Problems in World History
The Discipline of History
Presentation Index
Back to Equiano Reading
Sources - Our Link to Past Events
There must be a link between H(ev) and the present. H(ev) must leave traces in time
or we would never know about the event. Historians often call these "traces in time" historical
sources or evidence. As historians, we must discover, select, analyze and organize evidence in
order to create historical accounts.
What types of sources do historians use? Historians usually rely upon written documents.
However, historians can also construct accounts by studying artifacts or material objects
remaining from past civilizations. Artifacts are especially important in studying a time for which
documents are scarce or nonexistent.
Historians gain knowledge and experience about the past from sources. We know that
this is very important because knowledge and experience help shape a person's representation of
the past.
Historians classify their sources of information into two groups: primary and
secondary sources.
Primary Sources
Primary sources are firsthand information about the past. Sometimes they are
eyewitness accounts from the past that speak directly to historians of the present. Artifacts, or
material objects, are also primary sources. Thus, a historian could use our classroom, your
clothes, your learning log and this morning's newspaper as primary sources to study America
today.
Here are some other examples of primary sources available to historians.
Physical remains: ruins of buildings, old houses, roads, bridges or aqueducts, tools, weapons, coins, tapestries, pottery, battle sites.
Secondary sources
Secondary sources are descriptions of an event or period written by someone who tries to
describe what happened by analyzing primary sources or other secondary accounts. More often
than not the author of a secondary source was not present at the event itself, and therefore must
rely upon sources other than his own experience. A primary source is not necessarily more
reliable than a secondary source. Not all primary sources are of equal value. A careful historian,
who used all the available primary and secondary sources, may produce an outstanding
interpretation of the past. Such a historian can weigh all the facts, and can therefore write more
accurate account than can be found in a primary source. In general, we expect a historical
account written long after an event happened to come closer to the whole well-balanced truth
than one written soon after the event. This is because later historians have the benefit of all the
previous research. They may also have access to new sources.