An essay my students and I read this week argues that "sources have shaped the nature of biographies and the biographical method adopted" (William St Clair, "Biographer as Archaeologist," in Mapping Lives ). In exploring biography, we have been thinking precisely about sources. Historians have their own techniques; they visit archives, dig through files and folders, decipher handwriting and piece together their stories. Geoffrey Parker, who talked with us this week about his majesterial Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II , even confided one of his research strategies that is more about the human than the document. Convinced by years of experience that archivists tend to withhold the "good stuff" until the bitter end, when they love to say "if only you had more time you could look through this lovely stack of materials," he now tells the staff of archives that he'll be leaving on a certain date, and then -- if and when they pull that...
A blog about travel and staying put, reading and writing, food and food for thought.