The designation of a text as a Standard work, sometimes classic, or definitive, indicates that scholars in the field have determined it to be the ultimate authoritative or definitive work on its subject to date. It is a term of art in the humanities, particularly history. For example, any historian, if queried, is able to recite a list of authorities in his or her particilar specialization. Such a list will usually entail book, but citation of publications in journals are just as appropriate.
Biographies are particularly amendable to such classification since there is a limited amount of material in the life of an individual and once a good biography has been written there is no point is someone else repeating the task.
Generally, studies of narrow but interesting subject matter in which there a finite amount of archival material are especially amendable to such classification.
Once a text has been recognized as "standard" it is often designated as a classic, or a classic study, but is not to be confused with "classic books".
Alphabetised list of standard works by subject and authority
History
*Warrant for Genocide: Norman Cohn (1967)
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