Course Description
This course introduces students to the historian's craft. Students will learn the nature of historical knowledge, how to locate, document, and interpret a diverse array of historical evidence, and how to produce a research proposal using primary and secondary sources. It emphasizes that history is both a social science and an interpretive art. Accordingly, it will expose students to recent interdisciplinary trends in historical methodology and historical schools of thought and debate. The primary aim of this course is to instruct prospective and actual history majors in what it means to think, write, and verbally communicate like a historian.

PittCat is the main searching tool for all of the materials owned by the University Library System (ULS), including articles, books, ebooks, journal articles, ejournals, audio and video, digital images, government documents, microfilm and movies.

PittCat is your gateway to accessing resources from the University of Pittsburgh.

Below is a libguide on how to use PittCat. It is helpful in learning about Pitt library resources. 

You found a nonfiction book on your topic!  Is it a scholarly book?  Here are some tips to tell the difference between a scholarly nonfiction book and a popular nonfiction book.  Click for a larger view of the image below.

• Think about issues, problems or questions that interest you. Based on your assignment and the scope of these ideas, narrow them down to one that would be a feasible topic.
• Select appropriate search terms for your subject
• Search PittCat and subject-oriented databases.
• Revise your topic. Determine how you will answer your question.
• Evaluate your resources carefully!
• When in doubt, contact your librarian.