Archives, Agency, and the State

Abstract

State archives are the caboose of the train of the state. State archives follow where the state goes, preserving evidence of its functions, always in the process of “becoming” as the great train continues to move and more and more archives are created. State archives are shaped by the functions the state chooses to undertake, the process by which it documents those functions, the nature of the law it enacts to govern its archives, the security the state provides to the archives, the choices it makes of what documents to preserve, and the access policies of the state. Silences in archives do exist. They are a natural consequence and reflection of the politics of the state.

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