DIGITAL CONTEMPORARY HISTORY SOURCES, TOOLS, METHODS, ISSUES

Digital contemporary history: sources, tools, methods, issuesThis essay suggests that there has been a relative lack of digitally enabled historical research on the recent past, when compared to earlier periods of history. It explores why this might be the case, focussing in particular on both the obstacles and some missing drivers to mass digitisation of primary sources for the 20th century. It suggests that the situation is likely to change, and relatively soon, as a result of the increasing availability of sources that were born digital, and of Web archives in particular. The article ends with some reflections on several shifts in method and approach which that changed situation is likely to entail