The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History

by Williams; Robert C

• ISBN13: 9780765610928
• ISBN10: 0765610922
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

A guide to the theory and methods of historical research covers the use of such tools as documents, footnotes, and chronologies, and includes information on professional ethics, plagarism, and historical hoaxes.

Author Biography

Robert C. Williams is Vail Professor of History and Dean of Faculty Emeritus at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Illustrations and Tables	xi
History as Fun	xiii
Part I. The Craft of History
The Past	3	(4)
Story	7	(4)
History	11	(10)
Metahistory	21	(8)
Antihistory	29	(6)
The Present	35	(6)
The Future	41	(8)
Part II. The Tools of History
Doing History: An Overview	49	(9)
Choosing a Good Paper Topic	49	(1)
Reading History	50	(3)
Taking Notes	53	(1)
How to Write a Good History Paper	54	(4)
Sources and Evidence	58	(23)
Primary and Secondary Sources	58	(3)
Primary Source: The Wannsee Protocol (1942)	59	(1)
Secondary Source: Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (2000)	59	(2)
Summary	61	(1)
Documents	61	(2)
A Revolutionary War Ancestor's Pension Application (1832)	61	(2)
Maps	63	(3)
Sebastian Munster's Map of the Americas, c. 1540	63	(3)
Artifacts	66	(2)
Digging Ancient Moscow	66	(2)
Images	68	(4)
Sharpshooter's Home or Photographer's Studio?	68	(4)
Cliometrics: Using Statistics to Prove a Point	72	(2)
The Black Population of Colonial America	72	(2)
Genetic Evidence	74	(7)
Welsh and Basques, Relatively Speaking	74	(1)
Jefferson and Sally Hemings---What's My Line?	75	(6)
Credit and Acknowledgment	81	(13)
Footnotes	81	(2)
Bibliography	83	(2)
Styling Your Bibliography	83	(1)
Types of Bibliographies	84	(1)
A Selective, Annotated Bibliography	84	(1)
Acknowledging Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism	85	(3)
Professional Plagiarism: How Not to Do History	88	(4)
Using the Internet: Promises and Pitfalls	92	(2)
Narrative and Explanation	94	(20)
The Language of the Historian	94	(5)
Paul Revere and the New England Village	95	(4)
Chronology	99	(3)
The Life of Margaret Fuller	99	(3)
Narrative	102	(4)
Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg	102	(4)
Argument	106	(2)
``Little Women'' Who Helped Make This Great War	107	(1)
Causation	108	(2)
The Reasons Why	110	(4)
Explaining the Mann Gulch Fire of August 5, 1949	111	(3)
Interpretation	114	(16)
Reviewing History	114	(4)
Bellesiles's Arming America	114	(4)
Historical Revision	118	(3)
The Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy (1822)	118	(3)
Historiography	121	(4)
World War II	122	(3)
Women's History: The Leo Frank Case	125	(5)
Speculation	130	(20)
Historical Speculation	130	(2)
Will the Real Martin Guerre Please Get an Identity?	130	(2)
History as Fiction	132	(3)
The Soldier Who Never Was	133	(2)
Conspiracies	135	(3)
Who Really Really Killed Lincoln?	135	(3)
Forgeries and Facsimiles	138	(4)
Is a Document Genuine?	138	(1)
Is a Collection of Documents Authentic?	139	(1)
How Can Forgeries Influence History?	140	(1)
Is a Newly Discovered Collection by a Well-Known Author Authentic?	141	(1)
If It Is a Forgery, Who Is the Forger?	141	(1)
Fiction as History	142	(3)
Film as History: Fact or Fiction?	145	(5)
Film Can Help the Historian Understand the Past	145	(2)
Films Can Hinder Our Understanding of the Historical Past	147	(3)
Everyday History	150	(5)
Studying Ordinary People	150	(2)
The Burgermeister's Daughter	150	(2)
Everyone's a Historian	152	(3)
Glossary	155	(8)
Bibliography	163	(4)
Index	167	(4)
About the Author	171