The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn , 1962 (This is substantially a paper I wrote in 2006 for my MA program Historiography class.) Thomas Kuhn applied the concept of the paradigm to describe the progress of scientific thought over time. The idea generated interest and discussion across a number of fields in addition to the history of science, eclipsing to some extent Kuhn’s original focus. This can be a danger when a new explanatory scheme becomes extremely popular: often it is extended by analogy beyond its actual usefulness. A notorious example of this effect was Social Darwinism, but other ideas such as the uncertainty principle, relativity, and memes have all been extended into areas where it's not entirely clear they are appropriate. Kuhn seems to have been aware of this potential problem, so he refined his description, made many of his assumptions explicit, and gave some suggestions and warnings regarding wider application in a Postscript included in the edition I read. Taken together, the text and Postscript present a structure and tool-set that if used carefully would be very helpful to the historian.
I love your application of Kuhn to the idea of historical method. Thanks!