react-router (v4) how to go back?

I think the issue is with binding:

constructor(props){
   super(props);
   this.goBack = this.goBack.bind(this); // i think you are missing this
}

goBack(){
    this.props.history.goBack();
}

.....

<button onClick={this.goBack}>Go Back</button>

As I have assumed before you posted the code:

constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.handleNext = this.handleNext.bind(this);
    this.handleBack = this.handleBack.bind(this); // you are missing this line
}

UPDATED:

Now we have hook, so we can do it easily by using useHistory

const history = useHistory()

const goBack = () => {
  history.goBack()
}

return (
  <button type="button" onClick={goBack}>
    Go back
  </button>
);

---

ORIGINAL POST:

this.props.history.goBack();

This is the correct solution for react-router v4

But one thing you should keep in mind is that you need to make sure this.props.history is existed.

That means you need to call this function this.props.history.goBack(); inside the component that is wrapped by < Route/>

If you call this function in a component that deeper in the component tree, it will not work.

EDIT:

If you want to have history object in the component that is deeper in the component tree (which is not wrapped by < Route>), you can do something like this:

...
import {withRouter} from 'react-router-dom';

class Demo extends Component {
    ...
    // Inside this you can use this.props.history.goBack();
}

export default withRouter(Demo);