The practice of sending and receiving letters is decreasing considerably. While it seems to have been substituted by email correspondence, there are significant differences with regard to the technologies that are applied and the conventions on how the message should be worded. Letters and emails from people in positions of political power are of special interest to the general public, as they reveal what goes on behind the scenes. In this assignment you will compare the emails by Hillary Clinton, which she was forced to disclose, with the digitised correspondence of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which was published to honour her political legacy. Since both politicians operated in the field of international relations, their correspondence can play a key part in writing the history of their era. But as you will see, the context and options for communication in 1980 were quite different from those in 2008.
A paper letter can be archived in a tangible place, a public or private archive or a library, where it can be consulted while holding it in one’s hands. An email is a born-digital source that can be shared with anyone once published online, but it needs a hard disk or a server in order to be preserved.
Although letters are written to address an intended audience, they can also reach an unintended audience. Soldiers during the First World War knew that their letters would be read by censors before they were sent out to their families. This prevented them from painting a realistic picture of the war. Hillary Clinton set up a private email server, perhaps hoping she could discuss matters without the risk of disclosure online.
The Margaret Thatcher Foundation digitised and published a selection of her private papers to honour her political legacy.
Answer these questions by going through the literature below, and write a short essay of 500 words.