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HISTORICAL RESEARCH:

HISTORICAL RESEARCH:. PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES. PRIMARY VS SECONDARY SOURCES. What is the difference between a primary and a secondary source ? What are the advantages of each one when gathering historical information ?

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HISTORICAL RESEARCH:

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  1. HISTORICAL RESEARCH: PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES

  2. PRIMARY VS SECONDARY SOURCES • What is the difference between a primary and a secondary source ? • What are the advantages of each one when gathering historical information ? • How do you use primary and secondary sources to gather information about a historical event ?

  3. PRIMARY VS SECONDARY SOURCES • When Historians try to understand events in the past, they try to use a combination of both primary and secondary sources to get a deeper understanding of historical events.

  4. WHAT IS A PRIMARY SOURCE ? • Primary sources are the original sources of information, or “eyewitness” accounts recorded at the time an event occurred. Examples include: Diaries, drawings photos, maps, newspapers, journals, business and government records

  5. WHAT IS A PRIMARY SOURCE ? • Primary sources can also be written well after events. Examples are: - memoirs - oral histories

  6. WHY USE PRIMARY SOURCES ? • To explain how major events are related to each other in time. • To think critically and distinguish between fact and opinion. • To recognize point of view and historical perspective • To develop your own conclusions and analyze the significance of historical events. • To recognize failures and successes in the past in order to make better decisions today. • To understand history using historical empathy, (placing yourself in that time period or situation)

  7. PRIMARY SOURCES

  8. SECONDARY SOURCES • When learing history, people often rely on others to interpret or analyze historical events and evidence. These interpretations are called secondary sources. • Textbooks,encyclopedias,andwikipediaare examples of secondary sources.

  9. SECONDARY SOURCES • Dictionaries • Encyclopedias • Articles that review other sources • Textbooks • Biographies • Wikipedia

  10. WHY USE SECONDARY ? • To get expert opinions in order to evaluate what really happened. • To gain insight by examining the same event from different perspectives. • To save time by reading information collected from a number of different sources.

  11. PRIMARY VS SECONDARY

  12. PRIMARY VS SECONDARY ? ‘Mackenzie decided to take advantage of the political unrest. He began to ride around the countryside north of Toronto, stirring up people against the government. Those who became most rebellious were called Radicals.’ (Penney Clark and others, Canada Revisited P. 308.) “Brave Canadians! The law says we shall not be taxed without our consent by the voices of the men of choice, but a tyrannical government has trampled upon the law-robbed the exchequer-divided the plunder-and declared that, regardless of justice they will continue to roll their splendid carriages.” William Lyon Mackenzie, May 1838 Colonial Advocate What potential problems are associated with each one? Can you explain how both selections help students understand a historical topic, but in different ways? • Which of these selections is a primary source, and which is a secondary source? • What is different about the two selections?

  13. KEY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER There are a number of questions that a history student or historian must consider when analyzing primary or secondary sources. • What type of source is this, primary or secondary? • What is the background of the person(s) who created the source? • Why did the person(s) create the document? • What is the historical context (time, place, and situation) within which it was created? • What is the main idea expressed in the source? What are the key facts that support this idea? • Is there a bias or one-sided point of view in the source? What are some key words or phrases that reveal the bias? • What evidence does this source contribute to my research?

  14. FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES To find primary documents on the web, try the following internet search topic + “primary source”

  15. CONCLUSION It is important to determine the type of information you are looking at. • Primary sources are original sources of information • Secondary sources summarize, analyze, or critique primary sources • Both primary and secondary sources can be good sources of information, but you need to critically evaluate them.

  16. TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE • Photograph of John A Macdonald • Diary of Anne Frank • Television documentary on the development of the internet • Letter from Prime Minister Harper to President Obama • Canadian historian's account of the 1968 federal election written in 1999 • Photocopy of the front page of a Toronto newspaper dated 22 September 1911 • Statistics on the number of immigrants who came to the Canada each year from 1900 to 1913 • A documentary film about the Vietnam War • Biography of Wayne Gretzky • Map of the Alaska boundary dispute of 1899 taken from an Internet site • Information from Wikipedia

  17. TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE PRIMARY SOURCES *Photograph of John A Macdonald *Diary of Anne Frank *Statistics on immigrants *Letter from Harper to Obama *Photocopy of a newspaper *Map of the Alaska boundary dispute SECONDARY SOURCES *Historian’s account of the election *Biography of Wayne Gretzky *Television documentary *Documentary film about Vietnam

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