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Reading Primary Sources: The interpretation of texts from nineteenth- and twentieth-century history

Reading Primary Sources introduces students to many of the debates and issues which historians face when conducting primary research with written documents from the past. It explores the various traditions of source-criticism and explains the different ways that historical documents can be read. The chapters - each one focusing on a specific source type such as letters, memoranda, diaries, newspapers, novels and autobiographies - explicitly draw on the authors' own research: each contribution concludes with an example document and the author's interpretation of the text presented.

Dobson's contribution to the publication was - in collaboration with her co-editor - to establish the intellectual framework of the volume, to identify suitable authors for each chapter, and to edit the essays they submitted, ensuring coherence to the whole volume. She co-authored the introduction (pp. 1-18) and wrote the chapter on letters as a primary source (pp. 57-73). The latter draws on her own experience of using letters from the Soviet archives and ends with text written by a Moscow tram-conductor to Viacheslav Molotov in 1953 (from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History). It offers a critical reading of this source, informed by her own research on popular opinion in the Soviet Union following Stalin's death.