Bookmark and Share
Product Details
A Student's Guide to History

A Student's Guide to History
By Jules R. Benjamin

Price: $22.55 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your credit card will not be charged until we ship the item.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

72 new or used available from $22.00

Average customer review:

Product Description

A Student’s Guide to History provides the practical help students need to be effective in their history courses. In addition to introducing students to the nature of the discipline, it teaches a wide range of skills from preparing for exams to approaching common writing assignments, and it explains the research and documentation process using numerous examples throughout. With clear and accessible advice, A Student’s Guide to History is an indispensable resource for history students. New, easy-to-reference chapter organization. Shorter, more manageable chapters now focus on more specific concepts, such as building a history essay and documenting sources, so students can more easily find the information they need. Expanded coverage of working with sources. A new chapter explains how to examine any source of historical evidence — primary or secondary, written or nonwritten, print or digital. New Guidelines boxes for evaluating primary sources, a new section on sound and video recordings, new warnings about Wikipedia, and more on finding primary sources online equip students to engage in a wide range of historical work. More attention to analysis and argument. New sample writing assignments demonstrate how to analyze and compare primary and secondary sources and present theses with supporting evidence. The research chapters now offer more advice on developing a thesis, using evidence, formulating worthwhile research questions, and writing more persuasive papers. New visual citation guidelines boxes annotate sample pages from books, published letters, print articles, database articles, and Web sites, and key them to model notes and bibliographic entries to show students how to find publication information and properly cite these common sources.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #10390 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-08-19
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 336 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
'A Student's Guide to History is the most comprehensive and well-organized guide that I have seen.' - James H. Williams, Middle Tennessee State University, USA 'Of all the guides I have tried, A Student's Guide to History is the best.' - Charles Sanders, Jr., Kansas State University, USA 'A Student's Guide to History is an excellent toolbox of essential skills for doing history.' - Roger Davis, University of Nebraska at Kearney, USA 'A Student's Guide to History is an excellent companion piece for any level history course.' - Roger Davis, University of Nebraska at Kearney, USA 'Outstanding! For history students, Benjamin is superior.' - Kenneth Wilburn, East Carolina University, USA

About the Author

JULES R. BENJAMIN was a professor of history at Ithaca College for 30 years. His current research focuses on higher education in the digital age, and his scholarly works concern modern United States and Latin American diplomatic history. He is the author of several books and articles, including The United States and Cuba: Hegemony and Dependent Development, 1880–1934 (1977) and The United States and the Origins of the Cuban Revolution: An Empire of Liberty in an Age of National Liberation (1990).

Customer Reviews

An essential handbook for college history students.5
I like its clear organization which makes the book easy to understand. Its headings are focused and consistent with teaching the important academic skills necessary for college students to be successful in the study of college history. The sections on the net and databases are invaluable. If students wish to do well in their history courses, this is the book for them.

Solid Assistant for Teaching about Historical Thinking5
I use this book in my "Learning Strategies for History" college course that I have taught now for 4 semesters. I replaced the Pugh&Pace book with this one for several reasons but Benjamin's book is not perfect and should be used along with a program that introduces and challenges to practice the skills he discusses.

The book has 5 chapters. The first is a description of history as as subject and how it is used in every day life. The examples of primary and secondary materials is especially useful and this continues throughout the book.

The second chapter covers what I call the "nuts and bolts" of history classes. First the different types of reading you will have to do and briefly how you should approach each type whether it be a legal code, a personal letter, a photograph or a map. Second he too briefly discusses note taking and this is where students will need a lot of very solid examples of the various techniques as well as repeated practice. Finally he discusses exam preparation and taking.

The third chapter looks at different types of writing assignments and how to approach them. Again students will need guides to grammar and practice with each type of assignment.

Chapter four gets into the heart of any upper level history course: research. His end book guide to various books and online resources is very valuable as a starting place. This chapter also illustrates a few ways to take notes from what you are reading and there is a solid guide to citation and bibliography construction.

The final chapter not only discusses how to write a research paper,and to a degree any paper, but also walks the reader through a sample paper. I'm not thrille with endnotes myself nor with including images in one's college paper but still it is better than no example at all. By listing the major points the author is making in the sample paper in the margins I think it is a good guide for students attempting to organize their own writing. Again though students will require practice and feedback.

A great introductory companion for the study of history4
I was assigned this book for my historical methods course while in college. Throughout my time as a history major, it proved to be very helpful. The most important aspects of the book, for me, were the citation and format examples. It is common knowledge that one can just buy a style guide book, but Benjamin's effort provides the context in which it should be used. The listings of where to find information on the web as well as in journals, monographs, etc. is priceless. Another book that was assigned for my course that I feel was more helpful in my study of historiography and how to view history was Edward Hallet Carr's What Is History? I highly recommend both of these books for the college history student or someone that is interested in the methodology of history.