The Methods and Skills of History

Like its predecessors, the third edition of one of our most popular texts, The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide, is a dynamic text/workbook that combines theory with "hands on" practice, providing engaging essays, documents, and exercises designed to make history more meaningful and accessible to student readers—whether they are majoring in history, taking a history course as an elective, or simply reading history on their own—as well as strengthen their critical-thinking and communication skills.

While this third edition retains the essence of its highly successful predecessor in the form of its practical, timely advice on research and writing and “field-tested” exercises, it features important modifications as well, including a reorganization of the chapters to progress even more smoothly from a theoretical discussion of the nature of history (Part I), to practical considerations involved in confronting historical accounts (Part II) to actually “doing” history (Part III). The final section (Part IV) provides a brief overview of how history as a discipline evolved and how it relates to other academic disciplines, as well as appendices that comprise interesting historical documents and helpful source references and bibliographies.

Michael J. Salevouris ia a Professor of History at Webster University in St. Louis. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches courses in history methods, British and European history, the history of warfare, and the history of disease and medicine. In addition to various reviews and articles he is the author of “Riflemen Form”: The War Scare of 1859-1860 in England, and (with Conal Furay) Learning American History: Critical Skills for the Survey Course. His interests include golf, tennis, mystery novels, model building, and traveling far and wide when the opportunity presents itself.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska. Conal Furay received his doctoral degree from St. Louis University. Before becoming a Professor Emeritus at Webster University he taught such courses as American Business History and the Western in film and story. Previous publications include The Grass-Roots Mind in America, and (with Michael Salevouris) Learning American History: Critical Skills for the Survey Course. Current interests are Nebraska Cornhusker football, golfing with friends, and a late-blooming enjoyment of reading National Geographic magazine from cover to cover.