museums. Orginingally published 1990. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1992. Lockwood Book Collection E161 .S24 1990
ALHFAM is the museum organization for those involved in living historical farms, agricultural museums, outdoor museums of history and folklife and those museums - large and small - that use "living history" programming. http://www.alhfam.org/
A list on this site collects
links to WWW homepages of living history, agricultural, and open-air museums.
These include such sites as Connecticut's Mystic Seaport, New York's Fort
Ticonderoga, New York City's Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Massachusetts'
Old Sturbridge Village, and Virginia's Colonial Williamsburg. Over
180 sites are listed and among these are institutions in Canada, Europe,
and Australia and New Zealand. http://www.alhfam.org/alhfam.links.html
Jeffrey, Jaclyn and Glenace Edward, eds. Memory and History: Essays on Recalling and Interpreting Experience. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991.
Journal of American History. 1987. Each September.
Hardy III, Charles and Alessandro Portelli. "I Can Almost See the Lights of Home -- A Field Trip to Harlan County, Kentucky." The Journal of Multimedia History 2 (1999).
Insight into the most
effective ways to conduct such research is offered by an essay on the History
Matters Website.
XVIII.
Historiography and What Never Happened
War games as well as alternate and counterfactual history are based on the assumption that historical events have elements which are interconnected and that if these elements or outcomes in one component of an event change, then the event itself will be changed to a greater or lesser extent. The pont is made by historian Sydney Hook when he writes, "The validity of the historian's findings will depend upon his ability to discover a method of roughly measuring the relative strength of the various factors present." Defining the elements of the "event", the factors that can individually or in combination effect an outcome, are historiographical decisions. The most serious work in this area has been done in quantitative history, where "what if" statements are common. The outcomes of alternate historical accounts are in and of themselves less interesting than accounts which in detail explain the decisions and events that led to the divergent outcomes. Would the Civil War have ended differently if the South had freed its slaves in 1861? What would Colonial America have been like without the Indians? How differently would Anglo-American culture have evolved without having to adapt to the Indian presence? Could the American Revolution have occurred without the Great Awakening? Suppose the Normandy invasion had failed? Or that Nazi German had developed the atomic bomb? These are clearly more difficult questions than what would have happended if a particular number or numbers were different in a equation.
For a discussion of "counterfactual analysis" see Hary Ritter's Dictonary of Concepts in History, pp. 70-75.
The best discussion of what is and what is not alternative history is Gordon B. Chamberlain's "Allohistory in Science Fiction," in Alternative Histories.
Alternate Histories: Eleven Stories of the World As It Might Have Been. Edited by Charles G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg; with an afterword by Gordon B. Chamberlain and a bibliography by Barton C. Hacker and Gordon B. Chamberlain. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986. Lockwood Book Collection D25.5.W44.2000
In the preface to Almost History, cited below, author Steve Tally explains that counterfactual history "is an attempt to show what our history might have been like had particular events taken a different turn." And later he writes, "counterfactual history allows us to pick up a moment in history . . . and try to come away with new knowledge of what was happening at th time."
Popular examples of alternate and counterfactual history include:
Almost America: From the Colonists to Clinton: A 'What If' History of the U.S. New York: Quill, 2000. Lockwood Book Collection E179.T35.2000 In twenty-eight chapters Steve Sally explores such"what ifs' as: What if George Washington and his troops had not crossed the Delaware? What if American Revolutionary War general George Rogers Clark had not attacked the British at Fort Sackville? What if the Articles of Confederation had remained the basis of the American government? What would the nation's chief executive offices look like had the original plan for the vice presidency continued? What if Andrew Jackson had fought the British without the help of a band of pirates? What if the presidential election deadlock of 1824 had not been resolved? What if Samuel Morse had remained a painter and not invented the telegraph? What if Robert E. Lee had accepted command of the Union armies? What of Theodore Roosevelt had decided in band football in 1906? What if Richard Nixon had remained in office to fight his impeachment? In fact, the book's Website -- http://xxxxxxxxxx -- allows one to read the Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon chapters.
In 1995 then Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen authored 1945. The "what if" is: Suppose Hitler was lying in a coma December 1941 and Germany never declared war on the United States. By 1946 America had won the war in the Pacific, but Germany has triumphed in Europe. America holds nuclear weapons; Germany does not. How does Germany respond to America's lead? The sequel Fortress Europe (to be published in 1996) was to explore this question, but it was canceled by the publisher. In June 2003 Gingrich and Forstchen are scheduled to publish Gettysburg: Lee's Greatest Victory with St. Martin's.
Other texts worth noting are:
Borden, Morton and Otis L. Graham, Jr. Speculations on American History. Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1977. Lockwood Book Collection E175.B67 This Is a collection of twelve alternate histories which consist of a description of what actually happened, followed by exploration of the possible consequences of a divergence.
Cowley, Robert, ed. What If? The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. New York: Putnam, 1999. Lockwood Book Collection xxxxxx Focused on military history. Speculation varies from paragraphs to up to a detailed page of events. The emphasis is largely on the events that were crucial to developing the history that did occur. Discussions that deal with American history are: David McCullough's "What the Fog Wrought"; James M. McPherson's "If the Lost Orders Hadn't Been Lost"; W. Sear's "A Confederate Cause and Other Scenarios"; and Theodore F. Cook's "Our Midway Disaster."
Cowley, Robert, ed. What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. New York: Putnam, 2002. Lockwood Book Collection xxxxxx Twenty-five speculative essays, with actual speculation ranging from a couple of paragraphs to a few detailed pages. Discussions that deal with American history are: Theodore F. Cook's "The Chinese Discovery of the New World, 15th Century"; Tom Wicker's "If Lincoln Had Not Freed the Slaves"; John Lukac's "The Election of Theodore Roosevelt, 1912"; Geoffrey C. Ward's "The Luck of Franklin D. Roosevelt"; Richard B. Frank's "No Bomb, No End"; James Chace's "The Presidency of Henry Wallace"; and Lance Morrow's "A Tale of Three Congressmen, 1948."
Solid introductions of a much more scholarly nature include:
Patton, Phil; Frederic Smoler, and James McPherson. "Lee Defeats Grant/Past Tense/Gettysburg, 1862." American Heritage 50, no. 5 (1999): 39-42, 44-46, 48-50, 52-53.
Ransom, Roger L. "Fact and Counterfact: The "Second American Revolution" Revisited." Civil War History 45, no. 1 (1999): 28-60.
Axtell, James. "Colonial America without the Indians: Counterfactual Reflections." Journal of American History 73, no. 4 (!987): 981-996.
Murrin, John M. "No Awakening, No Revolution? More Counterfactual Speculation." Reviews in American History 11, no. 2 (1983): 161-171.
Gould, J. B. "Hypothetical History." Economic History Review 22, no. 2 (1969): 195-207.
Schick, James B. M. "Historical Choices." History Microcomputer Review 4, no. 1 (1988): 21-35.
To stay current with popular alternate history stories and related material visit Uchronia -- http://www.uchronia.net/ -- and Suite101.com: Alternate History -- http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/alternative_history. See also R. B. Schmunk's Alternative History, an annotated and cross-indexed list of fictional work -- http://
Suite101.com hosts discussions on "what if" topics, for example, no atomic bomb at the conclusion of World War II and the defeat of the Constitution's ratification by the Antifederalists. Alternate history Web sites are identified. along with the full text of some theoretical articles.
Uchronia is the the most comprehesoive Web site on the subject. At its heart it features a large bibliography of counterfactual works as well as references to work about counterfactual history.
XIX.
Historians in the News
use with H-Net
History News Network (HNN) -- http://hnn.us/departments/22.html --is a non-profit organization and while its web site resides on George Mason University's server it is connected with neither George Mason nor the Center for History and New Media. Its advisory board is distinguished and includes Joyce Appleby, past president of the American Historical Association; Pauline Maier, MIT; and Walter Nugent, University of Notre Dame. On this site historians and others communicate with one another through discussion and by submitting brief articles and a diversity of news organs are monitored for news concerning history and historians. Through this service one can follow both historiographical and ethical controversies in often excruciating detail as well as commentary on contemporary events. And sometimes one will find publications, such as David Herbert Donald's "In What Ways am I an American Writer?" 12-09-02. See the department Historians/History.
XX. Sets, Series, and Manuals as Historiographical Reflections
George Bancroft mummental history of the origins of the American people. The narrative style of hsitory writing one of its major achievemnets was the American Statesmen series. They were persisinet accumulators of documents and one of their best examples is Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History. An age pof pooling talent, apparent in the American Nation. After the First World War social historians with the help of the evolving social sciences profuced the wholist The History of American Life.
Perspectives on American
Book History: Artifacts and Commentary.
Scott Casper, Joanne Chaison, and Jeff Groves, eds. This volume is
a survey of American book history. A collection of original essays
and primary source materials -- the text is an acknowledgeable that book
history had come of age, it has entered the classroom.