<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >
This module is a guide to the process of identifying what type of work you are researching and using that information to expand the potential of different research projects. You will be introduced to the process of categorizing the works you find in your research, locating similar and divergent works and using them in concert to contextualize the "Egyptian Red Book," a satire of the British government Sudan policy included in the Travelers in the Middle East Archive.

Introduction: decoding historic documents

When you're doing historical research, you often encounter documents that are difficult to categorize. Without knowing more about suchworks, it's difficult to advance a knowledgeable argument about them. For instance, the Egyptian Red Book" (1885), a satire that is part of the Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA) , reveals little about itselfdirectly. It includes no author, introduction, table of contents, statement of purpose or even references to the figures represented in the text and the images. Few of the cartoonshave named figures or artists. The pamphlet presents itself to the reader like the political cartoons it contains: an overt message with very little background, a visualsermon to the converted with little consideration for those outside the know. If you would like a synopsis of the story addressed in the Red Book you may skip to our sketch of the historical events .

In order to understand both the intended and historical meaning of the text and the images, it is important to find out what sort of work the "Egyptian RedBook" is. We will use the following questions to guide our research:

  • What is the significance of the term "Red Book" in the title? To answer this question, we will look up the term in dictionaries and examine other red--and green--books.
  • How do we categorize the work? We'll see how librarians have descibed it by using the catalog.
  • How does this work compare with others that come from the same period and/or that address a similartopic? Let's analyze the "Red Book" in relation to newspapers and magazines from the same time period.

Defining key terms: "red book"

Often the first clue to a document's significance is its title. To begin, then, we should define what is meant by"Red Book". What is the significance of "Red" here--why not blue or green? The adjective "Egyptian" indicates that the work focuses on a particular country, but it's not clearhow. Time to head to the library to find more information! We will use online reference materials to begin our sleuthing. For the purposes of demonstration, we will describehow to conduct this research using Fondren Library's resources, but a similar process will work at most other research libraries.

From the Fondren home page select the Collections option and then the Online Reference Sources option that appears next to it.

Then select General Reference at the top of the screen.
You will find a list of online dictionaries and encyclopedias here to choose from. By selecting Dictionary.com and entering red book we are offered this definition:
This resource is great for a quick reference, but it is important to understand its limitations. Any two dictionaries published within a few years of each other willprobably provide you with similar, but not identical, definitions for a common word. The meanings of words change over time, however. The best way to observe the way Englishwords change and the importance of identifying not only how, but when the word you're investigating was used is by looking it up in The Oxford English Dictionary .

Questions & Answers

A golfer on a fairway is 70 m away from the green, which sits below the level of the fairway by 20 m. If the golfer hits the ball at an angle of 40° with an initial speed of 20 m/s, how close to the green does she come?
Aislinn Reply
cm
tijani
what is titration
John Reply
what is physics
Siyaka Reply
A mouse of mass 200 g falls 100 m down a vertical mine shaft and lands at the bottom with a speed of 8.0 m/s. During its fall, how much work is done on the mouse by air resistance
Jude Reply
Can you compute that for me. Ty
Jude
what is the dimension formula of energy?
David Reply
what is viscosity?
David
what is inorganic
emma Reply
what is chemistry
Youesf Reply
what is inorganic
emma
Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with the study of matter,it composition,it structure and the changes it undergoes
Adjei
please, I'm a physics student and I need help in physics
Adjanou
chemistry could also be understood like the sexual attraction/repulsion of the male and female elements. the reaction varies depending on the energy differences of each given gender. + masculine -female.
Pedro
A ball is thrown straight up.it passes a 2.0m high window 7.50 m off the ground on it path up and takes 1.30 s to go past the window.what was the ball initial velocity
Krampah Reply
2. A sled plus passenger with total mass 50 kg is pulled 20 m across the snow (0.20) at constant velocity by a force directed 25° above the horizontal. Calculate (a) the work of the applied force, (b) the work of friction, and (c) the total work.
Sahid Reply
you have been hired as an espert witness in a court case involving an automobile accident. the accident involved car A of mass 1500kg which crashed into stationary car B of mass 1100kg. the driver of car A applied his brakes 15 m before he skidded and crashed into car B. after the collision, car A s
Samuel Reply
can someone explain to me, an ignorant high school student, why the trend of the graph doesn't follow the fact that the higher frequency a sound wave is, the more power it is, hence, making me think the phons output would follow this general trend?
Joseph Reply
Nevermind i just realied that the graph is the phons output for a person with normal hearing and not just the phons output of the sound waves power, I should read the entire thing next time
Joseph
Follow up question, does anyone know where I can find a graph that accuretly depicts the actual relative "power" output of sound over its frequency instead of just humans hearing
Joseph
"Generation of electrical energy from sound energy | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore" ***ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7150687?reload=true
Ryan
what's motion
Maurice Reply
what are the types of wave
Maurice
answer
Magreth
progressive wave
Magreth
hello friend how are you
Muhammad Reply
fine, how about you?
Mohammed
hi
Mujahid
A string is 3.00 m long with a mass of 5.00 g. The string is held taut with a tension of 500.00 N applied to the string. A pulse is sent down the string. How long does it take the pulse to travel the 3.00 m of the string?
yasuo Reply
Who can show me the full solution in this problem?
Reofrir Reply
Got questions? Join the online conversation and get instant answers!
Jobilize.com Reply

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Studying political satire: "the egyptian red book". OpenStax CNX. Sep 19, 2006 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10290/1.6
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Studying political satire: "the egyptian red book"' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask