[WikiEN-l] semi-new essay

[Charles Matthews]

"Charlotte Webb" wrote

> On 10/9/08, Christiano Moreschi <moreschiwikiman at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> > Ergo, these things shouldn't really be used unless you have a modern RS with
> > which to check all the facts. But if you have that...why not use it instead?
> 
> Because people want to copy and paste something, and the modern source
> is not free.

It's all much more complicated than that. Much of the nineteenth-century material is actually closer to archival sources, so it's not so often the facts that are wrong, but the perspective. It all depends on topic (diplomatic history is likely to be much more reliable than art history). 

And it's not as if modern sources are free from errors, either - and they tend to be more fragmented (or at least less attached to clear narrative). It always helps to know what you're doing, but starting with something to check isn't generally worse than starting with a clean sheet.

Charles

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