After months of hesitation, I started using Tropy last December. My hesitation was due to the fact that I was trying to find a specific sub-project that could provide a good opportunity to start. Back then I often looked for descriptions of other experiences online but found few of them, I thought I’d share mine.
Un rapport révélé par Le Monde propose de limiter la récolte d’archives à ce qu’il nomme des « archives essentielles ». Tous les historiens ressassent, depuis quelques jours, cette expression à l’emporte-pièce, car elle touche au cœur de notre travail. Pourquoi et comment ? J’ai voulu détailler un petit exemple tiré de ma propre recherche pour le montrer.
The State Department has released about 300 of Hillary Clinton’s emails on 22 May 2015 under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This collection of emails reflects many of the issues and frustrations associated with research in digitalised archives.
Hillary Clinton used her personal email while she was Secretary of State: this raises interesting questions in terms of archival practice and for the historian’s work.
A visit of a German chancellor to the Bundesbank was unusual enough to be carefully recorded. The transcription of the discussion has now been declassified, which gave me the opportunity to try a detailed text analysis of the record.
The post that follows is only a snapshot of some reflections I presented at the last conference Digital Humanities Luxembourg (DHLU) on 5 December 2013. I picked up a couple of examples to illustrate my personal research experience and hopefully convey my strand of thought on the use of digital sources in international economic history – a frustrated experience, but clearly not depressed!