Thinking About Archives

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores the historian’s principal research tool—the archive—but it does so largely from the perspective of people who are not historians. We’ll look at how and why archives emerged in different places; how they were used to help create and cement European global empire; how their functions and operations changed in the Age of Revolution; and how people have come to use, preserve, and struggle over them in the modern era. Looking at the archive from outside of the historical profession helps us see them for what they are—as collections of material informed by the agendas of a variety of different actors, most of them not especially concerned with giving us an objective image of the past. From spies to genealogy researchers, archives belong to everyone.