When a ceramic vase falls to the floor and smashes into infinite pieces, it is not, nor can it be, repaired in haste. History or a crime scene cannot be reconstructed in a rush either. Josephine Tey highlights this similarity, and many others, between detection and historical method in her mystery novel, The Daughter of Time. Both detection and historical method rely on the tedious process of reconstruction of the past. The meaning behind data, facts and evidence cannot be found simply by plugging the information into formulas and equations. Instead, historians and detectives are investigators that face a mirage of clues, facts, stories and hypotheses that have to be slowly deciphered and then pieced together. Just like the impossible task of gluing a vase back together, there is no easy way to decipher and piece together history or a crime case.
Much like one would approach a jigsaw puzzle, these investigators recognize that all the puzzle pieces connect, but that more often than not, they will discover how all of the pieces connect in a convoluted, disorderly way. They may work on one piece of the puzzle for some time without finding an answer, then move onto another piece with a plan to return to the original piece later. Alan Grant takes on this strategy throughout Tey’s novel, as he jumps from one book to the next, putting books “aside” as he turns the pages of a new one.
The family trees pictured in the beginning of Tey’s novel serve as an example of a difference between detection and historical method. Although detection and historical method both investigate the lives of individuals and individuals’ connections to others, historical method, like a family tree continues to grow, whereas, detection, most often has a more finite end. Therefore, historical method provides a more expansive study over time for its researchers. With time, change can be observed in individuals and their lives, but also in society, culture and the natural world. All of the evidence historians hold, or may hold some time in the future, establish a field of study where there is never a shortage of questions or investigations.
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