Working Paper Sites of Political Science
Political History Readings List
by Patrick Fagan
compiled in 1999
What is political history? How to write and study
political history.
Paul
Bourke and Donald DeBats,
“Restoring Politics to Political History,” 15 Journal of
Interdisciplinary History (Winter, 1985): 459.
Allan
Bogue, “The Quest for Numeracy: Data and methods in American political
history,” 21 Journal of
Interdisciplinary History (Summer, 1990): 89.
Morgan
Kousse, “Toward Total Political History: A rational-choice research program,”
20 Journal of Interdisciplinary History
(Spring, 1990): 521.
T.P.
Wiseman, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 10.
G.R.
Elton, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 11.
Kenneth
Morgan, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 11.
Conrad
Russell, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 12.
Ronald
Hutton, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 13.
Roy
Foster, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 14.
John
Turner, “What is Political History?” 35 History
Today (January 1985): 15.
Peter Clarke, “What is Political History?” 35 History Today (January 1985): 17.
Ruth Rowles and Kenneth Martis, “Mapping Congress: Developing a geographic understanding of American political history,” 16 Prologue (Spring, 1984): 5.
Lance Davis, “It’s a Long, Road to Tipperary, or Reflections on Organized Violence, Protection Rates, and Related Topics: The new political history,” 40 Journal of Economic History 1 (March 1980): 1.
The readings above will give you a general theme of political history. It is,
however, often difficult to tell political history apart from plain history that
involves politicians and social movements. In fact, many historians do not see
the need for the separation. I offer no opinion on the issue, but the material
below will show that there can be a difference between the two.
The books below are pertinent to
history in general, but I have found them to be very useful in my political
writings. Opening the table of contents in the Davis and Woodham’s book listed below and comparing it to
the TOC of a general history book will give you a simple example of the
difference between political history and general history.
Proceedings is the website where annual papers from the American Political Science Association are stored. The site has a section called Politics and History. Nowhere on the web has better examples of what type of content belongs in political history writing. Be warned, though, political scientists like to use graphs and tables. Click here .
H-Pol is the American Political History website. It has an extensive book review section and a mailing list.
Allen Davis and Harold Woodman. Consensus in
American History, Volumes 1 and 2 (Houghton
Mifflin, 1997).
This is a historiography of America. Everything about it is political. It includes essays from very well-known historians, such as McDonald, Woods, Onuf, Hofstadter, Schlesinger, Burns, Beard, Genovese, Hersh, McPherson, Foner, Holt, Trachtenberg, Goodwyn, Fink, Gutman, Rothman, Higham, Hodgson, Radosh, Chafe, and Baritz. Nothing in it directly tells how to write political history, but each essay is an example how. The writings begin with the Constitution but stop right after Vietnam.
Peter Hoffer and
William Stueck. Writing American History, Volumes
1 and 2 (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).