A Student's Guide to History

by Jules R. Benjamin

A Student’s Guide to History provides the practical help students need to be effective in their history courses. In addition to introducing students to the nature of the discipline, it teaches a wide range of skills from preparing for exams to approaching common writing assignments, and it explains the research and documentation process using numerous examples throughout. With clear and accessible advice, A Student’s Guide to History is an indispensable resource for history students. New, easy-to-reference chapter organization. Shorter, more manageable chapters now focus on more specific concepts, such as building a history essay and documenting sources, so students can more easily find the information they need. Expanded coverage of working with sources. A new chapter explains how to examine any source of historical evidence — primary or secondary, written or nonwritten, print or digital. New Guidelines boxes for evaluating primary sources, a new section on sound and video recordings, new warnings about Wikipedia, and more on finding primary sources online equip students to engage in a wide range of historical work. More attention to analysis and argument. New sample writing assignments demonstrate how to analyze and compare primary and secondary sources and present theses with supporting evidence. The research chapters now offer more advice on developing a thesis, using evidence, formulating worthwhile research questions, and writing more persuasive papers. New visual citation guidelines boxes annotate sample pages from books, published letters, print articles, database articles, and Web sites, and key them to model notes and bibliographic entries to show students how to find publication information and properly cite these common sources.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks, School, Writing, Education

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Resh · Rating 1 out of 5]

93 on this paper baby!

[Robin Hatcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love to study and research history, and this textbook is a great addition to my library. I read it because it was required for a college class I took, but I will refer to it again in the future as a writer of historical fiction.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotes

Everything that exists in the present has come out of the past, and no matter how new and unique it seems to be, it carries some of the past with it.
So you can see that the house of the present is filled with the windows into the past.
Everything has a history.

providential school (predestination believers)
progressive school - our history is neither endless cycles nor divine intervention but continual progress

It is said that experience is the best teacher. Still our learning would be very narrow if we profited only from our own experiences. [By reading, we make other's experiences our own...]
[Reading] can be a satisfying experience, but to enjoy the landscape you must first know where you are; [general sense. Scout the ground.]

Summarize on index cards, especially as preparation for an exam.

Notes should be written legibly for easy review; leave plenty of space. Use titles to describe content beforehand (upfront).

How to Research Your Family History
(1) Familiarize yourself with history of the time; (2) view all records.
When interviewing, after Qs made, keep away from trivia, and look for comparative info. Have prepared Qs as broad as possible, e.g., "What was the neighborhood like when you lived there?" When hearing an answer that seems to lead into important material, ignore your prepared questions (temporarily) to probe further.

[Thomas Isern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this work as a text for the basic methods course in History. It works. I find myself adding, first, why we do things a certain way, and later, the situations when we don't do them as described.

[J.J. Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book for the budding historian. Dry reading, but that is to be expected from this sort of book. I will be using it in the future for guidance on my Major.

[Gail Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I'd had this book when I was in college. I did a minor in history, and we didn't cover any of this material. Perhaps my professors didn't know it?

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely helpful for research papers.

[gabi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t read the whole book, just what I needed to read for school.

[A, Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry ass read but still a useful text book on how to write history.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a textbook read for my university history seminar. It was a helpful book adding to my education.

[Connor Eberhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives nice information to start out on a journey into the topic of History

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good prime for history teachers and students alike!

[Bri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book for those just entering the field of history and/or doing historical research for the first time. A bit redundant to assign it for an upper level history course, however.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely helpful reference, a bit dry, but then...its a reference and citation handbook.

[Family Nehila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a text.

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a waste of my time

[Mills College Library]

907 B4685 2010

[Dev Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

sort of redundant as someone in higher ed and also as someone with google but it’s still very substantial in nature and good to have on hand

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

College textbook

[Rey Dekker · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are thinking of writing a research paper, this is the book for you!!!