NAMED "BEST REFERENCE 2007" BY LIBRARY JOURNAL and WINNER OF THE NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY'S 2008 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE!
Following its enthusiastic reception in 2007, we are pleased to announce a new edition of what is now the definitive guide to the citation and analysis of historical sources, a guide so thorough that it leaves nothing to chance, whether you want a podcast or a census record. The new second edition of Evidence Explained includes updates to numerous websites, new models for electronic sources such as blogs and online forums, and new model citations to traditional and non-traditional genealogical sources, thus continuing its role as the single-most comprehensive style manual for genealogical writing and publishing.
Evidence Explained begins with a simple question:
Why do we invest so much of our energy into the citation of sources?Followed immediately 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
Digital books and journals
DVDs
CDs
Audio files
Podcasts
E-zines
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
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
"This is an essential resource for family historians; highly recommended for all libraries."--LIBRARY JOURNAL (November 2007).
"...A key resource guide for scholars and serious researchers who must rely upon and understand historical evidence....Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above"--CHOICE (March 2008).
"If researchers purchase one book this year, it should be Evidence Explained....This 885-page work expands and updates Evidence!, published in 1997, creating the first comprehensive style manual for genealogical writing and publishing....Despite the book's heft, serious researchers will heartily welcome this comprehensive work. In standardizing a family history style, Mills has advanced the discipline. She has given genealogical researchers, writers, editors, and publishers invaluable new tools to bring quality and consistency to their work and distinction to the field."--NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY (September 2007), p. 233.
"...more than 1,000 citation models covering print, microfilm, microfiche, Web sites, digital books and journals, DVDs, CDs, audio files, podcasts, and e-zines...an excellent purchase for academic and larger public libraries."--BOOKLIST.
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 B. BOLES, Editor, THE JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY (August 2007).
"Twenty-first century technology confronts historians, genealogists, and students with a bewildering proliferation of information--some of it accurate and too much of it dubious. In Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace Elizabeth Shown Mills demonstrates how to separate the wheat from the chaff--and how to report one's sources and achievements. This encyclopedic guidebook is an invaluable resource for genealogists and historians, students and editors alike."--JON KUKLA, author of Mr. Jefferson's Women and A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America.
"Carry it around and look up the correct citation of any source you come across. Keep it at your side to help you identify sources and use it to evaluate digital and internet sources. This is the very latest source you will have to guide you in the modern age"--BLUEGRASS ROOTS (Fall 2007).
"Evidence Explained...is more than a mere expansion of Evidence! Citations and Analysis for the Family Historian. As a transition, it is the next generation of genealogical and historical documentation style guide and will likely remain so for years to come. It should be on every genealogist's shelf to be consulted often"--NEW MEXICO GENEALOGIST (March 2008).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Shown Mills is a historical writer with decades of research experience in public and private records of many Western nations. Published widely in academic and popular presses Mills edited a national-level scholarly journal for sixteen years, taught for thirteen years at a National Archives-based institute on archival records and, for twenty years, has headed a university-based program in advanced research methodology. Mills knows records, loves records, and regularly shares her expertise in them with live and media audiences across three continents. Also by Elizabeth Mills:
Quicksheet: Citing Online Historical Resources
Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians
Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian
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