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More About the Aims: History Education, the New Historical Record, and the Idea of 'Source Lab'

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The publication of historical sources has always been a traditional part of the historian's craft.  Over time, however, this practice has floated out of undergraduate education in the US, with few departments making space in their curriculum for the practice.  There are no doubt reasons for this.  Documentary editing demands specialized skills and training.  In a world where original sources were often physically inaccessible in far away state archives–and the definition of what counts as a source was relatively narrow–leaving the practice to academic presses and professional scholars perhaps made sense.  Before each semester, instructors selected and ordered "the readings"; the students job was to read them.

But we no longer live in that world.

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  1. Introduction: Has this Ever Happened to You? John Randolph