Adam Budd, (ed.) The Modern Historiography Reader: Western Sources (Routledge, 2008) 534pp., £24.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-415-45887-0

This excellent book provides a guide to European and North American developments in historical writing since the eighteenth century through a collection of well-chosen sources.  The book begins with the Enlightenment and moves through subjects such as moral history, national history, the emergence of historians as a profession and the impact of scientific principles on the discipline.  It then considers the major developments in twentieth century historiography including social history, memory, post-colonialism and the history of material objects.  The sources when combined with the incisive editorial introduction and the introductions to the thirteen thematic sections will provide students with a clear understanding of historical theory and practice in the West.  The book will provide teachers and students with the necessary material through which to debate the nature of the discipline in the twenty-first century through a critique of its past.

Richard Brown