The use of archival sources in social research

E. J. Webb

D. T. Campbell

R. D. Schwarz

L. Sechrest

pp. 113-130

in: Martin Bulmer (ed), Sociological research methods, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1984

Abstract

The tablet cited here is a tombstone and the quotation is from Durand's [1960] study of life expectancy in ancient Rome and its provinces. Tombstones are but one of a plethora of archives available for the adventurous researcher, and all social scientists should now and then give thanks to those literate record-keeping societies which systematically provide so much material appropriate to novel analysis.