Epistemologies of the archive: toward a critique of archival reason

This article explores epistemological bases for debates over the nature of archival research and practice, and argues that the lens of historical epistemology helps us best understand the critiques of the so-called “archival turn” as well as continued interest in archives among the public. Close reading of the rise of “scientific” history in the nineteenth century and modern archival practice, as articulated in early twentieth-century archival...