Defining a Discipline: Archival Research and Practice in the Twenty-First Century, Essays in Honor of Richard J. Cox. Jeanette A. Bastian and Elizabeth Yakel, eds. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2020. Paper, $103.20 (ISBN 978-1945246272).

Abstract

While the act of defining typically underscores features that establish limits and exclusivity, this book honoring Richard J. Cox, a celebrated scholar, educator, mentor, and contributor to the archival discipline in the United States, does the opposite. Instead, this volume offers expanded and more inclusive meanings and values to archival scholarship, praxis, and pedagogy through the insightful essays written by Cox’s former students and colleagues. The essays, according to Bastian and Yakel, “seek to carry his vision of an archival discipline and the transformational power of scholarship forward. At the same time, push this vision into new, related directions” (ix). Indeed, this book pushes beyond the limits of archiving traditions that for many years have defined the discipline and how archivists understand why they do what they do.