Product Description

Evidence Explained is the definitive guide to the citation and analysis of historical sources. It begins with a simple question: Why do we invest so much of our energy into the citation of sources? Followed by the intriguing answer: Because all sources are not created equal. As a citation guide, Evidence Explained is built on this simple question and answer. According to the author, there are no historical resources we can trust at face value. Records simply offer evidence, and their assertions may or may not be true. To decide what actually happened, we must understand those records. To analyze that evidence and judge what to believe, we also need particular facts about those records. Thus, Evidence Explained has two principal uses: it provides citation models for most historical sources especially original materials not covered by classic citation guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style. Beyond that it can help us understand each type of record and identify each in such detail that we and our readers will know not only where to go to find our source, but, equally important, the nature of that source so that the evidence can be better interpreted and the accuracy of our conclusions properly appraised. Highlights Covers all contemporary and electronic sources not discussed in traditional style manuals, including digital, audio, and video sources Explains citation principals and includes more than 1,000 citation models for virtually every source type Shows readers where to go to find their sources and how to describe them and evaluate them Teaches readers to separate facts from assertions and theory from proof in the evaluation of evidence. Most importantly, Evidence Explained discusses source citations for every known class of records, including microfilm and microfiche, and records created by the new digital media: Websites Blogs Digital books and journals DVDs CDs Audio files Podcasts Everyone Needs This Book -Carry it around and consult it for the correct citation of any source you come across -Keep it constantly at your side to help you identify sources -Use it to evaluate digital and Internet sources -Make it your standard for citing sources and evaluating evidence in your day-to-day research

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17814 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 885 pages

Review
"This remarkably useful book is the definitive guide for how to cite every conceivable kind of source that a historian might use, from traditional archival materials to digital media to the most arcane sources imaginable. This volume will be indispensable to every serious scholar, writer, and editor." --John Boles, Editor, JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY

Choice Magazine, March 2008
A key resource guide for scholars and serious researchers who must rely upon and understand historical evidence. Highly recommended.

Booklist, December 15, 2007
More than 1,000 citation models covering print, websites, DVDs, CDs, podcasts [etc]. Excellent purchase for academic and larger public libraries.

Customer Reviews

Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace
This is the "bible" of genealogy citation. The layout of the book makes it easy to find the source and how to cite it correctly on research.

The new standard in its field -- replacing the old standard by the same author!
I admit it -- when a new book is announced by Elizabeth Mills, I immediately put in an advance order, without even reading any reviews. I've heard her speak at dozens of conferences and seminars, local and national, and I've read (I think) all of her published articles. My regard for her professional expertise is such that anything she cares to say, I want to hear.

Taken by the main title alone, and by the announced length of the book, I was hoping for a grand collection of the author's thoughts on the ferreting out of sources, the evaluation of evidence gleaned from them, and the knitting of that evidence into a provable case. Sort of a distillation of her forty-plus years of accumulated wisdom in an area of family research in she is arguably the leading expert. The subtitle, though, is more accurate. Only twenty-two pages at the beginning address the subject of evidence and what to do with it.

The bulk of the volume is given over to a series of topical chapters of various types of source materials -- published books and articles, unpublished manuscripts, business and institutional records, census, church, and cemetery records, local and state records produced by courts and clerks, national governmental records, and laws and court cases. Another sizable section covers handwritten and electronic correspondence, records and other materials (often ephemeral) found on the Internet, and broadcast or televised source material. Each chapter and section is preceded by a "QuickCheck" list of concise models and examples of the citation formats under discussion. (Those for electronic sources expand on Mills's "QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resources," a four-page laminated ready-reference tool also published by Genealogical Publishing (revised edition, 2007). There's an immense amount of detail here, far more than in Mills's classic and now standard _Evidence!_ (1997). If you need to know how to cite the contents of the Norwegian Lutheran Church's registers, you'll find it on pages 362-65. In that regard, this volume should be considered the genealogical equivalent of the _Chicago Manual of Style,_ and as such, it's going to be the immediate standard for genealogical writing for publication. But it will probably be regarded as overkill for most hobby-level researchers. (The author would argue that every effort should be made to produce the best work possible, whether the researcher is a professional working for pay or a weekend hobbyist, . . . and I would agree. But still.) Perhaps this book would have been better conceived (and marketed) as a substantial expansion of _Evidence!_ And I'm still hoping to see that future work with Elizabeth Mills's name on it, called perhaps "Everything I Know About Genealogy."

Finally: Not to cavil, but one error on the very first page caught my eye, where the author quotes Lawrence of Arabia's warning that "All sources lie," and then refers to him (twice) as "Sir Lawrence." Actually, Col. T. E. Lawrence's given names were "Thomas Edward," and the proper style is therefore "Sir Thomas." The copyeditor really should have caught that.

Evidence Explained
Service in getting this book was both quick and easy. The book is great and has been very helpful in my family research.