Abstract
Examples drawn from biographies, autobiographies, and collections of autobiographical chapters are used to explore forms and functions of historical work, and consider some of the intellectual strategies that can be employed and practical problems that may be encountered.
This paper uses some material presented in Platt (2015).
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Notes
- 1.
Someone who steals from the drunk (Shaw 1930).
- 2.
On which see Platt 2003, chapter 7.
- 3.
The literature on Wright Mills warns us of problems of perspective. His daughters’ selection of his letters (Mills and Mills 2000) includes autobiographical writings which give a completely different impression from Oakes & Vidich’s study (1999) of his collaboration with Hans Gerth, based largely on letters kept by Gerth’s family, which depict Mills as an unscrupulous careerist in pursuit of the goal of becoming a ‘big shot’.
- 4.
The examples used are listed in Platt (2015: 172–4), with the basis of selection of contributors and the general instructions they were given. The list is confined to US examples, though a few of the chapter authors are from other countries; the first of those listed appeared in 1964, the last in 2007.’
- 5.
This was promoted by Znaniecki, and succeeded in getting large numbers of cases by offering prizes for the best.
- 6.
These are potentially one of the most valuable sources, since they show how ordinary teachers conceptualised the topics of study and what they thought most important and relevant for beginners to learn. Much the same can be said about textbooks. (cf Platt 2008).
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Platt, J. (2015). (Auto)biographies as Data for the History of Sociology. In: Moebius, S., Ploder, A. (eds) Handbuch Geschichte der deutschsprachigen Soziologie. Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-07999-4_9-1
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