GUIDE TO USING MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY:

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

Each chapter in Major Problems in American History is oriented around an issue in American History. As the title of the book suggests, these issues constitute “problems” of some sort, and require some sort of solution. The book contains primary sources and secondary sources as aides in reaching a solution.

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, an observer viewing pictures of Kennewick Man’s skeleton might be intrigued; while a trained anthropologist might be able to tell from the condition of the bones that Kennewick Man was right-handed. If you cared about nothing except how old Kennewick Man’s skeleton was, or whether he might have been Caucasian, you might not pay any attention to those other pieces of information in the bones, even if you were a trained anthropologist. What makes sources primary is that they were left by people involved in the issue. (Kennewick Man’s skeleton, for example, was left by Kennewick Man himself. The famous Iceman’s quiver was left by Iceman himself.) It’s 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. Look through the handout entitled “Who were the first Americans?” and you’ll discover other kinds of primary sources and the ways we can learn from them.

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.)

When you examine a historical document, start by summarizing it in your own words. Then ask yourself some questions about it, such as…

· 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?

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.

With that in mind, look again at why you’re examining this document. In this course, you’re doing so because the editors of the Major Problems book included it in a chapter whose purpose is to provide evidence to address a particular issue in American History, and you’re trying to learn something about that issue. Here also, the authors provide some focus questions (“Questions to Think About”) near the beginning of each chapter. Clearly, then, the documents in this book are designed to give you evidence toward answering one or more of those questions, and in the process to help you understand and draw conclusions about the broader issue. So now you’re ready to ask some more questions of your document:

· What evidence does this document contribute to the discussion of the major points at issue in this chapter and any of the “Questions to Think About” at its beginning?

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

· For what purpose do you think the editors included this particular document in this chapter?

· 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 responding to the “Questions to Think About” and drawing conclusions about the major points at issue in this chapter? What leads you to decide as you do?

Finally, 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.

Having done this for each document in the chapter, it’s time to consider secondary sources.

Secondary sources are also sources of information from which you can learn. But secondary sources to not necessarily come from the people who were directly involved in the issue. An example of a secondary source is a biography of Abraham Lincoln, written by someone who never knew the man personally, but drew his information from a study of the primary sources. Another might be a history of the “First Americans.” Yet another might be a lab report showing what was learned from an examination of Kennewick Man’s skeleton. Secondary sources obviously lack the authority of an eyewitness account, but they have the advantage of the perspective of time, they usually base their conclusions on more than one perspective, and they involve the exercise of judgment upon primary sources. (A biographer, for example, might decide that a sentiment expressed by Lincoln in a letter was not genuine, because the letter was sent to someone Lincoln wished to deceive; thus, the letter should not be used as evidence of what Lincoln really believed, but might be good evidence of what he wished others to believe.) Secondary sources make history easier to learn, understand, and enjoy, because the reader does not have to read through hundreds of primary sources (often in a foreign language) to construct the story. Instead, he or she can read the already-constructed story in "The Life of Abraham Lincoln" or some such secondary source. But be careful! The biases and perspectives of the author may have influenced his or her judgment as he or she constructed the story, and thus may have affected the interpretation. Having secondary sources available does not relieve the reader of the responsibility of reading carefully and critically.

Major Problems includes in each chapter two “Essays.” These are secondary sources, offering differing interpretations (though not always directly contrasting ones) about the issue in question. They often will use some of the same primary sources to come up with their differing conclusions. You have to deal with secondary sources differently from the way you deal with primary sources, but some of the questions will be the same. And it really helps to write an abstract of the source before you go any further.

Then ask yourself those same questions about it, such as…

· 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?

It’s useful too to do the same kind of self-check that you do when examining primary sources: to what extent are the answers you’re getting from your analysis of this source being driven by what you want to learn or what you expect to learn?

Now ask the second set of primary source questions again, this time applying them to your secondary source:

· What evidence does this document contribute to the discussion of the major points at issue in this chapter and any of the “Questions to Think About” at its beginning?

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

· For what purpose do you think the editors included this particular document in this chapter?

· 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 responding to the “Questions to Think About” and drawing conclusions about the major points at issue in this chapter? What leads you to decide as you do?

It would be useful at this point to write an evaluation on the two essays.

Now go back to the “Questions to Think About” at the beginning of your chapter. Answer each of them, and in your answer, show why you arrived at the answer you did. Back up your answer with evidence from the chapter. Be able to argue convincingly why you relied on some sources more than others, or accepted the validity of some more than others. What else, beyond those questions, has your study of the documents and essays taught you? Look at the broader issue that the chapter addresses. What do you think? Why? What historical or historiographical evidence leads you to answer as you do?

By now, you should be recognizing the structure of a test question, especially a Part III test question. And if you’ve paid attention to the documents and essays in the chapter, and analyzed them properly, such a question on such a test should give you little or no difficulty.

And don’t be intimidated. After a while, you’ll be able to perform such analyses “on the fly,” as though they were second nature.