'Particular instance papers': the historical and archival dimensions.

This article comments on the trend in social and economic history reconstruct society from an aggregative analysis of the individuals of components which make up the social whole. This practice by social historians is based on the assumption that an aggregation of the characteristics of the individual units which make up a society will give an insight into the overall structure of that society. This method of social history research poses a problem in that aggregate studies are dependent on the preservation of complete record series. And no archives can possibly contain a complete record series.