Published books as primary sources : The handbook of the French Army / author, Samuel Foster (University of East Anglia, UK).

Format:

Website/Database

Author/Creator:

Foster, Samuel, 1987- author.

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), contributor, commissioning body, digitiser.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Research.

Methodology.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2021.

Summary:

This document case study introduces the reader to the process of evaluating 'published books' as historical sources. In this instance, it will focus on the Handbook of the French Army (1914), originally intended for circulation among British military officers and War Office staff in the opening months of the First World War. The reader will be invited to explore and assess the usefulness of published books, how their intended and eventual uses differ over time, and whether this affects our understanding of them as primary sources. In considering the changing historical context, emphasis will also be placed on the nature of official publications such as the handbook, written to fulfil a specific function, and how this would have influenced the author and the ways in which they were likely to have been consumed. The case study will also approach the source as representative of an effort to both frame and rationalise the Anglo-French alliance by Britain's political and military elites. To help develop a better understanding of this, the reader will be encouraged to analyse the handbook's text from the perspective of 'imagology': a branch of comparative literature used in the study of national and cross-national stereotypes.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on August 17, 2022).

Publisher Number:

10.47594/RMPS_0129

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.