State of the Art Survey of Reference Sources in American History

Today's historian of American history and culture is part of a highly diversified profession. While politics, economics, and social and intellectual history remain basic categories for historical inquiry, new subareas have appeared over the past decade or so. Contemporary historians have found it necessary to adapt the methodologies of psychologists, sociologists, and demographers to their own purposes. As a result of this gradual process, psychohistory (including the history of childhood and the family), urban history, popular culture studies, and studies of the impact of science and scientists on American society have evolved into separate areas of historical scholarship. These new study areas have made certain types of historical records more important than ever before — fiscal documents, censuses, electoral data, parish records (births, deaths, marriages), slave owners' records, etc. It is expected that such documents will light up formerly dark historical corners. The concurrent development of computer technology has obviated the tedium that manual studies of mountains of raw data used to entail. The computer has also made it possible to manipulate data in numerous ways. While traditional historians view the results of quantitative history with suspicion, its potential is great — if the computer is used as a tool and not as an end in itself.