I spent years in academia doing research as an anthropologist. History has always been a sideline and it is an intriguing challenge to do an anthropology of a western community at an historical moment. Where to go for information is one factor.
There are of course, records in the local newspaper to lead me through local concerns of the time, and there are quite a few people living who can remember the 1930s. I can interview and read. It is different from immersing oneself in a culture. I can create a multimedia presentation that perhaps will include film from the time, but I can’t film the life in process or ask wondering questions of the participants. Historical research is full of holes that can’t be filled.
