Absence of archival evidence can mislead historians about intentions

Evidence

The tendency of modern academic historiography to accord absolute primacy to archive materials over what is dismissed as “secondary” needs to be subjected to critical scrutiny. The absence from the archives of the east of the Peninsula of any plan on Ferdinand’s part to convert his local Mudejars there comes to be interpreted as firm indication of the king’s intentions not to convert them. That seems to me to give too much weight to negative evidence. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 415

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the named critique of over-privileging archives and ‘negative evidence’ — a methodological principle worth keeping.
• XREF: connects to: Lacking a mother indicates lacking real history to interrogators — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1974