What is historiography?

Historiography is the study of historians and how they have approached history. When we look at themes or particular time periods in history, we find there are lots of groups of historians who share similar approaches, methods, or theories. Often we find these schools of historical thought are influenced by other intellectual strands like linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy. This all makes historiography sound more complex and daunting than it actually is! Ultimately, historiography often involves looking at a specific historian, defining their key ideas, and questioning what may have influenced them when they came up with these ideas. Historiography is also a skill that you tend to develop naturally as you study history in greater depth, so if you are struggling with it now, you will find it gets easier!