Product Description

Bringing together practical methods from both history and composition, Writing History provides a wealth of tips and advice to help students research and write essays for history classes. The book covers all aspects of writing about history, including finding topics and researching them, interpreting source materials, drawing inferences from sources, and constructing arguments. It concludes with three chapters that discuss writing effective sentences, using precise wording, and revising. Using numerous examples from the works of cultural, political, and social historians, Writing History serves as an ideal supplement to history courses that require students to conduct research. The third edition includes expanded sections on peer editing and topic selection, as well as new sections on searching and using the Internet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78563 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review

"Storey's book is a first-rate guide for students who are new to the field of history and to the processes of historical research and writing. He offers a useful framework for organizing and successfully completing a major research project in a history class."--Ellen Stroud, Oberlin College
"It is rare that books about writing are well-written. This is a well-presented story that should keep students' attention throughout. It is also brilliantly practical. This is the computer manual that tells you to plug in the machine first. It is a work that students will read and that faculty can rely on."--Mark A. Kishlansky, Harvard University
"The strength of this text is its focus upon a methodical process of selecting a research topic, building the argument, and organizing the essay. Nothing else out there, in my opinion, does this as well as Writing History."--John Howard Smith, Texas A&M University-Commerce

About the Author

William Kelleher Storey is Associate Professor of History at Millsaps College. Formerly Preceptor in Expository Writing at Harvard University, he is the author of Guns, Race, and Power in Colonial South Africa (2008) and Science and Power in Colonial Mauritius (1997).

Customer Reviews

Succinct and Fun
For those of you who don't want to suffer from grammar overload, I highly recommend this volume. The book is fairly short, but each chapter offers the basic information needed to write your history paper. Additionally, Storey's writing style is light, and in some places quite humorous -- which is a pleasant bonus in a writing manual. Each chapter is broken down into nice, small sections that can be read in a few minutes each. This is great if you have a lot of small breaks during the day instead of one large chunk of study time. The book is not a chore to read.

Storey's book is an excellent first book for someone who wants to write about history, although it does not get very deep into the subject. For theories of historiography you'll need to look at other books. Also, this book won't replace your grammar manual or stylebook. Think of it as your first stop.

Simple intro
This book is fairly short (111 pgs with not a lot of print on them,) but is a great introduction to writing for history classes. It doesn't go into lots of detail, it is very basic.
It was helpful in figuring out "What on earth should I write about?" "How do I make a thesis?" all the way to finishing a history paper.

Ideal for advanced undergraduate students of history
Storey, developed this text for a writing program at Harvard. A historian by training, Storey does an excellent job of describing basic and advanced research and writing techniques. His text is succinct and lively, filled with well chosen examples. If you have ever wondered about the difference between a primary and secondary source or how to deal with contradictory evidence, this is the book for you. I assign it in my writing courses.