ABSTRACT
The problem of classifying historical material may be stated in the simplest terms. Documents of state and public acts would seem to be the most reliable forms of historical authority. The shortcomings of the earlier schools of historical writing lie not in the attention paid to the political movements of their time, the activity of rulers, the administration of provinces, and the march of armies; the faults are faults of emphasis and of interpretation. The mechanical inventions of the last hundred years have affected the character as well as the content of the historical material contained in public archives of state. The historian is bound to consider a different type of material; the sources of history which have come into existence for reasons unconnected with the business of the time; records composed or set aside with deliberation for informative or historical purposes.
