The Essential Historiography Reader, not only details the history of historical practice and explains historical theories and philosophies in language that is accessible to college undergraduates, it also provides excerpts to illustrate these historical approaches and help students to identify them in their own writing and in the writings of contemporary historians.


The book is organized into two main parts. The first part traces the origins of contemporary American historical traditions to their roots in ancient Greece and explains how the profession of history emerged and developed in Europe and America through the nineteenth century. The second part focuses more specifically on historiographical developments the United States since the nineteenth century.