Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 2nd Edition - Hardcover

Elizabeth Shown Mills

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0806318066 ISBN 13: 9780806318066

Publisher: Genealogical Pub Co, 2009

Synopsis

Evidence Explained is the definitive guide to the analysis and citation of historical sources. It begins with a simple question: Why do we invest so much of our energy into the citation of sources? and the intriguing answer: Because all sources are not created equal. Evidence Explained is built on this simple question and answer. According to the author, there are no historical resources we can trust at face value. Records simply offer evidence, and their assertions may or may not be true. To decide what likely happened, we must understand those records. To analyze that evidence and judge what to believe, we also need particular facts about those records.

 

Thus, Evidence Explained has two principal uses:

• It provides citation models for most historical sources--especially original materials not covered by classic citation guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style. 
• Its models, and supporting discussions, help us understand each type of record and identify the details we and our readers will need to know--not only to relocate the source when needed but also to understand the nature of that source so that its evidence can be better interpreted and the accuracy of our conclusions can be properly appraised. 

Highlights: The revised second edition of Evidence Explained 

• covers all contemporary and electronic sources not discussed in traditional style manuals, including digital, audio, and video sources. 
• Explains citation principals and includes more than 1,000 citation models for virtually every source type. 
• Teaches researchers where to find sources, how to describe them, and how to evaluate them 
• Guides users through the challenge of separating facts from assertions, and theory from proof, in the evaluation of evidence. 
• Covers source citations for every known class of records, including microfilm,  microfiche, and records created by the new digital media such as audio files, blogs, CDs and DVDs, digital books and journals, podcasts, social media, and websites of all types.

If you are a researcher, you need this book. Consult it during your research to guide you in capturing all the information you will need. Use it as a guide to identify source types and guide you to other related records.  Use it to evaluate digital and Internet sources. Make it your standard for citing sources and evaluating evidence in your day-to-day research.

About this title

About the Author

Elizabeth Shown Mills is a historical writer and independent scholar with decades of research experience in public and private records of many Western nations. Published widely in academic and popular presses Mills edited a national-level scholarly journal for sixteen years, taught for thirteen years at a National Archives-based institute on archival records and, for twenty years, has headed a university-based program in advanced research methodology. Mills knows records, loves records, and regularly shares her expertise in them with live and media audiences across three continents.

From the Inside Flap

Evidence Explained guides you through a maze of sources not covered by other citation manuals--all kinds of original records, accessed through different media. A thousand citation models for U.S. and international documents demonstrate how to handle the quirks that stump us when we use those materials. Evidence Explained is the go-to guide for everyone who explores the past.

Edition details

• Publisher: Genealogical Pub Co
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0806318066
• ISBN 13: 9780806318066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 885