Another example is this pamphlet, which compiles legal testimony from a witch trial. It was published in , the same year as the trial it documents. 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 by W. 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.
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 Many historical documents have never been published, and they may only be available in archives.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 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 , 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.
What other sources are like this one? What other sources might help answer our questions about this one? What else do we need to know in order to understand the evidence in this source?
What have others said about this or similar sources? How does this source help me to answer my research question? How does evidence from this source alter or fit into existing interpretations of the past? Martha's diary. How far does this photograph explain why Germany faced difficulties in ? Use the source and your knowledge to explain your answer. The source shows one difficulty, hyperinflation, facing Germany in The man using banknotes as wallpaper and German children playing with banknotes shows just how worthless the money was and so it has been reduced to a toy.
The source indicates just how much money was in circulation and further underlines how worthless German money was, even in mass quantities. However, the source does not show the repercussions of hyperinflation on ordinary German citizens such as unemployment, loss of savings and general financial struggle. In addition, this source does not explain two other reasons Germany faced difficulty in the Munich Putsch and the invasion of the Ruhr.
The source does not indicate the difficulties of the invasion of the Ruhr, when the French and Belgians occupied the Ruhr, a major German industry centre, because the Germans had failed to make a reparations payment in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles.
German workers, supported by the Weimar government, went on strike but passive resistance only exacerbated the issue. As the source shows, the government's response was to print more banknotes which became virtually worthless.
Besides the invasion of the Ruhr, the source also doesn't show the Munich Putsch, a third difficulty in Germany in When Hitler tried to take over the government by force, it was a clear act of violence and open opposition to the Weimar government and, quite obviously, the Munich Putsch and its leaders were never properly dealt with, something the source gives no indication of. Therefore, the source shows a limited extent of the problems Germany faced in , demonstrating the issue of hyperinflation without showing the impact on ordinary German lives, and with absolutely no indication of the invasion of the Ruhr or the Munich Putsch.
Membership Contact us Support us About us. Historical Periods A-level topic guides Transition to university Choosing history Careers with history Competitions. Working with schools Guide to history in schools Public outreach Transition to university Publish with us About us. More Close. By Melanie Jones. Add to My HA Add to folder. How Do I Use Sources? Think of the 5 Ws that you might have learned lower down the school — they will help: Who — Who made the source - did they have an opinion or bias?
Were they involved? What — What information does the source give? Is it the full story? Is it accurate? Why — Why was the source made? Was it made to persuade people of a particular opinion? When — Was it made at the time? Or years later? Was the person there? Where — Where was the source made?
Were they involved in the event? Did they have an opinion? Source interpretation: written sources Identify the source. Source interpretation: image sources Identify the source. Tips for Analysing Political Images Techniques used by cartoonists Symbolism — using an object to stand for an idea.
Caricature — exaggerating a physical feature or habit: big nose, bushy eyebrows, large ears, baldness. Captioning and labels — used for clarity and emphasis. Analogy — a comparison between two unlike things that share some characteristics. To introduce your students to primary sources, you might begin with materials that they themselves possess, such as birth certificates, social security cards, passports, or drivers' licenses.
What do these sources tell us about the individuals and the society in which they live? How might these sources be used by historians? Consider how school, employment, medical, and family records could be used to develop generalizations about twentieth-century student life.
Beyond personal records, there are a variety of other sources available. Where can you locate documentation on your neighborhood or community? Your sources can be both governmental and private: Federal census figures, newspapers, local government files, personal diaries, and interviews with longtime residents. In most cities and towns, local historical groups, preservation societies, and museums serve as excellent starting points for classes locating documentary materials about local communities.
On the state level, historical societies, archives, and museums are valuable depositories for useful primary materials. Many of these agencies offer specific programs for high school students, and many would welcome suggestions for joint projects. At the federal level, materials and training courses are available from the National Archives. In addition to document based materials for the classroom teacher, the National Archives runs an 8-day summer workshop for educators: Primarily Teaching.
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