Show TranscriptHistorians and other scholars classify sources as primary or secondary. This distinction is important because it will affect how you understand these sources. In this first video of a 2-part tutorial, we will discuss primary sources. Primary sources are most often produced around the time of the events you are studying. They reflect what their creator observed or believed about the event. These sources serve as the raw material that you’ll analyze and synthesize in order to answer your research question, and they will form key pieces of evidence in your paper’s argument. Secondary sources, in contrast, provide an interpretation of the past based on primary sources. This newspaper article is an example of a primary source. It describes a visit Nixon made to the Soviet Union in 1959. It was written the day after by a journalist who witnessed the event, and it reflects what the journalist and his editors thought their readers would care about at the time. Another example is this pamphlet, which compiles legal testimony from a witch trial. It was published in 1646, the same year as the trial it documents. But, given the nature of the topic, you would probably want to research the pamphlet’s author, John Davenport, to determine the reliability of the transcription or what might have motivated him to publish it. However, you should be aware that there’s nothing inherent in a source that makes it primary or secondary. Instead, its category depends on how you treat it, which in turn depends on your research question. For example, Black Reconstruction in America, written in 1935 by W.E.B. Du Bois, could be used as a secondary source for research about 19th-century America, since Du Bois draws on a range of government reports, biographies, and existing historical narratives in order to make a claim about the past. However, it could also be used as a primary source for research about Du Bois’s life or black intellectual culture during the 1930s. One of the main challenges of dealing with primary sources is locating them. Many historical documents have never been published, and they may only be available in archives. For example, here is a page from the expense book of a student enrolled in the University of Illinois in 1930. It is a unique document located in the Student Life and Culture Archive here on campus, and it is only accessible to those who can come to the archive in person. This, on the other hand, is a published primary source: a diary, written in 1912, and first published several decades later. Our copy is in the Main Stacks. Some of these materials, like letters, were not published at the time of creation, but have been subsequently published in a book, or digitized and made available online. For some topics, historical documents might be difficult to find because they have been lost or were never created in the first place. In other cases, the primary sources might exist, but not in English. Therefore, when you begin to formulate a topic, you will want to think about what kinds of evidence will be available to you. When thinking about how to find or make sense of primary sources, you should ask yourself three questions:
Depending on the topic and time period that you are studying, you’ll have to look for different kinds of primary sources. For example, if you are interested in the issue of birth control in 20th century America, you can expect to find many primary sources, including:
If you are interested in a topic from a more distant historical time period, such as the status of Jews during the Renaissance, you may have to look harder, but you can still find documents such as:
If you’re interested in first-person accounts, you’ll want to take a look at sources like:
You’ll have to determine if the source is a reliable account, or created with the intention of imposing a particular understanding of an event or situation. Were they created at the time of the events they recount, or were they written many years later? Some sources might make this point of view obvious, whereas others might pretend to be authoritative. In other cases, you’ll want to think about what kinds of organizations might have created records related to your topic. You might be able to find:
Again, you’ll want to determine the circumstances of the document’s creation. Was it an internal document, created to gather information, or was it intended to persuade others inside or outside the group to take a certain course of action? Visual material can also provide a powerful window onto the time period you are studying. For instance, maps not only reveal contemporary political boundaries, but also how people thought of them. Other visual sources include:
Keep in mind that primary sources can have multiple meanings. For example, this 1854 map provides evidence about the 1854 London cholera outbreak, but it also reflects a new understanding of how disease spreads and a concern with illness as a social problem. You can find published primary sources by using the online catalog, or by searching in a digital collection of historical documents, such as the Gerritsen Collection of Women’s History, Chronicling America, and Empire Online. The History Library maintains a list of these collections on its website. Remember, though, that these databases will not explicitly categorize the items they list as primary and secondary, and may even contain documents that you might want to use as a secondary source, so you’ll have to use your own judgment. For example, you might be interested in this Dictionary of Women’s Employment for the information it contains about wages, or for the attitudes that it conveys about what kinds of jobs are appropriate for women. You can also find primary sources by consulting published bibliographies, and by looking at the secondary literature on your topic to see what sources other scholars have used in their research.  An important challenge for history students is understanding the role of historians and working with historians to improve their understanding of the past. Who are historians?Historians are learned individuals who spend their professional lives researching and trying to make sense of the past. Historians gather sources and evidence, which they use to form interpretations, conclusions and arguments. They publish their findings as academic works or books for the open market. Most professional historians are employed in academia: as university or college professors, lecturers or researchers. A few also work for government bodies, in the private sector or as publishing authors. No historian ‘owns the truth’Because they prepare written history and deliver it to us, historians play a critical role in shaping how we view and understand the past. No historian ‘owns’ or has a monopoly on historical truth, however, even if they claim to. History itself is not one single truth but a broad patchwork of ideas and viewpoints, woven by many different historians over long periods of time. Every historian looks at the past from their own perspective, uses different sources, employs their own methods and speaks in their own voice. Historians often reach different conclusions or answers from the same evidence. There are several reasons for this. Just as you and other people see the modern world in different ways, historians see the past differently. Every historian approaches the past with his or her own values, priorities and political perspectives. These perspectives shape the way we study, interpret and make sense of the past. Political labelsYou will often hear some historians mentioned with political labels – for example, “the left-wing historian Brown” or “Russell, a liberal historian”. These labels attempt to summarise or encapsulate a historian’s political perspective. This is a simplistic and often problematic approach, however, because it generalises or ‘pigeon-holes’ historians who may have significantly different viewpoints or arguments. The most common of these labels attached to historians, as well as political commentators and other figures, are “left-wing” or “Marxist” and “right-wing” or “conservative”. In general terms, left-wing or Marxist historians tend to emphasise problems and issues affecting the lower classes. The most common of these are the ownership of wealth and capital, economic inequalities, class exploitation, the misuse of power and the condition and grievances of workers. Historians with right-wing or conservative views may instead focus on economic freedom and opportunity, progress, social stability, law and order and the failures of radicalism. Somewhere between the two are liberal historians, who tend to focus on how well a society protects and advances individual freedoms and rights. Some historians adopt even more complex or nuanced positions. Why different conclusions?Histories of a significant period or event will invariably contain a range of political perspectives. Many left-wing historians suggest the French Revolution, for example, claim it was driven by working-class dissatisfaction, the product of decades of feudalism, gross inequality and political exclusion. In contrast, conservative historians suggest the French Revolution was triggered by exaggerated grievances and falsehoods; the revolution tried to achieve too much too quickly and descended into a series of violent power struggles. Identifying perspectivesA difficult but important challenge for history students is to identify and understand these different perspectives and differentiate between them. Students should also be aware of their own values and political assumptions that shape the way you view and understand history. For some insight into your own political perspectives, visit the Political Compass website, click on ‘Take the test’ and complete the online quiz (it takes about 10-15 minutes). The quiz will provide a written and graphical assessment of your political views. It even charts your views in relation to some famous leaders, such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Margaret Thatcher and Mohandas Gandhi. Changes over timeTime can also change the perspectives of historians. As the views and values of society change and evolve, so do historians and their perspectives. Historians of a particular generation may approach the past differently to their predecessors. They may study different people or groups, ask different questions, consider alternative causes and factors and form different theories. Historians who engage in this are broadly referred to as revisionists. The last half-century or so has been a fertile period for historical revisionism. History is accessible to more people with different ideas, allowing for a greater exchange of information and a broader range of viewpoints. As a consequence, ideas and approaches once rarely considered or countenanced by historians have been explored. Changes in social values have encouraged historical research from the perspectives of marginalised or excluded groups, such as women, homosexuals, colonised peoples and racial minorities. It follows that history written, say, in the 1950s may be radically different to another written in the last decade. When studying a historian, it is useful to know when they were active and the context they operated in. Value and respect historiansHistorians are the gatekeepers and architects of our history. Our understanding of the past is built upon their research, knowledge and hard work. It is important for history students to value and respect historians, even those who may not accept or agree with. Use historians as your guides as you trek through the past. Draw on their findings and their knowledge, use their writing as evidence and acknowledge them with referencing. Be aware, however, that no historian offers a definitive or perfect account of the past. Weigh up different perspectives and challenge historians you disagree with. Above all, think critically not just about the past but also the historians who reveal it to us. Filter questionsIdentifying a historian’s arguments, perspectives or political position can be difficult. Students should approach the writing of every historian with a critical eye. Think carefully about the assumptions they make, the conclusions they reach and the theories or arguments they advance. The following filter questions might prove useful.
Terms for describing historiansThe following terms can be used to categorise or summarise historians according to their general perspectives or approach. These terms should only be used when speaking or writing about the broad history of a particular period or event. Students should avoid attaching these labels to specific historians as this can be simplistic or misleading.
Sentence stems for historiansDiscussing historians demands a particular writing style. Writing about historians goes beyond just quoting or paraphrasing their views. You must learn to summarise a historian’s conclusions while suggesting how or why they reached them. You should try to write comparatively and critically, weighing up one historian against others and evaluating the validity of a historian’s work. This section contains 25 sentence stems useful when writing about historians.
Other useful words and termsThe following words and phrases may be useful when writing about historians, particularly in an analytical or critical way.
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A historian could best use this source to
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