Preface

This informal guide to becoming a research historian offers step-by-step advice, as between good friends. Academic history-writing began as a profession of privilege. The old adage that history was ‘written by the winners’ operated for too long. National archives tended to be records of the world as seen by Western states, while universities began as gatekeepers of class privilege, masculine authority and racial homogeneity. Traditionally, navigating the routes into the academic profession required a good stock of cultural capital, while the abolition of grants and imposition of fees have in effect created a new set of financial hurdles.

But there have been and are slow processes – and sometime more rapid surges – of long-term change. Recruitment into the academic world has broadened. Multiple voices from many different backgrounds are now beginning to share the debates. And the themes that are studied have broadened immensely too. The old focus upon power and state formation has become enriched and challenged by new explorations of gender, identity, ethnic heritage, memory and resistance to power. In sum, the world of history researchers is manifestly not the same as it was in 1920 (100 years ago) or in 1970 (fifty years ago) – or even in 2000 (hardly a generation ago).

Becoming a Historian seeks to provide a practical and down-to-earth guide for all those seeking to circumvent the traditional gatekeepers and to participate in an inclusive community of practice. The world of research at its best is open and sharing. But it can sometimes seem as though its unwritten codes are cliquish and excluding. This Guide is dedicated to opening doors. It advises on all the stages of a project, from finding a topic to completion – and onwards after that. It explains the various codes and conventions which operate to underpin an international community of historical researchers.

Furthermore, each journey is a personal adventure. This Guide also shares the excitement of research ‘highs’, when things go well; and offers help for coping with the ‘lows’, when hours of patient investigations seem to have led nowhere. It also provides real-life case-histories to show how others have travelled these pathways before, while acknowledging that the challenges faced by each new generation of scholars will always be different.

Above all, this Guide believes that studying the past is a deeply foundational branch of human knowledge, which simultaneously entails a profound and political engagement with the present. All have a right to participate. The journey takes thought and effort but the processes and debates are endlessly fascinating (and not mysterious). This Guide extends the hand of friendship to all comers.

PJC and TH

London

Spring 2022