History and Material Culture: A Student s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources

Harvey, Karen

ISBN 10: 1138928674 / ISBN 13: 9781138928671

Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2017

About this Item

Editor(s): Harvey, Karen. Series: Routledge Guides to Using Historical Sources. Num Pages: 288 pages, 44 black & white halftones. BIC Classification: HBA; HBTB; HDA; JFCD. Category: (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 234 x 156. . . 2017. 2nd Edition. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781138928671

Bibliographic Details

• Title: History and Material Culture: A Student s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138928674
• ISBN 13: 9781138928671
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Sources are the raw material of History, but whereas the written word has traditionally been seen as the principal source, historians now recognize the value of sources beyond text. In this new edition of History and Material Culture, contributors consider a range of objects – from an eighteenth-century bed curtain to a twenty-first-century shopping trolley – which can help historians develop new interpretations and new knowledge about the past.

Containing two new chapters on healing objects in East Africa and the shopping trolley in the social world, this book examines a variety of material sources from around the globe and across centuries to assess how such sources can be used to study the distant and the recent past. In a revised introduction, Karen Harvey discusses some of the principal issues raised when historians use material culture, particularly in the context of 'the material turn', and suggests some initial steps for those unfamiliar with these kinds of sources. While the sources are discussed from interdisciplinary perspectives, the emphasis of the book is on what historians stand to gain from using material culture, as well as what historians have to offer the broader study of material culture.

Clearly written and accessible, this book is the ideal introduction to the opportunities and challenges of researching material culture, and is essential reading for all students of historical theory and method.

About the Author

Karen Harvey is a Professor of History at the University of Birmingham. Her publications include Reading Sex in the Eighteenth Century: Bodies and Gender in English Erotic Culture (2004), The Kiss in History (2005) and The Little Republic: Masculinity and Domesticity in Eighteenth-Century Britain (2012).