HISTORY 101

GUIDE TO USING PRIMARY HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

Primary sources are sources of information. You use the information to learn something. Often, you’re trying to learn something specific (for example, you’re trying to get answers to predetermined questions) so you know what you’re looking for as you read. On the other hand, you might be examining a source just to see what you can learn from it, with no specific purpose in mind. In the former case, you may tend to discard information that’s not particularly relevant to your purpose. It’s harder the other way, for often, you don’t even recognize when the source is giving you information, much less how that information could enlighten you. For example, someone studying Karl Marx’s The Manifesto of the Communist Party in order to learn about Marx’s ideal future society might ignore anything Marx wrote about the past; while someone reading it just to learn more about Marx’s ideas might encounter and be impressed by an idea he or she had never thought about before, but which might not serve any particular immediate purpose. The way you approach primary sources often sets the limits of what you can learn from them, so it’s a good idea when you look at one to ask yourself first of all what your purpose is in looking at it.

What makes sources primary is that they were left by people involved in the issue. Studying them can be almost like interrogating the person in question himself or herself. Primary sources can be human remains, artifacts like pottery or tools, or even the ground itself. (For example, what looks like a flat field may, when subjected to ground-penetrating radar, show traces of a long-gone house.) If you’ve ever seen an episode of any of the “CSI” TV shows, you know how (in this case) physical sources can provide information.

In history, we can learn a lot from such sources as those described above, but for most historical research, primary sources are written documents of some kind. Examples of primary historical sources are diaries and letters, judicial records, transcripts of interviews, government reports and orders, tax records, and news accounts. There are, of course, many other kinds as well. Primary sources are the raw material from which historical accounts are constructed. (Today, of course, primary historical sources can also include e-mails, audio tapes of all sorts, the oral testimony of a living witness, and some other things. Most of what you encounter in this course, though, is written documents.)

Of course, there’s a complication here. Sometimes a source can be both primary (left by someone involved in the issue) AND secondary (constructed by observation of materials primary materials by an author who was not necessarily involved in the issue. For example, Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party is an essential primary source for anyone studying Marx and/or Marxism. But much of the document is a work of history, in which Marx traces the historical development of human societies and economies over time. These portions may tell you much about how Marx thought and how he viewed history, but his writings are not primary sources about that history. When he writes about the Middle Ages, his writing cannot be considered a primary source, since he didn’t live in the Middle Ages. In cases such as that, he was constructing a story based on other sources. Be careful, in examining sources, to note that distinction.

When you examine a historical document, start by summarizing it in your own words. This is an invaluable practice, not only for document analysis, but for testing how well you have learned almost anything. If you can’t do this, you probably don’t have a good grasp of the document itself. In that case, go back and read it again until it makes sense to you.

Then ask yourself some questions about the document, such as…

· What is this document? (A personal letter? An official treaty? A sermon? Etc.)

· Who was the author?

· What was the author’s background?

· When was the document written?

· Where was the document written?

· In what ways might the author’s identity, background, time, and place have influenced the way he or she perceived things? How might that, in turn, affect the validity of the information which the document conveyed?

· For what purpose was this document written?

· Does your understanding of the author(s)' purposes in writing the document affect your estimation of the document's validity or usefulness?

You may not be able to answer all of these just from reading the document itself. That’s OK. You might want to check your textbook for information about the author if it’s not clear from the document. Other questions beyond these might occur to you as you read. That’s fine too. Just jot them down and try to answer them. After having considered all; these things, and anything else you think might be relevant, summarize the document again in your own words. How different is this summary from the one with which you began your examination? Why? Is there any significance in the difference, if any?

Now consider yourself. Why are you looking at this document in the first place? What are you hoping to find? Be very careful at this point, for there is a natural human tendency to find what we’re looking for, and to overlook other things. If, for example, you’re looking for evidence that Abraham Lincoln might have been gay, you’ll probably attach great significance to accounts claiming that Lincoln, as a young man, often shared a bed with other men, and even as President did so with one of his bodyguards. You may be making too much of that piece of evidence (remember that evidence is not proof, but pieces that go into proof!) Or perhaps you’ve overlooked some other factor that might explain this evidence in another way, such as that it was common for people in 19^th century America to share beds with others, even strangers, in a time of limited accommodations and inefficient (or absent) indoor heating. The most important thing is to know yourself, and be most hesitant about drawing conclusions from the evidence when the evidence seems most clearly to validate your hypothesis. This goes double (at least) when you’ve become attached to your hypothesis, and really want to see it validated.

With that in mind, look again at why you’re examining this document. In this course, you’re doing so because it was assigned. But consider why it was assigned. Ask yourself what you might be expected to get out of it in the context of a HIST 101 class.

Now you’re ready to ask some more questions of your document:

· What evidence does this document contribute to understanding of the textbook chapter with which it is associated, or to any particular theme in that chapter?

· In what way or ways does the evidence in this document resemble or differ from, reinforce or contradict, that from other documents assigned at this or other times?

· For what purpose do you think this particular document was assigned to be read in connection with its associated textbook chapter(s)?

· Do you find the argument, point, "message," etc. of this document convincing? Why or why not?

· In your judgment, how much weight should be given to the evidence in this selection in the effort to understand some broader theme or topic in HIST 101 What leads you to decide as you do?

Go back and review the document and see if there’s anything else, any incidental point not necessarily related to your purpose, that might help you learn more about the author, or the times, or the issue.

Finally, jot down some notes which you could use if you had to teach a brief class about this document, its meaning and significance.

A PRIMARY DOCUMENT EXERCISE

Read and consider the following brief document:

Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. … We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens; while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.

Using the guidelines and questions above, prepare notes for a 5-minute lecture centered around this document.