Difference between revisions of "Methods & Sources of Historical Research"

Revision as of 11:15, 11 July 2016

Notes from a course on methods and sources of historical research at IHR, 11 July 2016 - 15 July 2016

Notion of difference between primary and secondary sources... but its quite fuzzy
Primary = unmediated access to past (not processed by another mind)
Newspapers = a report of what has been told. testimonies are primary but the reporter has chewed thru the material.
Historians make statements about things which should be believed - by people who don't have access to primary sources
Having looked at the primary sources = is the reason why people listen to historians
Does digitization undermine the authority of the historian who derives his/her authority on basis on having the ability to find the primary source material? - should not be - because the historian should define his/her role based on his/her ability to contextualise
Primary sources tend to be gathered and held in institutions called archives. historians tend to be interested in written material. others look at other types of materials , objects, material culture, etc.

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 * Having looked at the primary sources = is the reason why people listen to historians
 * Does digitization undermine the authority of the historian who derives his/her authority on basis on having the ability to find the primary source material? - should not be - because the historian should define his/her role based on his/her ability to contextualise
+* Primary sources tend to be gathered and held in institutions called archives. historians tend to be interested in written material. others look at other types of materials , objects, material culture, etc.