14. The Greek Crisis: The Internet as the Historians Tool

Abstract

It has been rightly observed that it will take decades for historians to actually make sense of what happened in world history in 2011. Ultimately, the recentness of any event will determine when a process can be historically analyzed. Even more, there is a lot of discussion on the relationship between history and the Internet, and on histories 'impact' capacity, i.e. its ability to connect with the developments in the wider society. Historians, unlike other disciplines have not utilized the net to service historical study. This research examined the foreign response to the Greek Debt Crisis through looking at the net as a primary source of historical information; looking at the net as a tool in generating further historical information (similar to Oral History). This was achieved through analyzing blogs, online newspaper articles, embassy websites, online journals and other websites that the Internet had to offer. The findings of the research facilitated the creation of multiple timelines based on threats, projections, and a general history. In addition, the research also served as a methodological experiment. Fundamentally, the research concluded that the Internet could be used as a primary source as well as a supplementary source in dealing with a recent event. Moreover it pushed the boundaries of historical distance in historiography.