How to Research History

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Scholars in all academic disciplines use evidence to draw conclusions and make arguments.  What makes History unique is that historians are limited to the evidence of the past that has survived to us in the present.  Historians cannot conduct experiments, take surveys, or engage in participant observation, for example.  Except for very recent historical periods, we cannot interview the people whose lives and ideas we most want to understand.  Instead, we rely on primary sources—that is, materials written or otherwise generated in the past that provide evidence of past events, trends, thoughts, behaviors, and interactions.  The primary sources that historians use vary widely depending on time and place:  the evidence that has survived from ancient Mesopotamia is vastly different from the evidence that has survived from 18th-century West Africa or from the United States during World War II.  As a result, the nature of historical research varies widely, and your very best guides to research in any given time and place are historians who have made that time and place their life’s work.  Fortunately, you are students at one of the leading research institutions in the nation, and the Department of History at UW-Madison is home to faculty members whose research specialties cover a great variety of historical periods and world regions.  In addition, many trained historians are affiliated with other departments and programs on campus.  Finally, the UW-Madison libraries hold an extraordinary range of primary source materials and employ specialized librarians who can help you find the materials you need.  And, of course, the explosion of on-line collections of primary sources further enables the task of historical research with each passing day.

Courses with Research Opportunities

• Directed Study 699
• Seminar 600
• Senior Honors Thesis 681/682
• Senior Thesis 691/692