Digital History: A Field in Search of Identity
Keywords:
Historiography, Digital History, Digital Humanities, Robert DarntonAbstract
What is digital history and what are its characteristics? This article aims to clarify what constitutes this academic field, presenting some of its essential features and raising some doubts. To do so, the article offers a two-part overview. On the one hand, it briefly describes the genealogy of the «transdiscipline» known as the «digital humanities». On the other, it details the meaning of «digital history», focusing on the work of the prestigious historian Robert Darnton, thus illuminating the results and debates the field has generated. The article concludes that in a world characterised by the dematerialisation of text and the abundance of documents, it is impossible to understand our societies nor the processes in which they are involved without paying attention to the digital processes that govern our lives and our work.
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