History is a classical intellectual/research discipline with roots stretching back for centuries. As such, History has its own, complex tradition of literature review called "historiography." Simply defined, Historiography is the History of History -- that is, the study of the History produced and written on a given project, including:
There are also many books dedicated to historiography, both as a discipline (that is, books dedicated to the general theory, philosophy, and practice of historiography) as well as books reviewing historiographies of scholarship in particular areas of history.
The Oxford Handbooks on ... is an excellent suite of books providing cutting edge overviews and literature (often historiographical) reviews on a very wide range of fields of inquiry (many of them historical). To search for relevant titles, enter your keywords in the search box on the upper right. After you complete this step, narrow the results using the options (such as subject or series) in the faceting menu on the left.
The following reference titles identify key historians and key works in particular fields (whether subject, temporal, or geographically based). These may also be helpful in preparing for qualifying exams as they provide overviews of the historiography on given topics as well as the frameworks and theoretical orientations associateed and/or applied with/to them. Unfortunately the print works below are dated; much new history has been written since their publication! Nonetheless, they are very useful for tracing the development of certain schools of history and identifying seminal historians.
Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing
A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing
The AHA Guide to Historical Literature -- this provides bibliographies in different fields more than Historical Essays, but regardless, is very useful to identifying seminal works and overviews on particular themes.
The following journals provide historiographical essays and reviews of groups of books representing particular and often new schools of historiography.
The American Historical Review is the seminal journal published in the United States dedicated to Historiography on all (not just U.S.) historical topics.
The Hispanic American Historical Review is the seminal journal published in the United States dedicated to Historiography on Spanish American historical topics.
Diccionario enciclopédico de Baja California by José Rogelio Alvarez (Director)
Call Number: Geisel Reference Floor 2 West F1246 .D54 1989
Publication Date: Ciudad de México : Cía. Editora de Enciclopedias de México : Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, 1989
As with research to find any kind of source (primary, secondary, reference/tertiary) for a scholarly project, developing an understanding of the historiography on a given topic requires mining the citations in the footnotes or endnotes and bibliographies to identify more sources another name for this is seed research, as the original source you begin with is a seed and you follow its roots or branches to other sources). As you identify the entire body of literature written on a given topic and read sources related to your topic, you will get a sense of the questions asked about the subject over time, the scholarly methods used to answer these questions, and areas in need of more attention. Thus, historiographical review is essential to developing and completing your own research.
Two incredibly useful resources focus on identifying seminal works in different subject areas via Annotated bibligraphies:
Oxford Bibliographies: Annotated bibliographies and bibliographic essays on a wide range of subjects which not only point to excellent, seminal publications in a wide range of fields (including history), but also provide examples of bibliographic essays, which are closely related to historiographical essays and literature reviews.
The Handbook of Latin American Studies: Annual Serial containing curated lists of seminal literature organized by theme. The Handbook has been published by the Library of Congress since 1935, when Lewis Hanke moved from Harvard to become the first Chief of the Hispanic Reading Room. Publications alternate by year, focusing on the Humanities and Social Sciences, respectively. Each group of theme-identified titles begins with a paragraph providing a literature (and often partly historiographical) review of that years' scholarly production. Currently, the most recent print volume is available in Geisel's Reference Section. Beginning with Vol. 75 (2003), annual installments are also available digitally through collaboration between the University of Texas and JSTOR. Annotations of particular titles (indexed by subjects as well as authors) can be accessed through the HLAS online platform, but without the brief thematic essays contextualizing them.
Topical Essays in Print and Online Reference sources (Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Handbooks, etc. -- including, but not limited to, those above) can also help you identify key publications and resources on your topic. Some key online reference packages are identified on the "Beginning Your Research" tab on this Guide.
Searching in Catalogs and Databases for historiographical literature:
In addition to following citations to new sources and using the particular platforms and resources outlined above, it is also helpful to search for historiographical literature in library catalogs (including UC Library Search) and article databases (particularly America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts) with a search string combining:
historiograph* (historiography OR historiographical) AND particular subject area(s)
