IRSH Articles Accessible Online
All articles in IISH's renowned journal International Review of Social History (since 1956) and its predecessors (since 1936) are now accessible online through the IISH catalogue.
Search the integrated catalogue on author and/or title, add IRSH in the search field and click the 'Get full text' button.
For instance, a search on Rüter IRSH brings in the introductory article written on the occasion of the launch of the journal in 1956, written by the IISH director at the time.
Rüter lingered on the concept 'social history' and the 'still meagre interest' for this 'broad and variegated' discipline. He believed that there was a demand for an international medium, where social historians from different countries and continents could exchange views on mutual similarities and differences.
Fifty years (search: Fifty years IRSH) later, IISH research director Marcel van der Linden reflected on the expansion of social history and formulated the new mission:
"We are becoming increasingly aware that mere geographic expansion of the scope will not suffice, and that far more daunting challenges await. The 'globalization’ of the discipline will enable us to reveal previously invisible transnational connections, to reconsider many of our old concepts and theories – without abandoning our pursuit of clear causal explanations – and to integrate insights from contiguous disciplines."
http://socialhistory.org/en/news/irsh-articles-accessible-online