The Princeton Guide to Historical Research by Zachary Schrag

The Princeton Guide to Historical Research by Zachary Schrag published by Princeton University Press (2021)

I am sometimes asked for advice on writing about history by folks who want to blog or do history on social media. My guidance is that they should become familiar with the tools of the historian, even if their writing will be non-academic and aimed at a popular audience. Understanding the use of sources and how to weigh evidence takes some training, and you should get it before you start writing, or podcasting. We need more history, but it should be good history.

This new guide from Princeton to researching and writing history will be useful to someone hoping to follow a passion for the subject. It offers plenty of guidance for the budding historian and lots of examples of good writing from recent historical works. An added bonus is that a significant number of the examples relate to the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Throughout, Schrag offers tips. For example, these are some of his tips for choosing a subject:

Choose topics that spark your sense of wonder.

Start with a question, not a thesis.

Frame your question using dialectics.

He then spends a chapter explaining the tips, and offering examples of the successful employment of them. In his chapter on sources, for example, Schrag describes how historians have thought outside the box to find sources for seemingly silent segments of the population like slaves and immigrants. Here is one case study he gives:

Some records of the powerless survive through the oddest of chances, and emerge from the greatest of ingenuity. Thomas Cope was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant whose five ships connected Liverpool and Philadelphia at the height of the Irish Famine. A century and a half later, Matthew Gallman picked through Cope’s papers and found notes that Irish immigrants in Philadelphia had written on the backs of the tickets they were sending to friends and relatives who were preparing to cross the Atlantic. Since the tickets were torn in half when used, Gallman often found only half a message. Still, he was able to glean details of the lives of desperately poor people, who needed to avoid con men and thieves, but were advised not to purchase clothing, which would be cheaper in America.

Schrag gives advice on the use of archives, how to keep notes, databases for statistical information, and a host of other things. He discusses how to build a narrative, manage a research project, and create a pitch for a publisher. Lot’s of good stuff here for the history buff who wants to take it to the next level.

 

 

 

 

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