The Art of Editorial Decision Making: Review of Editing Historical Documents: A Handbook of Practice (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1997). Michael E. Stevens and Steven B. Burg.

Authors

Beth Luey, Arizona State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

12-1998

Document Type

Article

Citation

Documentary Editing, Volume 20, Number 4, December 1998.

ISSN 2476-1796 (electronic); ISSN 2167-1451 (print)

Comments

1998 © the Association for Documentary Editing. Used by permission.

Abstract

In a paper presented at the 1998 annual meeting of the Association for Documentary Editing and published in this issue of Documentary Editing, Michael Stevens discussed advances in the craft, professionalism, and legacy of the field over the past twenty years. The book that he and Steven Burg have written is an example of the interconnections among these advances. For a craft to improve, its practitioners must become more professional and reflective about their practices. For professionalism to develop, a body of knowledge and some degree of consensus about the practice of a craft must be established. And for a profession to have a continuing legacy, practitioners must have both a commitment to teach future generations and the tools necessary for the task. The existence of Editing Historical Documents suggests that documentary editing is in a very healthy state of development.