Overview
Historiographies can be considered a type of literature review, and are one of the key ways that scholars frame their work in the context of existing scholarship.
Historiography is commonly defined as a “history of history”; however more precisely it is the intellectual history of scholarship of a given topic, discipline, or theoretical framework. Though most associated with the field of history, historiography is also used in other humanities fields. It differs from a literature review in that historiography is not only concerned about relevant scholarship on a topic but also the changing ideas, interpretations, and approaches (theoretical, philosophical, and methodological) that scholars have taken towards a topic over time. As historian David Wrobel puts it:
“Historiography is the study of the dynamic past, a past that is always messy, ever changing, never resolved, and always relevant to the present. The past is contested terrain and the historiographer is the explorer of that interpretive battlefield.”
Types of historiographical essays:
- Historiographies embedded in articles and books. Unlike many of the STEM and social science publications there is usually no section within an article labeled “historiography,” rather the historiographical portion of the publication is often interwoven in the introduction and in the footnotes.
- Standalone historiographies. In history and the humanities, historiography is so important a scholarly activity that they often appear as standalone articles and books. These works help keep readers updated on the state of the discipline or scholarship on a topic.
It is common for graduate students to be required to write a historiographical essay as part of their academic coursework. Consequently, it can be helpful to expose yourself early on to examples of historiographies, and to see if one already exists for research topics similar to your own.
Activity: Find a Recent Historiographical Essay or Book
Think of a historical research topic that you’re looking forward to learning more about this year.
- What are some keywords that describe that topic?
- What is the broader chronological, regional, or subject context for the topic?
- What is the theoretical framework or lens you will using?
For book length works, search on the subject word historiography as well as one or more of your keywords in advance search option of UW Libraries Search using this model:
Enter “historiography” in the first search box. Change the box label to “Subject.” Enter your other topic keywords in the next search box (example: imperialism united states]. Set other limiters, e.g., Show only: UW Libraries and Material Type: eBooks.
You can also search for article-length historiographical essays by doing similar searches in databases such as:
Scan the results for potentially relevant articles. If results are not forthcoming, try a different database listed — or one of your choosing from your area’s research guides.
You can also browse publications that specialize in historiographical essays such as:
Annual Reviews (mostly STEM and Social Sciences literature reviews)- History Compass (there are seven discipline focused Compass journals)
- Literature CompassÂ
- Oxford Handbooks Online
Bonus Tip
- Having trouble finding standalone historiographies? Trying searching for results with root word “historiograph*” in the title only. If you need more advice, ask your cohort facilitators for assistance in Slack!
Text on the UW Libraries web pages are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0), except where otherwise noted. Images and video are not included.