Although historiography is a frequently used term, its content is far from unequivocal. For the purposes of this bibliography, Attila Pok defines modern historiography as the history of historical science as it was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Thus, this bibliography includes works that discuss the development of historical science since that time to 1990. Its aim is to provide access to the most important works on nineteenth- and twentieth-century historiography.

The titles are arranged geographically. Following a section of general titles, sections are devoted to Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Within each section, chapters cover individual countries. The volume also includes author and subject indexes.