Digital History Overview

1) What is digital history?

Based on the explanations of Seefeldt and Thomas and the discussion in “Interchange,” I understand digital history as the application of digital tools to the work of historians for the purpose of greater story-telling possibilities. These scholars define digital history as not just a cataloging device for the past, but as a means of representing the narratives and the important questions that arise through the study of history. Seefeldt and Thomas allude to this by saying, “To do digital history, then, is to digitize the past, certainly, but it is much more than that. It is to create a framework through the technology for people to experience, read, and follow and argument about a major historical problem” (What Is Digital History ).

This definition is extended by participants in “Interchange,” who assert that digital history projects, as opposed to traditional history scholarship, invites reader participation in different ways than those of a traditional analog text: “The goal of digital history might be to build environments that pull readers in less by the force of a linear argument than by the experience of total immersion and the curiosity to build connections” (“Interchange”).

2) How does 21st century Digital History theory/practice differ from earlier applications of computer technology to historical research, such as the data-driven quantitative history (“cliometrics”) of the 1970s? 

One significant difference between the early data-focus of “cliometrics” and current digital history methods, as described by William G. Thomas, is using digital tools as mediums of storytelling, not just as computational technology. The cliometrics efforts of the 1970s were concerned with the accumulation of data and quantifiable research. With the advent of modern computer interfaces, digital historians can use technology not just as a means of accessing and cataloging data but as interactive narrative devices that have “opened up history and historical sources in unprecedented ways” (Schreibman et al.).

3) How does Digital History differ from Digital Humanities?

Digital history differs from digital humanities in that digital history has historically endeavored to reach a classroom audience, and, borrowing from the tradition of public history, the public at large, whereas digital humanities projects have traditionally aimed their work at an audience of other scholars. Also, Stephen Robertson points out that while there is overlap in the tools that digital historians and digital humanists use, digital historians use mapping more extensively than do other areas of the digital humanities.

4) What are the promises/perils of doing Digital History? 

One of the perils of digital history, as Sharon Leon demonstrates in her essay, is that digital history is just as susceptible to the institutional biases of higher education as any other subject area/discipline is. The tradition of  under-presentation of minority and women in the academy is not erased by digitization and has the potential to be perpetuated by them. One example of this, according to Leon, is how the role of women on digital history projects is frequently overlooked, often because women are underrepresented in the roles (those eligible to be “principal investigators”) that garner funding for DH projects in the first place. Therefore, the digital history field perpetuates the underrepresentation of women in high-level academic roles. Another possible peril of digital history is falling into the “cliometrics” trap, as scholars in the mid-20^th century did, where historians overly depend on data and quantification as to do the research for them, as Thomas describes, thereby minimizing the tradition that defines the humanities – finding meaning in and asking questions based on lived experience, which often includes the unique and unquantifiable.

At the same time, as Ayers points out, digital historians have the capability to be more inclusive in the narratives they tell and in the ways they tell them than previous generations of historians have. Digital history tools are also providing ways for individuals to document the experience of previously overlooked or underrepresented populations. As Brennan points out, “When designated physical spaces for certain types of archival material do not exist (or are limited), people are creating digital spaces to fill the gap” (Brennan).

5) Can we make Digital History, as a field, more inclusive? 

Leon identifies specific ways in which digital history can be more inclusive. One of these is to more readily acknowledge the contributions of everyone to a digital history project, not just those who lead the project and wrote the proposal for funding. Another suggestion, based on Leon’s argument, is for scholars to be aware of the citational bias that leads to women’s work being cited less often than that of male counter parts: “Study after study shows women’s scholarship simply gets cited less than men’s in many, many fields” (Leon).

Brennan, Sheila A. Digital History – The Inclusive Historian’s Handbook. https://inclusivehistorian.com/digital-history/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2019.

“Interchange: The Promise of Digital History.” Journal of American History, vol. 95, no. 2, Sept. 2008, pp. 452–91. academic.oup.com, doi:10.2307/25095630.

Leon, Sharon. Returning Women to the History of Digital History. https://www.6floors.org/bracket/2016/03/07/returning-women-to-the-history-of-digital-history/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2019.

Robertson, Stephen. "The Differences Between Digital Humanities and Digital History." Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016. https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/untitled/section/ed4a1145-704442e9-a898- 5ff8691b6628#ch25    

                                  

Schreibman, Susan, et al. Companion to Digital Humanities (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture). Hardcover, Blackwell Publishing Professional, 2004, http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/.

The Pasts and Futures of Digital History: Edward L. Ayers. http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/PastsFutures.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2019.

Seefeldt, Douglas and William G. Thomas III. What Is Digital History? | Perspectives on History | AHA. https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2009/what-is-digital-history. Accessed 10 Sept. 2019.