Customer Reviews
The best historiography textbook - By: A. Tatton, 08 Nov 2007 
John Tosh isin my view an excellent writer. This book enables even dimwits like me to understand the basics of historiography - the methods of history. This edition has really helpful notesin the margins explaining more complicated termsin a very simple way - spelling out anachronistic for example. Where I disagree with him slightly isin his emphasis on oral history being a technique rather than a 'genre'. OK he dedicates a fair bit of space to his book to discussing oral history but is not as positive about its contribution as Gwyn Prins - whose argument is better backed up by sources.
Good read but hard-going in parts - By: Mr. N. W. Douglas, 03 Oct 2007 
This is a good introduction to the ongoing debates surrounding history. I brought it when I was studying the nature & purpose of history at uni & it did help me. Tosh covers many topics, including the use of history, sources & oral history, themes & many othersin an objective way, using a lot of sources. His only problem is his work is not all that easy to read, & I often found myself having to read some pages several times over for the message to sink in.
Excellent - By: Prospero77, 04 Nov 2001 Having completed a BA Honours degreein Historyin 1999 I am still very surprised by the rarity of a worthwhile book on my subject. One that unpacks the discipline itself, inspires enthusiasm & a genuine sense of enjoyment. Invariably you are pointedin the direction of 'How to Study' books as a substitute. But these are an appalling slog for the average reader. They usually comprise 200 pages on how to skim read, make a spider diagram & render a perfectly good text book worthless with a flourescent green highlighter pen! In fact, most 'This is History' books that you can lay hands on are even worse, being almost always 'Source- hysterical'. Just how many times can you explain 'Primary' 'Secondary' & the 'Who', 'What' 'When' & 'To what end' conundrums of witting & unwitting testimony? Then if we stay awake long enough to reach chapter three we step into the academic minefield of verbose & complex 'Marx-speak'. Usually by this time I've joined 'Clarinet' or Tai Chi classes at the local College; sat next to ladies that resemble Renee Roberts of 70's Coronation Street fame. Thankfully however, John Tosh has saved us from such nightmares & produced a little triumph here. Nice, smooth, prose which glides through the subject with fluent skill. He handles historicism & theory without getting bogged down & I was left feeling genuinely 'interested'. History as a subject became far too Weimar obsessed-especially at A level- & fresh, new approaches are needed. Well done John!
An Excellent book for amateur historians and students! - By: , 07 Jan 2001 This book is great as it looks at how to go about researching local history looking at issues such as oral, visual & written history. As it saysin the title the author looks at "aims, methods & new directionsin the study of modern history". Its a very good book for those just starting to look at researching history.Tosh deals with the problems that surround the uses of primary & secondary sources.
