Designed as a helpful resource for historians, An Introduction to Historical Comparison aims to teach scholars how to develop the skills needed to successfully employ a comparative methodology. It begins by tracing the intellectual history of comparative history writing and then examines the practice of historical comparison. The result is a clear and engaging analysis of historical thinking and a useful guide to main methodological techniques, successes, and pitfalls of comparative research.
An Introduction to Historical Comparison is the first comprehensive study of the theory and practice of comparative-historical research. Combining a wide range of case-studies from the best practitioners of historical comparison with an innovative interdisciplinary perspective, this book is thus a meaningful contribution to current debates on historiography. As such, this resource will be of immense value to both students reading historiography and methodology and to historians looking to apply a comparative approach to their own research.