Why do historians use sources

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.

For some topics, historical documents might be difficult to find because they have been lost or were never created in the first place.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:. For example, if you are interested in the issue of birth control in 20 th 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:. 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. You might be able to find:. 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.

Galvan, J. Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak. Persaud, N. Salkind Ed. Paul Vogt Ed. Third Edition. Weidenborner, S. Writing research papers: A guide to the process. New York: St. Martin's Press. Site People. Study and Learn. They participate in human emotions and in the values and attitudes of the past.

By reading a series of public opinion surveys from World War II, for example, students confront the language of the person interviewed and his or her fears about shortages, as well as the interviewer's reactions recorded after the interview. These human expressions provide history with color and excitement and link students directly to its cast of characters. Interpreting historical sources helps students to analyze and evaluate contemporary sources--newspaper reports, television and radio programs, and advertising.

By using primary sources, students learn to recognize how a point of view and a bias affect evidence, what contradictions and other limitations exist within a given source, and to what extent sources are reliable. Essential among these skills is the ability to understand and make appropriate use of many sources of information. Development of these skills is important not only to historical research but also to a citizenship where people are able to evaluate the information needed to maintain a free society.

Perhaps best of all, by using primary sources, students will participate in the process of history. They will debate with teachers and classmates about the interpretation of the sources.

They will challenge others' conclusions and seek out evidence to support their own. The classroom will become a lively arena in which students test and apply important analytical skills. 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?