A book review of Archiving People: A Social History of Dutch Archives by Eric Ketelaar

Abstract

This is a book review for Eric Ketelaar’s Archiving People: A Social History of Dutch Archives is a compelling resource for archive users, archival institutions as well as policy makers as it explores the concept of archiving through the influence of social practices using the Model of the archiving context. The book is segmented in 13 Chapters through which the author discusses Archiving People, Churches, States, Cities, Polders and Commons, Property, Trade and Industry, Monies, Litigation, the East, Technologies, Professionals and finally the Dutchness of Dutch Archives. The whole essence of the book as concisely put by Ketelaar is that, “We must understand the societies and the people who created and used the documents before we can really understand their value for research and other purposes. And vice versa: by exploring the social history of archives we may get a better understanding of archiving people in the past, present, and future” (p. 21).