This article asks historians of education to think about the influences that we bring to bear on our work. It uses, as an example, Carolyn Steedman's book "The Tidy House: Little Girls Writing" (1982). "The Tidy House" set out to interpret a short story written by three primary school girls in Britain in 1976. Steedman contextualised this source against the backdrop of modern children's writing and childhood experience in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. Viewing the book itself as a source, this article explores the intellectual background (the 'theoretical field') that gave its ideas meaning. This involves looking at the historiographical surroundings of the author, such as Marxism and feminism, in a wider lens. It also entails a consideration of how "The Tidy House" relates to educational thought today--as well as to key issues tackled by some of the most celebrated historians of education in the last 40 years.