The relationship of history, archival studies, and the emergent information disciplines continues to be a topic of debate in the modern archival profession. Lester J. Cappon (1900-1981) is the quintessential proponent of archival knowledge based on historical scholarship, and his writings remain prescient decades after his death, writes Richard J. Cox in his excellent introduction.

The 12 essays collected for the first time in a single volume cover the range of Cappon's primary interests: archival theory, archival collecting and appraisal, the relationship between archivists and historians or archives and history, and documentary editing. These essays, which reflect Cappon's considerable soul searching about the knowledge and identity of the archivist, and his own strong sense of history and archives, continue to be relevant today and make an important contribution to the professional discourse.