Introduction

This volume offers a stimulating new perspective on the history of historical studies. Through the prism of ‘scholarly personae’, it explores why historians care about attitudes or dispositions that they consider necessary for studying the past, yet often disagree about what virtues, skills, or competencies are most important.

Contested Virtues and Stability

More specifically, the volume explains why models of virtue known as ‘personae’ have always been contested, yet also can prove remarkably stable, especially with regard to their race, class, and gender assumptions.

Scope and Audience

Covering historical studies across Europe, North America, Africa, and East Asia, How to be a historian will appeal not only to historians of historiography, but to all historians who occasionally wonder: What kind of a historian do I want to be?