ABSTRACT
Having tracked the source material down, how should the historian set about using it? This chapter looks at different approaches that historians adopt: some start out with a specific set of questions, some follow whatever line of enquiry the sources themselves throw up. The chapter draws a distinction between the source critic, who analyses source material in great detail, and the historian, who does this too but puts the sources in the context of a wider knowledge of the period to which they relate. Sources have to be analysed for forgery, the author's bias has to be detected and taken account of, and historians need to know how to spot when material has been removed from the record or covered up. Digitized material is not exempt from these procedures. The archive itself – traditionally regarded as authoritative – is increasingly scrutinized for ideological distortion.
