The Princeton Guide to Historical Research

by Zachary M. Schrag

The essential handbook for doing historical research in the twenty-first century

The Princeton Guide to Historical Research provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian's craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries.

Zachary Schrag begins by explaining how to ask good questions and then guides readers step-by-step through all phases of historical research, from narrowing a topic and locating sources to taking notes, crafting a narrative, and connecting one's work to existing scholarship. He shows how researchers extract knowledge from the widest range of sources, such as government documents, newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, images, interviews, and datasets. He demonstrates how to use archives and libraries, read sources critically, present claims supported by evidence, tell compelling stories, and much more.

Featuring a wealth of examples that illustrate the methods used by seasoned experts, The Princeton Guide to Historical Research reveals that, however varied the subject matter and sources, historians share basic tools in their quest to understand people and the choices they made.

Offers practical step-by-step guidance on how to do historical research, taking readers from initial questions to final publication
Connects new digital technologies to the traditional skills of the historian
Draws on hundreds of examples from a broad range of historical topics and approaches
Shares tips for researchers at every skill level

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Writing, Reference, Research, Grad School, Textbooks

440 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Amin Hashemi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book takes a lot of space to discuss trivial matters, while not going into detail about more essential things an aspiring historian would want to learn. Its method of showering the reader with multiple short examples often serves no purpose other than frustrating the reader after a few chapters. I believe the book could've been more effectively written in one hundred pages, without losing anything of potency.

[KatzeKet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Princeton Guide to Historical Research is exactly what it says it is. In this book, it details historical methodology and parts of historical research such as defining history, to scoping out research design, to less noticeable stuff like writing style and narrative.

It is a very useful book to have as a reference. What I got most out of this book is how historians think, do their research and overall get a feel for what the field is. It also made me think about history and the nuances that it contains when writing about it. I've read a few history books in my day and haven't really taken things like narrative and the way people organize events. Even ending a book at a particular date entails something. Overall, it is a pretty good read, even if the subject matter is more niche than usual. I will certain read history in a different light now.

[Katie Colley]

University back on the roster girlie pops x

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive guide to historical research. Useful.

[Alper Atasoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is quite didactic and gives plenty of examples, mostly from US historiography. But most of the examples are just one or two sentences, they don't make a significant contribution and it makes the book unnecessarily long. It bored me a bit, I left it towards the end. Maybe history and humanities undergraduates can read it but it's better to dive in writing straightly and get criticisms from lecturers and advisors.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book would be useful for undergrads and some early grad students. A lot of the length is because there are lots of examples, but you can definitely get through it very quickly if you're just focusing on the content. The best section is on writing style, with a focus on how to always be clear and specific

[Stephen Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book filled with ample examples that prove its points. However, there are some parts that feel a tad self-explanatory or are very introductory for doing historical research, so the 10+ year professional won't get a lot out of this book.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a "how to" book that manages to avoid the pitfalls of the genre with graceful writing, interesting examples, and the occasional wry aside. I'm not sure how useful it is to anyone who isn't interested in doing historical research, but it is vital to anyone who is.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every history major needs to read this book! Absolutely amazing

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

( 3 stars )

useful as a history student but so boring. this book could definitely be shorter, the amount of examples schrag goes through is overkill.

[Thomas Mackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technical read but good for starting historians but hard on us who have been working a while. Everything g we should have been doing but did not do.

[mantareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Written very accessibly, and good for anyone on any stage of the long unending road of historical research. I can see the use of getting so granular, but it bogged my reading down at times

[Juan Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good resource for anyone considering starting graduate work in history, or even just doing an independent history research project. Tons of example of what other historians have done.

[Joey Mopsink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could have saved me so much angst in undergrad

[YassinMokbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

No reason for this to be as entertaining as it was

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you need someone to tell you that you’re not doing everything wrong. Sometimes that someone is Zachary Schrag. Thanks.