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RR 2014/035 Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing (5th edition) Anthony Brundage Wiley-Blackwell Malden, MA and Oxford 2013 xiii + 162 pp. ISBN 978 1 118 51531 0 (pbck); ISBN 978 1 118 51527 3 (e-text) £12.99
Keywords Guides and handbooks, Historical research
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-07-2013-0172
This is an accessible and student-friendly reference book of historical research methods by Anthony Brundage, Professor Emeritus of History at California State University. It is not only a practical guide to the nuts and bolts of historical research such as database searching, construction of research methods and writing essays, but an interesting overview and consideration of the nature of history and historical study.
In the first chapter of this fifth edition, Brundage refutes the popular opinion of history as a fixed and static field of study, rather than a dynamic and open-ended process, telling the story of an encounter with a fellow academic at a cocktail party who remarked, "I don't suppose there's much new going on in your field?" (p. 1). There are always new developments in historical research including post-modern readings, cliometrics, psychohistory and microhistory - Brundage makes the point that our view of historical events changes in step with social, cultural and economic changes in the world - for example, twenty-first century historians, coming from the progression of the civil rights movement and changes in the political and social landscape of America, may interpret the events of the American Civil War in a very different manner from a historian living in the middle of the 1950s.
The sections of each chapter are generally short and to the point, which is ideal for quick reference. Chapter One deals with nature and perception of history, the development of historical methodologies such as postmodernism, cliometrics (a quantitative as opposed to qualitative method of interpreting history), micro and macro history, the history of people (as opposed to the study of kings, queens, rulers and figureheads) and women's history. Chapter Two then goes on to look at the kinds of sources historians may use, both primary and secondary...