I highly enjoyed reading Thomas and Ayer’s “The Difference Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities.”  This article is an exemplary example of the benefits/limitations of digital history as well as how various techniques and methods are utilized to enhance the overall display and content.  In other words, they have put theory into practice. Thomas and Ayers used digitization to examine the role of slavery in the Civil War.  By digitizing they were able to evaluate various historical sources and combine them to evaluate the accuracy of historical accounts and draw new conclusions.

In the Presentation section of the website the authors discuss the background of digital history, noting key persons who impacted the movement in order to support why and how they approach digital history, and also the continuing challenges.  They provide useful information both those who create and those who utilize such pages, viewing digitization as a prism:

“We expect readers to turn its refracting light into new arrays of knowledge and material.”

Digitization as opposed to the old methods increases the ability of readers and scholars to get involved in the academic process.  Before digitization historical documents and textbooks were often filled with bias or inaccurate interpretations.  The ability to access and assess historical information digitally creates the possibility of easily comparing multiple sources and composing the information in a new way to draw new conclusions.  The author’s intellectual and methodical process is available to others to not only view, but involve themselves in the process.

Strengths of the website:

• establish intention, purpose, and credibility
• describes scientific method
• easy to use
• well organized
• working links
• charts, maps, and tables
• extensive metadata
• well cited