Source criticism for cultural history

Abstract

ABSTRACT Source criticism has been used for various scholarly purposes since the late eighteenth century. History as a science has changed significantly since then and historians of the twenty-first century use different sources than previous generations. Looking at teaching materials for history studies, the method of analysing textual sources does not appear to have changed in the last 150 years. However, a critical assessment of source criticism for cultural history will reveal the implicit and explicit changes to the method as well as possible points of further development. The article begins with a brief overview of the steps of source criticism as a method of historical research (heuristic, source analysis, interpretation, presentation). Its application to early modern diplomatic correspondence as an example of textual sources leads to a reflection on source criticism as a method for cultural history. Although the formal analysis of a textual source may remain the same, today’s cultural historians are interested in different questions than earlier generations, leading to different interpretations. The final step of the historical method – the presentation – remains largely unreflected, even by cultural historians; it needs to be rethought and redeveloped in the future in order to truly reflect the aims of cultural history.