Chicago Referencing – Citing an Edited Book (Author–Date Style)

One theory behind Chicago’s ‘Windy City’ nickname is that the region’s politicians were once known for being long-winded and boastful.

Thankfully, the Chicago Manual of Style is much more concise than the city’s legendarily loquacious legislators. It also sets out the rules for Chicago referencing, including how to cite an edited book in academic writing, which is what we’re going to explain right now.

In-Text Citations

Chicago referencing actually offers two options for referencing sources (so don’t forget to check your style guide about which one to use): an author–date system and a footnotes and bibliography version. We’re looking at the author–date system here.

To use this referencing style, give the author’s name and the year of publication in parentheses after the relevant passage in the text, along with any page numbers:

Modernist art movements arose from ‘changes in public media’ (Williams 1992, 25).

If the author is named in the text, the citation should be given immediately afterwards:

Williams (1992, 25) claims that Modernist art arose from ‘changes in public media’.

It’s almost always the author of the chapter that you should name when referencing an edited book. The only times you’ll cite the editors are when referencing the whole volume:

Art in Modern Culture (Frascina and Harris 1992) presents various perspectives on art.

Reference List

All sources cited in your essay should also be listed alphabetically by author surname in a reference list at the end of your document. When citing a chapter from an edited book, the information to include here is:

Surname, First Name. Year. ‘Chapter Title’. In Book Title, edited by Editor Name(s), page range. City of Publication: Publisher.

The Williams essay from Art in Modern Culture, for instance, would appear as:

Williams, Raymond. 1992. ‘When Was Modernism?’. In Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts, edited by Francis Frascina and Jonathan Harris, 23-27. London: Phaidon.

If you are citing an edited volume as a whole, however, the following format should be used:

Surname, First Name, ed. Year. Book Title. City of Publication: Publisher.

As such, Art in Modern Culture would appear in the reference list as follows:

Frascina, Francis, and Jonathan Harris, eds. 1992. Art in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts. London: Phaidon.

Note from the example above that, when a source has more than one author or editor, only the first listed name should be reversed.