This compact, friendly, and realistic guide provides hands-on help for college and university students new to the discipline of history. Written by an experienced instructor of first-year students, Solving the Puzzle encourages students to do the work of engaging with historical sources in a responsible way—and helps them to build critical thinking and writing skills that will transfer to other courses and contexts. With short, readable chapters covering each stage of the writing process, concrete examples, practical exercises, and an encouraging tone, this book will help students move past anxiety, avoid the temptation to cut corners, and solve the puzzles of historical research and writing. Comments “Thorough and thoughtful, Solving the Puzzle offers a practical and comprehensive guide for any student assigned to write a college-level history paper. In framing a historical question as a puzzle and clearly laying out the steps involved in crafting a solution—including how to critically evaluate and interpret their sources—this book not only will appeal to students’ innate sense of curiosity but will also help them to develop the critical thinking skills so necessary in enabling them to successfully navigate an increasingly complex and often deeply divided world.” — Andrea Geiger, Simon Fraser University “Solving the Puzzle is comprehensive without overwhelming the reader. It shows awareness of the issues confronting current historians and addresses fundamentals such as understanding history writing as a process, sifting through the overabundance of information, raising the level of narrative above automative wording, and appreciating the qualitative difference between historian and journalist. The text will train aspiring undergraduates in the craft of historical writing and will serve as a reference work for professional historians as they develop in their careers.” — Nathan Howard, University of Tennessee at Martin “Solving the Puzzle is a thoughtful and accessible work that will help our discipline’s newcomers harness the historical imagination. With clarity, grace, and humor, Valerie Thaler walks readers through how to take on the seemingly insurmountable challenge of developing an original and manageable research project that meets the conventions of historical practice. As a guide that aims to demystify the research process, Solving the Puzzle will inspire confidence in a new generation of historians.” — Stephan Pigeon, St. Francis Xavier University
