Introduction to Primary Sources Definitions and Examples

Secondary Sources Accounts written after the fact by scholars. Interpretations of history based on an analysis of primary sources.

Secondary sources BooksJournal Articles Dissertations

Primary Sources: Definitions “is material -- a document or other evidence -- that was created during the period or the event” “historical raw materials” “the leavings, the shards, the remnants of people who once lived and don't live anymore”

Primary sources WrittenVisual Oral

Historians & Primary Sources Primary sources are the evidence used by historians in their analysis/interpretation of the past. Scholarly history books and academic journal articles (secondary sources) carefully cite the evidence in footnotes. Primary sources help us make personal connections with the past.

Historians & Primary Sources Primary sources are the evidence used by historians in their analysis/interpretation of the past. Good history books and scholarly journal articles (secondary sources) carefully cite the evidence in footnotes. Primary sources help us make personal connections with the past.

Traces of your life… What have you done in the last 24 hours? What evidence did you leave of your activities?

Analysis of primary sources Time and Place Rule  The closer in time and place a source and its creator are to an event, the better the source Direct traces  contemporary accounts by firsthand observers/participants  accounts of the events created later by first hand observers/participants Congressional hearing  newspaper accounts of the hearing / diary entries by participants / letters of observers  memoirs of participants published years later

Analysis of primary sources Bias Rule  Every source is biased in some way Evidence must be read or viewed skeptically and critically Creator’s point of view and motives must be considered Each piece of evidence must be compared with other evidence