SOURCE: Roelker, Nancy L. Review of Fiction in the Archives, by Natalie Z. Davis. American Historical Review 94, no. 5 (December 1989): 1392-93.

In the following review of Fiction in the Archives, Roelker praises Davis's approach to social history.

This unusual book [Fiction in the Archives] owes its originality and its distinction to the wide range of the author's historical imagination, that is, finding linkages that others have overlooked, combining sociological, political, and legal aspects of history with literary analysis and psychological insights. The resulting mix makes significant contributions, multi- and interdisciplinary. Owing to the high drama of the pardon tales—some tragic, some funny, almost all suspenseful, as in detective stories—a variety of readers, impatient to know “how it comes out,” will enjoy a “good read” along with new material and fresh interpretations.

The juxtaposition and cross-fertilization of different kinds of sources is the foundation of the innovative methodology...