The history podcaster Mike Duncan gave a good example. On one of his shows he explained that when he’s researching a new topic, he’ll start by searching “[topic

The history podcaster Mike Duncan gave a good example. On one of his shows he explained that when he’s researching a new topic, he’ll start by searching “[topic] historiography”. This gets you a history of the scholarship around a topic, rather than the history itself. What do experts think about different approaches and primary sources? How have those approaches changed? What are the major theories and strains of thought? Then the initial meta-historical reading points you towards actual sources and gives you a context to understand them in.