I'm conducting some research behind William Frazier's The Golden Bough, and have no idea where to start. What are the methods that historians use for research? Ideally I'd like to find out more about who Frazier was, the motivations behind TGB, how he went about writing it, how the book was received at the time, etc. One obvious place is the library, but even then I'm not sure where to start. Also, today being today, being able to do research in a Covid friendly way is also important.
So historians of reddit, please help me out. If you had to research a specific book, how would you do it?
There are several approaches you might take, but good places to start:
Publication History: Look at what editions of the book have been published. Who published the first edition, when and where. Look for any major changes to the book - did Frazier condense it? Expand it? Revise it? You might have to trace down individual copies or sets of the book to verify some points, but a lot of the publication information should be publicly available through WorldCat and bookseller websites. It's possible, although not always likely, that the publisher may have published a history of the firm that might provide more information on the publication.
The Author: Who was Sir James George Frazier? Are there any biographies or bibliographies of him? Possibly a letters collection? You might start looking at his publication history, but information on his life and work will probably start from biographical articles and whatnot and proceed to secondary sources (memoirs & anecdotes by friends and peers) and primary sources (autobiography, letters, other direct evidence of his life).
Reception: How was the book received? Did it get any reviews? Some of those might be in newspapers or academic journals, but you can locate a lot of citations with GoogleScholar.