Need for Recent Sources

You should make an effort to include as many recent secondary historical sources as you can there are multiple reasons for doing so including;

• Most historians today summarize the historical literature in their books, either in the introduction or in an annotated bibliography or in a bibliographic essay at the end. They do so up to the point at which they write their works, but obviously they cannot describe what is written after their books are published. A book issued in the 1970s may have an excellent summary of the field up to the time of publication, but of course it will say nothing about works completed after that date.
• Using newer sources will allow you to find a larger number of resources for your chosen topic.
• Newer sources are more likely to give you a wider variety of interpretations which allow you to understand your topic more fully (and give you more ideas on a good direction to point your essay in).
• Since TRU`s library is only 30 years old newer sources are more likely to cite items which the TRU library actually has.