How is history studied? And how is it told? Difficult but fascinating questions, if only historians commit to not keeping secrets and to speaking plainly. If they invite the public into their workshop and explain how they employ their tools. If a technique, the sensible use of ‘sources’, becomes an art for reconstructing the past. Ten Italian historians – Alessandro Barbero, Roberto Bizzocchi, Alessandro Casellato, Antonio Gibelli, Miguel Gotor, Giovanni Levi, Salvatore Lupo, Sergio Luzzatto, Ottavia Niccoli and Lisa Roscioni – have each chosen a single source; they have worked on it with the tools of the craft, and have made it the basis of an exemplary book.