Richard W. Slatta

Historians and microcomputing

Historians, like other scholars of the 1980s, have incorporated word processing into their work lives. But only a tiny minority uses other applications, such as database management, spreadsheets, or classroom simulations. This article first focuses on the exceptional cases—those few historians who have embraced and applied computer technology to teaching and research. It describes ways of integrating software into the history classroom. Second, it sketches online research and teaching possibilities open to historians who communicate via modem. Finally, it closes with some projections on the future potential and problems that face computing historians. Keywords: history, historian, social science, humanities, teaching, archaeology, research, archive, simulations.

Enhancing Latin American History Teaching and Research With Computers

Historians specializing in Latin America use a wide range of electronic tools in their research, publication, and teaching. Quality information for the region is now available in a wide variety of formats, including databases, spreadsheets, CD-ROMs, concept maps, and web sites, created by historians and librarians. Thanks to electronic finding aides, it is now quicker and more convenient to research and to teach students about Latin America’s past. In addition, teachers can bring more of the richness and variety of Latin American culture to their students by using new technologies.

Bandits, Peasants, and Politics: The Case of "La Violencia" in Colombia (review)

In its original 1983 Spanish version, Bandoleros, gamonales y campesinos, this study of banditry during Colombias Violencia made important contributions to Latin American historiography. Sanchez and Meertens provided a compelling range of bandit images, from praiseful peasant mythology to condemnatory government disinformation. They tapped a wondrous range of sources, from legal investigations to news Reports to popular songs. Unlike the prepolitical social bandit, postulated by the late Eric J. Hobsbawm, Sanchez and Meertens uncovered bandits with deeply rooted political connections to the elite-led political parties of Colombia. They also revealed levels of wanton violence, rape, and ritualized murder that no respectable social bandit, concerned with fostering ties to peasant supporters, would have inflicted. Interestingly, Hobsbawm provided a brief foreword to the original Spanish edition, which is also included in this translation.

Database Design with dBASE III : An Introduction and Tutorial:

This article includes three parts. The first describes various types of database management programs available for microcomputers. The second outlines a procedure for planning and designing data files. The example used is bibliographical files, but the approach and concepts are applicable to any type of database. The third part provides tutorial exercises for importing &dquo;foreign&dquo; data into dBASE III and for using the utility dFORMAT to design input screens.