Secondary Literature

What do historians do with the knowledge they have gained from locating, reading and analysing their source material? Although they sometimes channel their findings into new media, such as broadcasting or the Internet, overwhelmingly historians still communicate their findings through writing. Historical writing can take many forms, including specialist books, textbooks, articles in learned journals or articles in the press, and each form of writing is geared towards a specific type of readership. The readership for historical writing has changed significantly over time and historical writing has changed accordingly. This section will introduce you to a wide range of different types of historical writing in order to illustrate how the alert student should approach the task of reading it.

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