Abstract
By Michael Moss with Introduction by Nick Barrett.
This is the most personal essay in this collection. Moss came from a family of schoolteachers and clerics. They escaped from a humble background as brush makers in Surrey to establish higher-status roles either in England or Australia. Moss uses his family’s history as an underlying narrative to enable him to meditate on the role of the individual in society and the tension between public and private history, between the views of the scholar, the archivist and the reality of life for the vast majority of people who lead ordinary lives and their descendants who painstakingly retrace their histories. It shows Moss at his most expansive and demonstrates all his virtues – always iconoclastic, always on the side of the ordinary person and hugely well read, quoting both Samuel Johnson and subaltern studies, and many in between, including Alex Haley, Karl Popper and RS Surtees.
This is the most personal essay in this collection. Moss came from a family of schoolteachers and clerics. They escaped from a humble background as brush makers in Surrey to establish higher-status roles either in England or Australia. Moss uses his family’s history as an underlying narrative to enable him to meditate on the role of the individual in society and the tension between public and private history, between the views of the scholar, the archivist and the reality of life for the vast majority of people who lead ordinary lives and their descendants who painstakingly retrace their histories. It shows Moss at his most expansive and demonstrates all his virtues – always iconoclastic, always on the side of the ordinary person and hugely well read, quoting both Samuel Johnson and subaltern studies, and many in between, including Alex Haley, Karl Popper and RS Surtees.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Michael Moss on Archives |
| Subtitle of host publication | Beyond the Four Corners of the Page |
| Editors | Julie Mcleod, Andrew Prescott, Susan Stuart, David Thomas |
| Publisher | Taylor and Francis Inc. |
| Chapter | 5 |
| Pages | 77-96 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781003407188 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781032525594 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Nov 2023 |