Our Words, and Theirs: A Reflection on the Historian’s Craft, Today

• Main Author: Carlop Ginzburg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Firenze University Press 2014-03-01
• Series: Cromohs: Cyber Review of Modern Historiography
• Subjects: • Carlo Ginzburg; IinteR-La+b; Balzan Foundation; the historian's craft; microhistory; Ansatzpunkte; Auerbach; anomaly; case; norm
• Online Access: http://fupress.net/index.php/cromohs/article/view/14122/13124

“Those familiar with archival research know that one can go on leafing through innumerable files and quickly inspecting the contents of countless boxes before coming to a sudden halt, arrested by a document which could be scrutinized for years. […] Once again we come back to Ansatzpunkte: the specific points which, as Auerbach argued, can provide the seeds for a detailed research program provided with a generalizing potential – in other words, a case. Anomalous cases are especially promising, since anomalies, as Kierkegaard once noted, are richer, from a cognitive point of view, than norms, insofar as the former invariably includes the latter – but not the other way round.” First published in Historical Knowledge. In Quest of Theory, Method and Evidence, ed. by Susanna Fellman and Marjatta Rahikainen (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), pp. 97–119, Ginzburg's paper has been republished on Cromohs 18 (2013) with the permission of the Author, the Editors, and Cambridge Scholars Publishing.