Hello Friends,

I’m working on book number three- yay! And I’ve been trying to figure out what to write on my blog for, well, ages, because writing a book is a sort of all-consuming beast, which I love, but doesn’t leave much time for my penchant for diving down rabbit holes for a single blog post; dedicating unknown hours to the intricacies of English court politics in the 16^th century or, currently, precisely how haunted is Leap Castle. I love a good distraction, and research, and research into distractions. But I digress.

So what was going to write about for you all? Then it hit me, I was going to write about history. Well a sort of how-to history. One of the loveliest bits of feedback I got from you all for writing Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland was how I showed my work, so to speak. That I brought you along my thought process on how I reached conclusions.

This was floating in the back of my mind, when at a lunch in London with my publisher, we started chatting about all the historical misinformation –and disinformation- that is rampant on social media posts, blogs, podcasts, and just about everywhere. We also talked about sort of disentangling our own actual beliefs from what we’ve been taught. Why do we do what we do, and why we think what we think.  

And so, ‘How to Historian’ was born.

I’ll use beer history examples, because, that’s my wheelhouse, as we pull apart myths and ideas that we think should be true about a period. What even is a ‘fact’ in a historical sense? How does it differ from a meaningful conclusion? We shall find out. Perhaps most importantly to our regular lives, we are going to tackle our bias and how it can manifest in your writing, research, or the way you interact with history. I won’t provide you with answers on that one – that’s your own work to do, but questions to get you thinking. Everyone has an angle. Even choosing a topic shows your preferences, more on that in a later post.

We shall also tackle sources- what kinds are available, what they can tell us, and what are their limitations. From jewellery to water records, we will look at what written and material culture can tell us about people. And where to find sources if you are an independent researcher.

We will also look at those sources that write about those sources- the historians or later authors. But also the journalists or bloggers or podcasters. We will also look at how history has been misused and misinterpreted in popular discourse; and also how it’s often wonderfully utilised to illuminate our modern world.

Please also suggest to me specific topics you want to discuss. Our first post will be on pressure of Gatekeeping.