The SAGE Handbook of Web History
- Niels Brügger - Aarhus University
- Ian Milligan - University of Waterloo
The Web has been with us now for almost 25 years. An integral part of our social, cultural and political lives, ‘new media’ is simply not that new anymore. Despite the rapidly expanding archives of information at our disposal, and the recent growth of interest in web history as a field of research, the information available to us still far outstrips our understanding of how to interpret it.
The SAGE Handbook of Web History marks the first comprehensive review of this subject to date. Its editors emphasise two main different forms of study: the use of the web as an historical resource, and the web as an object of study in its own right. Bringing together all the existing knowledge of the field, with an interdisciplinary focus and an international scope, this is an incomparable resource for researchers and students alike.
Part One: The Web and Historiography
Part Two: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections
Part Three: Technical and Structural Dimensions of Web History
Part Four: Platforms on the Web
Part Five: Web History and Users, some Case Studies
Part Six: The Roads Ahead
Historians of the twenty-first century need to understand both the history of the Web, and the kinds of histories that can be written with online sources. There is no better guide to this crucial dimension of contemporary life than the SAGE Handbook of Web History. With chapters on web archiving, ethical considerations, technology, platforms, visualization, computation, quantitative and network analyses and many other subjects, it promises to become a key resource, not only for so-called digital historians, but for any historian who uses a computer in his or her work.
With so much of human expression from the last three decades documented on what we broadly call the Web, a better understanding of the nature of this complicated electronic medium is long past due. It is essential that we fully grasp the technology of the Web, how Web archives are assembled and can be traversed, and how the Web itself has a fascinating, complex history. This volume will be greatly welcomed by historians, social scientists, and any other researcher delving into the rich and multifaceted realm of the Web, which is indeed as worldly and wide as its longer name suggests.
This handbook provides a broad range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the Web at the very moment in its history when serious questions are being raised over whether the Web can become the world wide trusted source of information once envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues. This collection is a must addition for any library or researcher focused on the social life and impact of the Internet, Web and related information and communication technologies.
In 2003, Roy Rosenzweig, pointing out that historians largely ignored born-digital sources, called for them to get involved in preserving digital culture and exploring how to analyze its abundance. In 2018, the vast majority of historians have still yet to meaningfully engage with web archives. This Handbook provides the jumpstart for which the field of web history has been waiting. The volume amplifies and elaborates the importance of the Web as a source and as an object of study. More importantly, the contributors provide a multifaceted overview of web history that guides readers through the nature of web archives, how to approach analyzing them, what methods are available, how to understand the technical underpinnings of web history, and how to explore web platforms. With this Handbook to get them started, historians will be ready for the research in web history that must form a part of any effort to understand the world of the 1990s and beyond.
