How to Read a History Book

Follow the fictional Elizabeth Ranke as she graduates college, writes and publishes history books, becomes a history professor, and questions her writings' purpose in her declining years. Includes explanations of the many steps taken for all those stages. "A deconstruction of the modern history book as artifact, How to Read a History Book explains who writes history books, how the writers are trained, and why they write them. It also discusses genre, bias (political and otherwise) and how to read history books between the lines. Written for undergraduates, intro graduate students and anyone with an informed interest in the subject, How to Read a History Book demonstrates that, rather than being objects that fall from the sky, history books are actually socially-constructed artifacts refelcting all the contradictions of modern meritocratic capitalism."--Page 4 of cover.