I read with great interest James Banner's contributions to this forum. As a recent Ph.D. (I completed my doctorate in May 2011) reflecting on my training, the area in which I wish I had received more explicit training is the craft of constructing a historical argument from primary sources, down to the nitty gritty work of using an archive, taking notes in an archive, and then dealing with a mass of information. I think many of my contemporaries think similarly.
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Amos Bitzan
Stanford Univ.
Palo Alto CA
abitzan@alumni.princeton.edu -------------------------------------------