In a Short Guide To Writing About History I was struck by Marius’ statement that history and the research/writing of history has changed significantly because of modern technology, but history as a whole (when you get down to the bare bones of the stuff) has remained essentially the same over time.  Even with modern technology at our fingertips that gives us an almost unlimited resource in terms of secondary sources, there is no replacing studying and handling a primary document, and, in a larger sense, technology is only a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. A historian cannot obtain a true appreciation or depth of understanding from technology; there is no substitute for sitting with and getting to know a primary source.