History: Reference and Additional Sources

"A historiographic essay is one in which the writer, acting as a historian, studies the approaches to a topic that other historians have taken."  (Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing History, 2010)

TIPS:  

• Look for books, articles, or essays that review the literature on a specific topic, setting it in context by discussing how other historians have interpreted the topic over time. 
• Try to identify important works and critical debates about your topic.  An historiographical review of a topic focuses on secondary sources (although it may discuss the primary sources that historians examined).
• Use the term historiography as a keyword.
• Look for scholarly works across time.
• Search WorldCat, America: History & Life, Historical Abstracts, JSTOR, etc.
• Refer to the bibliographies of secondary sources for additional sources.