History Beyond The Text

by Sarah Barber

Historians are increasingly looking beyond the traditional, and turning to visual, oral, aural, and virtual sources to inform their work. The challenges these sources pose require new skills of interpretation and require historians to consider alternative theoretical and practical approaches. In order to help historians successfully move beyond traditional text, Sarah Barber and Corinna Peniston-Bird bring together chapters from historical specialists in the fields of fine art, photography, film, oral history, architecture, virtual sources, music, cartoons, landscape and material culture to explain why, when and how these less traditional sources can be used. Each chapter introduces the reader to the source, suggests the methodological and theoretical questions historians should keep in mind when using it, and provides case studies to illustrate best practice in analysis and interpretation. Pulling these disparate sources together, the introduction discusses the nature of historical sources and those factors which are unique to, and shared by, the sources covered throughout the book. Taking examples from around the globe, this collection of essays aims to inspire practitioners of history to expand their horizons, and incorporate a wide variety of primary sources in their work.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Matt]

Methods for interpreting or analysing information develop in the specific contexts of the particular fields and problems of specific disciplines. This makes interdisciplinary research complicated, since methods developed (for better or worse) to interpret one kind of problem may or may not be justified for another kind of problem. This book collects contributions from different historians who examine the methods used in the analysis of non-text based sources -- e.g., fine arts, photography, cinema, architecture and landscape, material culture -- and explain them for use in historical studies. It is intended as a text book, probably for undergraduates. Gillian Rose's Visual Methodologies might be slightly better, though still pitched at a classroom-based readership.

I'm skipping around the chapters a bit, based on what looks interesting or relevant to projects at hand. The chapters are a bit uneven; the chapter on film and television was pretty elementary and not really very engaged in the question of method; the chapter on fine art was a bit better.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great tool for history majors. It has in-depth chapters on the most widely used alternative sources such as music, photography, art, architecture, landscape, etc. Each chapter is written by a different expert in the field, so you really are getting the best information you can from each chapter. It really changed the way I viewed alternative sources.