How to Make a Database in Historical Studies

This book is a greatly supplemented translation from Portuguese, originally published in 2015. It discusses the most appropriate ways to create databases for research on history and other humanities, including an extensive debate about the usages that historians have made of computing since the 1950s. It has four chapters: the first is dedicated to theoretical and methodical questions about the usage of databases in history; the second is about technical issues; the third presents the concept of research engineering (how to improve research in groups); the last is about the construction of databases. The author states that the use of technology in research in history and humanities should be preceded and mediated by theories and methods which deal with these disciplines and not by technical issues. The historian must know how to think “correctly” in order to use the technological tools in an autonomous way. The book provides a background, demonstrating how theory, methodology, and technique are always articulated in historical research, and will appeal to history students and researchers.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Some theoretical and methodical questions.- Chapter 3. Some computer issues.- Chapter 4. Research Engineering.- Chapter 5. Constructing databases: some concrete examples.- Chapter 6. Conclusion. 

Tiago Gil is Associate Professor of History of the Americas in the Department of History at University of Brasilia, Brazil and coordinator of the Digital Atlas of Portuguese America. He holds a B.A. in History from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (2000) and M.A. (2003) and Ph.D. (2009) in Social History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the author of "Infiéis transgressores: elites e contrabandistas nas fronteiras do Rio Grande e do Rio Pardo, 1760-1810" (Nationan Archive, Brazil, 2007), which won the 2005 Research Prize of the Brazilian National Archive. He also authored "Storici e informatica: l’uso dei database (1968-2013)" Memoria e ricerca, n. 50, (Sep./Oct. 2015), among other articles, chapters and books. His research interests are Digital History, Economic History and, of course, databases.