Organization

All people can be Once the work of data collection is completed, the work of analysis begins. Two kinds of analysis are necessary. The first is an analysis of internal aspects of the data. This is the point at which one detects bias within the sources themselves. Given the self-serving nature of our species, autobiographies and diaries need particular scrutiny. Oral histories, too, pose unusual problems of verification, because the data provided are filtered through fallible and limited human memory.
The second kind of analysis is external to the sources themselves: it is the work of interpretation and organization. Historical research can be considered a kind of anthropology of the past.