History Beyond the Text: A Student’s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources

Over the past few years the question of ‘what is a historical source’ has become an increasingly prominent concern. In History Beyond the Text, Sarah Barber and Corinna Peniston-Bird open up the discussion on sources beyond the ‘traditional’ ones. Across ten chapters different historians look at a variety of alternative sources: visual - fine art, cartoons, photography, film and television; aural - music and oral histories; and physical - ephemera, architecture, and landscape, as well as virtual space. While the sources discussed are ‘interdisciplinary’, each contributor examines how the source can be approached from an historical perspective. Each chapter introduces the reader to the source, suggests the methodological and theoretical questions that historians should keep in mind when using it, and provides empirical examples of approaches to the source. Pulling these disparate sources together, the introduction discusses the nature of historical sources and those factors which are unique to, or shared by, the sources covered throughout the book.Taking examples of sources from around the globe, this is the ideal companion for every student of history who wants to engage with a variety of sources.