Arlette Farge, Le goût de l’archive (París, Points, 1997).

Absorbed, engaged, historians experience a sense of wonder when they open the box, when they pull out the stack and touch its old binding, when they remember the feel of fragile paper. They struggle with outdated handwriting difficult to decipher, but rejoice with the small discoveries it provides. In Le goût de l’archive, historian Arlette Farge evokes the complex, unsettling, and exciting experience of doing archival research. Using her own work on eighteenth century Paris as an anchor, she takes the reader on a journey through the quotidian life at the archives: the discrete but relentless war to get the best-lit desk every morning, the struggle of figuring out the schedule and procedures to use the material, the deafening silence of reading rooms. Originally published in French in 1989, the book masterfully interweaves personal anecdotes, vignettes of libraries and administrative offices, insights of Farge’s research, and reflections on the poetics and politics of archival research.

Even though the stories or events that emerge from the archives may be troubling, sad, or bewildering, the physical and intellectual experience of plunging into the archive—the hunt—and the effort to seek additional meaning from the fragmented phrases or stories found there—the trophy—make the endeavor of breaking these silences worth pursuing. As Farge writes:

The archival document is a tear in the fabric of time, an unplanned glimpse offered into an unexpected event. In it, everything is focused on a few instants in the lives of ordinary people, people who were rarely visited by history, unless they happened to form a mob and make what would later be called history. The archive was not compiled with an eye toward history. It describes, in everyday language, the derisory and the tragic in the same tone.

The description of how unearthing these stories through the careful reading—but also touching, smelling, holding, and finding—documents of other times conveys the allure of the archives. Newcomers to historical studies, enthusiasts, and professionals alike will find in Farge’s book an insider’s introduction to archival research—whether it serves as an invitation, a reminder of the old days, or as a deep reflection on the practice of the craft.