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<blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9184194" data-attributes="member: 4534">I went to graduate school for public history, and that guy was what we in the biz call an %#%#%#.&nbsp; Unless you were spouting crock pot theories like ancient aliens built the Washington Monument or that slavery had nothing to do with the American Civil War he had no cause to come down on you.&nbsp; But then I have a different perspective in that I worked at an archive and later a museum where I regularly engaged with laypersons.&nbsp; When it comes to history books, check their bibliographies and footnotes and if you see the same sources cited those are probably the important ones.&nbsp; As an example, if you were to start researching Scottish Witchcraft you're probably going to see Christina Larner's Enemies of God pop up fairly frequently because Larner made a considerable contribution to the body of scholarly work on the subject that others are still expanding on.&nbsp; If a book keeps coming up, there's a good chance it's worth looking at.&nbsp; But take care, if you're doing any research on witchcraft in early modern Europe, Margaret Murray's The Witch-Cult in Early Modern Europe might be mentioned and most scholars today regard it as mostly poppycock.&nbsp; Check the publication date of the book you're reading and try to find somethin published more recently.&nbsp; Enemies of God was published in 1981, but if you keep looking into Scottish witchcraft, you'll get names like Julian Goodare and Scottish Witches and Witchhunters (2013) and other publications.&nbsp; Check Wikipedia for articles on whatever subject you're interested and then mine the biblography.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MGibster, post: 9184194, member: 4534"] I went to graduate school for public history, and that guy was what we in the biz call an %#%#%#. Unless you were spouting crock pot theories like ancient aliens built the Washington Monument or that slavery had nothing to do with the American Civil War he had no cause to come down on you. But then I have a different perspective in that I worked at an archive and later a museum where I regularly engaged with laypersons. When it comes to history books, check their bibliographies and footnotes and if you see the same sources cited those are probably the important ones. As an example, if you were to start researching Scottish Witchcraft you're probably going to see Christina Larner's [I]Enemies of God[/I] pop up fairly frequently because Larner made a considerable contribution to the body of scholarly work on the subject that others are still expanding on. If a book keeps coming up, there's a good chance it's worth looking at. But take care, if you're doing any research on witchcraft in early modern Europe, Margaret Murray's [I]The Witch-Cult in Early Modern Europe [/I]might be mentioned and most scholars today regard it as mostly poppycock. Check the publication date of the book you're reading and try to find somethin published more recently. [I]Enemies of God [/I]was published in 1981, but if you keep looking into Scottish witchcraft, you'll get names like Julian Goodare and [I]Scottish Witches and Witchhunters [/I](2013) and other publications. Check Wikipedia for articles on whatever subject you're interested and then mine the biblography. [/QUOTE]

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