Who Is the Historian?

Who is the historian? What do historians do? Where do their explorations take them? What is the impact of the digital age on historical research?

In an affable style, Nigel A. Raab answers these questions for those intrigued by the past. Each chapter describes a specific aspect of "doing history," beginning in the physical spaces of archives and libraries around the globe. Readers are then introduced to the sources—texts, oral interviews, films, and objects—which historians interpret. Raab points out that historians do not work alone with their materials; rather, archivists, librarians, and others play a crucial role in what he calls the web of the historian's work. Readers will also learn about the skill set imparted to those pursuing a historical education. In the final chapter, Raab brings all these themes together to demonstrate the value of the historian in the contemporary world.

Nigel A. Raab is Associate Professor of History at Loyola Marymount University. He is the author of Democracy Burning? Urban Fire Departments and the Limits of Civil Society in Late Imperial Russia, 1850–1914 (2011), and The Crisis from Within: Historians, Theory, and the Humanities (2015.