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Apr. 5th, 2019 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogI'm reading the first popular-audience history book since leaving school and my level of credulity about it in comparison to peer-reviewed history amuses me.
When I read Timothy Gilfoyle's "City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920," for example, I figured there was a 99% chance that any individual bit of data in the book was true and could concentrate any analytical thought on his suppositions and conclusions.
Reading Jim Bowman's "Good Medicine: The First 150 Years of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center," basically every single time I read an assertion of fact or, especially, supposition based on those facts, I wonder about how thorough his research was and how much to trust his narrative. My assumption is that the broad strokes are probably pretty reliable, but before treating any important details or conclusions as fact I'd want to confirm them with another source.
Regardless, as part of gaining familiarity with the archives I'm working with, I want to get a good working knowledge of the institution's history.
When I read Timothy Gilfoyle's "City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920," for example, I figured there was a 99% chance that any individual bit of data in the book was true and could concentrate any analytical thought on his suppositions and conclusions.
Reading Jim Bowman's "Good Medicine: The First 150 Years of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center," basically every single time I read an assertion of fact or, especially, supposition based on those facts, I wonder about how thorough his research was and how much to trust his narrative. My assumption is that the broad strokes are probably pretty reliable, but before treating any important details or conclusions as fact I'd want to confirm them with another source.
Regardless, as part of gaining familiarity with the archives I'm working with, I want to get a good working knowledge of the institution's history.
