Subject Guides: HIST 339: Modern British Empire: Historiography & Methods

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Doris Wagner

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Selected titles in Historiography

The historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth: trends, interpretations and resources
Call Number: DA 1 W77
Debate on the Rise of the British Empire by Webster, Anthony This fascinating and highly useful book examines the rise of the British empire and the various debates among historians of imperialism over the past two hundred years. It discusses why the empire is so attractive to historians, why there is so much debate and controversy surrounding the subject, and how different generations of historians have read the various episodes in the history of the empire often radically differently. Chapters look at the enduring fascination with the empire among historians; early twentieth century economic explanations for the dynamic expansion of the empire in the Victorian period; the controversies surrounding empire in the 1950s; post colonial theory and its critics; religion, race, gender and class; and debates on capitalism and the empire since the 1980. The final chapter investigates how Britain's imperial history might be viewed in years to come. An engaging and useful work of historiography, this book will be essential reading for students of British imperialism attempting to get to grips with the subject.
Call Number: DA 16 W335 2006
A Place in the World: new local historiographies from Africa and South Asia Local histories, written and published by non-academic historians, constitute a rapidly expanding genre in contemporary non-Western societies. However, academic historians and anthropologists usually take little notice of them. This volume takes a comparative look at local historical writing. Thirteen case studies, set in seven different countries of sub-Saharan Africa, India and Nepal, examine the authors, their books and their audiences. From different perspectives, they analyse the genres intellectual roots, its relationship to oral historical narratives, and its relevance and impact in local and wider arenas. Local histories, it turns out, pursue a variety of agendas. They (re)construct local and communal identities affected by rapid social change. Often, they (re)write history as part of cultural and political struggles. Openly or implicitly, all of them place local communities on the map of the world at large.
Call Number: DT 352.5 H37 2002
The fabrication of Aboriginal history
Call Number: DU 123.4 W55 2002 v.1, v.3
Themes in Australian history : questions, issues, and interpretation in an evolving historiography
Call Number: DU 96 F37 1990
Remembering : writing oral history - Subject term: Oral history--New Zealand. - Subject term: Oral tradition--New Zealand. - Geographic term: New Zealand--Social life and customs. - Geographic term: New Zealand--Historiography.
Call Number: DU 418 R46 2004
Establishing Exceptionalism: historiography and the colonial Americas Since the 1950s historians of the colonial era in North, South and Central America have extended the frontiers of basic general knowledge enormously; this rich historiographical tradition has generated robust methodological discussions about how to study the European encounter in the light of the experience of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. By bringing together major research reviews by a series of leading scholars, this volume makes it possible to compare directly approaches relating to colonial North America, Brazil, the Spanish borderlands, and the Caribbean.
Call Number: E 18.82 E88 1995

For more, Search the library, including the term Historiography in your keywords:

Historigraphy colonial Britain
Historiography Commonwealth
Historiography Australia

From the ruins of colonialism : history as social memory
Call Number: DU 108 H38 1997
Historical disciplines and culture in Australasia : an assessment
Call Number: DU 108 H67 1979
Humanism and history: origins of modern English historiography
Call Number: DA 1 L665 1987
Texts and contexts : reflections in Pacific Islands historiography
Call Number: DU 28.11 T49 2006

Selected Guides to Historical Research Methods

Being a Historian: An Introduction to the Professional World of History by James M. Banner Based on the author's more than 50 years of experience as a professional historian in academic and other capacities, Being a Historian is addressed to both aspiring and mature historians. It offers an overview of the state of the discipline of history today and the problems that confront it and its practitioners in many professions. James M. Banner, Jr argues that historians remain inadequately prepared for their rapidly changing professional world and that the discipline as a whole has yet to confront many of its deficiencies. He also argues that, no longer needing to conform automatically to the academic ideal, historians can now more safely and productively than ever before adapt to their own visions, temperaments and goals as they take up their responsibilities as scholars, teachers and public practitioners. Critical while also optimistic, this work suggests many topics for further scholarly and professional exploration, research and debate.
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Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smit
Going to the sources: a guide to historical research and writing
Call Number: D 16 B893 2013
Historical Knowledge by Susanna Fellman; Marjatta Rahikainen
Call Number: D 13 H588 2012

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