Advice on written sources methodology for 20th century undergraduate thesis

by Calliope48

Hello, please feel free to delete if this isn’t the proper community to post this in! New to following this subreddit and really enjoyed all the stuff I’ve read here so far.

Context: I’m an American undergrad at a British university doing a joint history and politics degree with a thesis in history. The word limit is 12,000 words incl. references. I wanted to do a study of the intersection of imperialist and pro-neutrality politics in interwar America but obviously needed to narrow that down significantly. So I talked with my advisor and he liked my idea of doing it through a local study of the area where I live (central Texas - specifically the German-American communities that mostly settled in the 1840s).

My question to y’all: do you have any websites or articles or tips you’d recommend on how to go about finding and using sources? I think it’ll end up being mostly written sources from local archives with a lot of contemporary local or state newspaper reports or editorials. I’ve gotten some guidance from the university but unfortunately they largely take a hands off approach to this kind of thing so would appreciate any advice you have!!

space-cacti

The source methodology you end up using will depend on what you end up narrowing your thesis focus down to.

Before getting bogged down in that I would recommend the following steps

  • Start by reading widely about the topics that interest you in this area, if you can find papers/ books etc. that deal with your geographical area so much the better. If not, what you read can still inform your reading of the archive when you get to that stage.
    • from here, mine the citations of all of the literature that you have found most relevant, they should include their primary sources in there and even if these are not relevant for you specifically it will at least narrow your search down: if an archive holds one document/ collection relevant to you, chances are they will hold more than one.
  • You've mentioned wanting to use your local archive back home? Definitely get in touch with the archivist there (probably best to do this once you have your topic area) and enquire about what sources they might have that are relevant to you. They should be able to point you in the right direction and help you to navigate their holdings.

In terms of just general rules for source methodology, if you're planning to use newspaper articles:

  • be sure to distinguish between editorial/ opinion pieces and regular publications (the latter claims to be objective the former does not)
  • research the history/ political leanings of the publication or even author in question, this will guide your interpretations of their writings
    • if possible try to ensure you have a representative sample of publications (so across the political spectrum, ideally with similar reach)

Best of luck!