Your Stripped Bare Guide to Citing & Using History Sources

Sources provide information, from which we identify evidence for analysis. A conclusion drawn from sound analysis may then stand as proof. In these two sentences, Elizabeth Shown Mills defines the proper use of sources to come to valid conclusions in historical research. Your Stripped Bare Guide, Mrs. Mills’ latest work on citing and using history sources, is an abbreviated distillation of the evidence analysis she outlines in minute detail in her classic work, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, Fourth Edition (2024). Updated and replacing Evidence! 

Do you love research but hate source citations? Do you cringe at the word evidence, because the dreaded citation police, somewhere, sometime, said your sources were not good enough? If so, this guide is your guide—stripped down to the bare essentials you need to know to do reliable history research. Thirteen guidelines for evidence analysis will help you select reliable sources and evaluate your findings. Thirteen guidelines for documentation will teach you the basic principles for identifying those sources. Then fourteen easy-to-follow templates provide you with patterns for citing any kind of history source, online, from any corner of the globe. Your angst is over!

by Elizabeth Shown Mills