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Section Menu
-
- English
- Geography and Environmental Studies
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- Journalism, Communication, and New Media
- Modern Languages
- Minor in Language and Global Studies
- World Languages and Cultures Certificate
- Associate of Arts (Modern Languages) Degree
- Modern Languages Certificate
- Courses
- Field Schools
- Student Success
- Language Lab
- Special Projects and Courses
- Faculty
- Financial Assistance
- Advising
- Our Vision
- Our History
- Contact us
- Philosophy, History and Politics
- Philosophy
- History
- Degree Options
- Careers in History
- Current Courses
- Student Success
- Awards and Scholarships
- Handbook for History Students
- Introduction - Handbook
- Why Study History?
- Varieties of History
- Historian's Work
- Pros, Amateurs and others
- Careers
- Libraries and Research
- Taking Notes
- Formulating a Topic
- Compiling a Bibliography
- Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
- Need for Recent Sources
- Where to Start
- Note-taking
- Shape of the Essay
- Style of the Essay
- Checking the Essay
- Documentation
- Bibliographies and Footnotes
- Plagiarism
- Writing Essay Examinations
- Title Pages and Formatting
- Citation Generators
- Examples
- Citation Formatting
- History Links
- History Faculty
- Political Studies
- Our Faculty
- Contact Us
- Psychology
- Sociology and Anthropology
- Theatre Arts
- Visual Arts
Primary Sources
Primary sources were written or created in the historical period under investigation or soon thereafter. Official or private documents, such as letters and diaries, contemporary newspapers, and magazines are all regarded as primary sources. Carvings, paintings, illustrations, sculpture, clothing, tools, architecture can be interpreted for their meaning and revelations about human civilization in a given epoch.
Primary sources are ALWAYS the foundation for solid historical research, as every academic secondary source is firmly grounded to primary sources in someway (otherwise in effect the author is simply making it up as he/she goes along). This is not to say that primary sources should be accepted without hesitation, as no one who has ever created a primary source has done so as a perfectly neutral actor or with a perfect comprehension of their own time. Instead primary sources much be read critically and skeptically with the relevant constraints in mind such as the authors agenda, the lack of information known to the author etc.