Memory

Abstract

Using Primary Sources is an Open Access teaching and study resource that combines rare archival source materials with high quality peer-reviewed chapters by leading academics. Covering major themes within the medieval, early modern and modern periods, this easy to access e-textbook provides students with the opportunity to examine rare and original material in detail on their computer, tablet or phone as well as learn how they can integrate the source material in their own written work. A vast range of sources can be used to construct histories concerned with memory, including interviews, text-based sources, source materials with an official origin, artefacts, and images. In this chapter, we will be focusing on the ways in which conceptualising ‘memory’ can help historians make sense of a particular aspect of history: the social history of the nuclear age. The concept of memory might seem an abstract idea but, used carefully, it has the potential to assign new meanings to past events, shining a light on lived realities and experiences.