Believe it or not, the 1990s are history. As histori- ans turn to study this period and beyond, they will encounter a historical record that is radically dif- ferent from what has ever existed before. Old web- sites, social media, blogs, photographs, and videos are all part of the massive quantities of digital in- formation that technologists, librarians, archivists, and organizations such as the Internet Archive have been collecting for the past three decades. In History in the Age of Abundance? Ian Milli- gan argues that web-based historical sources and their archives present extraordinary opportunities as well as daunting technical and ethical challenges for historians. Through case studies, he outlines the approaches, methods, tools, and search func- tions that can help a historian turn web documents into historical sources. He also considers the impli- cations of the size and scale of digital sources, which amount to more information than historians have ever had at their fingertips, and many of which are by and about people who have tradition- ally been absent from the historical record. Scruti- nizing the concept of the web and the mechanics of its archives, Milligan explains how these new media challenge, reshape, and enrich both the historical profession and the historical record. A wake-up call for historians of the twenty-first century, History in the Age of Abundance? is an es- sential introduction to the way web archives work, what possibilities they open up, what risks they entail, and what the shift to digital information means for historians, their professional training and organization, and society as a whole. Ian Milligan is associate professor of history at the University of Waterloo. 4 0 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 H I S T O R Y • C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T U D I E S History in the Age of Abundance? How the Web Is Transforming Historical Research ian milligan A guide to the World Wide Web and its archives for the contemporary historian. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S April 2019 -5,7a755pl7ln-57p 4psi-l£ bAU1 4psi-l£ Dc1 kshi-- 6o602 -5,7a755pl7ln-n7n 4Ssaiaac bAU1 4Ssaiaac Dc1 k-niaa $.9ru n B - pSs66 s5 6u9r931 l Cto:2ox31 p roN.03 0g99T omot.oN.0