In the preface to "History of the People of Israel" (a textbook for ages 10–13) AZR lays down a firm principle: there is no historical fabrication, not even for a moral purpose:
"I was careful not to include in my book anything contrary to historical truth, and I did not wish to deceive the children, even though such deception might seem to hold a kind of moral benefit. In my view, a holy end requires means that are likewise holy and true." AZR, "A Word to the Readers," preface to "History of the People of Israel" (Poltava, 14 Tevet 5657/1897); Project Ben-Yehuda.
And a complementary rule: not to include the unverified:
"Nor did I include the isolated facts whose cause and date are not clearly known to us, for as long as the matter has not been clarified it is in our eyes a riddle and not a historical fact." Ibid. (Likewise: not to burden the text with meaningless names; and to write living, simple Hebrew, not bound by the language of Scripture.)
The book (32 chapters, from the Destruction to the modern era) rests on a single thesis: the stubborn continuity of the Jewish Yishuv in the Land:
"The Jewish settlement was built and destroyed, built and destroyed. Today Titus destroys it, tomorrow Hadrian, the Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, Crusaders, Mongols, Egyptians, Turks… destroying and destroying, and the settlement is built up again and again. If for the moment there are no houses, they dwell in caves; if there is no bread, they eat grass." AZR, "History of the Jews in the Land of Israel," preface (Jaffa, Elul 5680/1920); Project Ben-Yehuda.
The unifying symbol for him is the watchman ("Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen"): "The 'HaShomer' association was a symbol of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, which throughout the long period of exile watched over its land," and this is "the supreme valor, the iron stubbornness."
AZR practices historical honesty also in defining the boundaries of his work: over the period of the Mishnah and Talmud "I passed with a brief general survey," because it had already been treated by "those greater and better than I: Graetz, Weiss, Halevy"; and about the new Yishuv (from 1882 onward):
"I did not expand upon it, because the historical material is still fermenting, and the time has not yet come to pass a clear judgment upon it." Ibid.
As a principal source he used the responsa literature (she'elot u-teshuvot), "for from them one can learn about the economic, political and moral condition of the inhabitants of the Land of Israel in various periods," and the studies of A. M. Luncz.