Digital History: a Challenge of “Doing History”

In 1973 Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie wrote that in history, as elsewhere, what counts is not the machine, but the problem. According to him, the machine is only a useful tool as it allows to tackle new questions and use original methods (“L’historien et l’ordinateur” in Le territoire de l’historien, Paris, 1973, pp. 11-14). The rise of digital technologies is changing the ways historians practice their craft. In the last twenty years, the practice of historians has changed rapidly. In the age of big data historians collect, disseminate, and store information in a different way. New digital tools in the field of history have transformed how historian can disseminate knowledge. A wide range of historians have also been brought together to focus on how digital history relate to area of traditional historical scholarships.