This book, it is hoped, will be one of a series on the historical profession. Discussions concerning this study of the graduate education of historians began during the winter of 1956–1957, following the Presidential Address of Professor Dexter Perkins in St. Louis at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association. The association, with funds from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, sponsored the study through its Committee on Graduate Education composed of Dexter Perkins, chairman, Jacques Barzun, Fred Harvey Harrington, Edward C. Kirkland, Leonard Krieger, and Boyd C. Shafer. In September, 1958, with a generous grant of leave from Tulane University, Professor John L. Snell became director of the study. With the committee’s counsel and following its general plan, he collected most of the materials for this book through hundreds of questionnaires, dozens of visits to universities, interviews with both teachers and students, and other intensive research. Professor Snell wrote Chapters 2 to 9, Professor Perkins wrote Chapter 1, and Chapter 10 contains the Recommendations of the Committee.

Washington, D.C.
Boyd C. Shafer
Executive Secretary
American Historical Association