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I found it deeply ironic that you're replying to this: >Is this a British centric view of history? It seems very one sided... reply With that quote. This phr

I found it deeply ironic that you're replying to this: >Is this a British centric view of history? It seems very one sided... reply With that quote. This phrase: >In some cases, the superiority of English archives stems from the more careful record-keeping of its administrators, but, in most cases, it has been a matter of survival through the centuries Look at the words and order in which they appear "superiority", "careful record-keeping of its administrators". Starting from the lesser important cause to the main one, luck. In fact what it's saying is: > We can especially study peasants in England because the archives there are especially full, stemming from the simply fact that they survived through time, whereas in many other places they didn't due to many diverse factors" It goes on on the following phrase: > Thanks to a strong legal system, a relatively stable social order, and a hefty dose of luck, England’s medieval archives have survived especially well. Again the wording and the order, luck is the last item, although in the writer's defence, they wrote "hefty dose of luck". Nonetheless, when you read that phrase the first thing that is imprinted is the "strong legal system", "relative stable social order", and lastly luck no matter how hefty. And this is proved by the following remarks about how in France and Scotland a presumably high number of documents were lost, which invalidates the supposed "careful record-keeping" being a relevant reason. There's other examples where sacks, destruction or natural phenomena destroyed complete archives of many states, in Europe and elsewhere. This is not to say that the conclusions of the article are wrong or that in fact English book keeping wasn't good or even better than any of the other mentioned here, in some, a few, many or all cases, it's just the way it's written. *edit formatting

hnedeotes 6y ago
thank God people here have rational discussions
steve_gh 6y ago
I think it is worth pointing out that there is a cultural factor in the ordering of the reasons - in the UK, the most important item in a list is often placed last. For example - a work colleague drops by. You discuss multiple things. On his way out he says "And by the way ...". That last point is the real reason he came to see you.
- hnedeotes 6y ago
  That's interesting and I didn't know that it was a common occurrence, although, still, in the example you showed wouldn't that be because it's being used in a face to face situation (or in writing if you're narrating human discourse, like in a novel, or something along those lines), the 'and by the way' has the effect of highlighting what comes after (and I would guess it isn't unique to British English but a common occurrence in many more languages/cultures). Anyway, I just found it ironic in the context and I still see it as, consciously or not, that idea is projected by the choice of their words, specially given it's in written form, if this were two blokes talking to each other it would be different - and there's nothing wrong with it either way, plus, I can be wrong, which is fine too - the same way I don't want thought police for me I don't want it for anyone else either.

hnedeotes 6y ago

thank God people here have rational discussions

steve_gh 6y ago

I think it is worth pointing out that there is a cultural factor in the ordering of the reasons - in the UK, the most important item in a list is often placed last. For example - a work colleague drops by. You discuss multiple things. On his way out he says "And by the way ...". That last point is the real reason he came to see you.

hnedeotes 6y ago
That's interesting and I didn't know that it was a common occurrence, although, still, in the example you showed wouldn't that be because it's being used in a face to face situation (or in writing if you're narrating human discourse, like in a novel, or something along those lines), the 'and by the way' has the effect of highlighting what comes after (and I would guess it isn't unique to British English but a common occurrence in many more languages/cultures). Anyway, I just found it ironic in the context and I still see it as, consciously or not, that idea is projected by the choice of their words, specially given it's in written form, if this were two blokes talking to each other it would be different - and there's nothing wrong with it either way, plus, I can be wrong, which is fine too - the same way I don't want thought police for me I don't want it for anyone else either.