Chicago Style Footnotes

Chicago Manual of Style Footnote Citations Guide

The Chicago Manual of Style, used by most historians, has specific formatting rules for all citations. Most manuscripts (including college papers written in History courses) use footnotes to cite the material to which they refer in the text.

To learn how to insert a footnote in a Microsoft Word document, click here.  To learn how to insert a footnote in a Google Doc, click here. Most likely, both Word and Docs will try to change the formatting of your footnote to some default font, so be sure to click anywhere in the footnote text, click "select all," and change the font to 10-point Times New Roman. 

Note that all book titles and journal/newspaper/magazine names are italicized—both in the footnotes and in the text itself. Also remember to include page number(s) at the end of every footnote (unless you are citing a book in its entirety).

Below, you will find some commonly cited sources (books, articles, and newspaper content) with explanations and examples of what your footnotes should look like when you cite them.

Books

First (or Only) Edition with One Author

The Format:

First Name Last Name, Title of the Book in Italics: Some Books Also Include Subtitles* (Name of the Press, Year of Publication), Page Number(s).

*do not capitalize conjunctions, prepositions, etc. in titles


The Example:

Emily Suzanne Johnson, This Is Our Message: Women's Leadership in the New Christian Right (Oxford University Press, 2019), 11.

Second (or Subsequent) Edition with One Author

The Format:

First_Name Last_Name, Title of the Book in Italics: Some Books Also Include Subtitles, 2nd ed. (Name of the Press, Year of Publication), Page Number(s).

​

The Example:

Susan Stryker, Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution​, 2nd ed. (Seal Press, 2017), 20-21.

Chapter in an Edited Book

The Format:

First_Name Last_Name, "Title of the Chapter in Quotation Marks," in Title of the Edited Book: Including the Subtitle, ed(s).* First_Name Last_Name (Name of the Press, Year of Publication), Page Number(s).

*if more than one editor, change to "eds." and list all names separated by commas


The Example:

Judith Weisenfeld, "Real True Buds: Celibacy and Same-Sex Desire across the Color Line in Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement," in Devotions and Desires: Histories of Sexuality and Religion in the Twentieth-Century United States, eds. Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton, and Heather R. White (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), 90-112.

Revised or Reprinted Edition of a Translated Book

The Format:

First_Name Last_Name,Title of the Book: Including the Subtitle if Applicable, rev. ed., trans. First_Name Last_Name (Name of the Press, Year of Publication), Page Number(s).

​

The Example:

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction, rev. ed., trans. Robert Hurley (Vintage Books, 1990), 16.

Articles

Academic Journal Articles

The Format:

First_Name Last_Name, ​"Title of the Article: Most Journal Articles Include Subtitles," Italicized Journal Name Volume_Number, no. Issue_Number (Month/Season and Year of Publication): Page Number(s).

​

The Example:

Kathryn Lofton, “Why Religion Is Hard For Historians (and How It Can Be Easier),” Modern American History 3, no. 1 (March 2020): 69-86.

Magazine or Newspaper Articles

The Format:

First_Name Last_Name, ​"Title of the Article," Italicized Publication Name, Month Day, Year, Page Number(s) or URL.

​

Example 1 (historical magazine article with page number):

Sarah Comstock, "Aimee Semple McPherson: Prima Donna of Revivalism," Harper's Magazine, Dec. 1927, 12.


Example 2 (contemporary magazine article with a URL):

Kathryn Schulz, "The Really Big One," New Yorker, July 13, 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one​.


Example 3 (historical newspaper article with page number):

"The Church Scandal: Further Particulars of the Cooke-Johnston Case," New York Times, Jan. 12, 1870, 8.


Example 4 (contemporary newspaper article with a URL):

Adam Roston, “Business Partner of Falwells Says Affair with Evangelical Power Couple Spanned Seven Years,” Reuters, Aug. 24, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-falwell-relationship/.

There are many other kinds of sources you might need to cite, but they all generally follow a similar logic: the name of the author, the title of the work, where the work appears, publisher, date, and page number(s) if applicable. For information on other kinds of sources and for examples, see the Chicago Manual of Style and the Library of Congress citation guides. Happy citing!

Things to Keep in Mind