The Silence of the Archive

by David Thomas, Simon Fowler, Valerie Johnson

Silences range from details of individuals lives to records of state oppression or of intelligence operations. The book brings together ideas from a wide range of fields, from contemporary history through family history research to Shakespearian studies. The authors describe why these silences exist, discuss their impact, and survey how researchers have responded to them in the digital age.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: David Thomas


David Thomas was employed at the UK National Archives for most of his career, acting as Director of Technology from 2005 until his retirement in 2013. Subsequently he was a visiting professor at Northumbria University.

Reviews

[zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been the implicit argument of this book that we are all responsible, whether as creators of records or professional curators of those papers, or as users, researcher, historians, and informed citizens of socities to whom we have responsibility.

This one was a really good, educating read. I did find it a bit interesting that it talked very little about some obvious miniorities/victims of the silencing of the archives. However, I realise that it focuses on the silencing in general, and therefore is quite useful no matter the specific subject, or area. I especially appreciated the fact that it also discussed the "wanted" silences, as well as the issues that arise when there's silence, whether it's because it was censored or if there really just wasn't something to begin with.

[J.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of essays on silences that exist within archives and how to combat them.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

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