Into the Archives

Abstract

‘You can’t rewrite history’ is an oft-heard cliché, but this is exactly what historians do for a living. Exactly how they do this is another matter and the following text will provide some pointers in archival research for the ingénu researcher. This chapter is about the challenges of identifying and accessing relevant data. It is based on personal experience of researching in archives and is designed to act as a starting point for thought and discussion about how a researcher might go about using archives and archival material. It is often said that history relies on specific historical data that already exist and have to be ‘hunted down’. Historical data therefore cannot be created. The focus of this chapter is on contemporary political history, a subdiscipline of historical research which has its own peculiarities. Needless to say, it is difficult to separate research design from method, and some of the practicalities of this type of research are addressed in addition to how useful archives may or may not be in establishing a representation of historical reality. The chapter suggests that archives themselves are no simple solution to the problems of historical research and urges researchers to be as aware of the historical context of the area in which they are researching as possible and to be cognisant of the assumptions which are guiding their own research.