USING AND READING SOURCES IN HISTORY COURSES:
1) A QUICK REVIEW OF TYPES OF
SOURCES USED BY HISTORIANS
PRIMARY SOURCES
These are sources dating from the time period one is investigating.
Examples: letters, wills, tax records, theological treatises, memoirs, newspapers, tombstone inscriptions, treaties, legislation, court cases, paintings, archaeological artifacts, etc.
Original primary sources are found in various forms today:
-- on buildings (e.g. inscriptions)
-- in art museums (e.g. paintings)
--on display in museums (e.g. pottery)
--in government or private archives (e.g. letters, tax records, etc.)
--in manuscripts (handwritten) and printed material (from the time period) held today in libraries (e.g. books, letters, newspapers)
Primary sources are often reproduced in other formats:
--published by scholars either in the original language or in translation in recent printed books,[1] journal articles,[2] or other formats. Sometimes excerpts of primary sources are published in anthologies.[3]
(Publications of primary sources in these formats often include introductions, notes, annotations, commentary, etc. by the editor or translator. This material is considered a secondary source.)
--photographed on microfilm, microfiche or scanned on CD-ROMs held in libraries
--scanned (or keyed in) and posted on the Internet
--on slides held in art libraries or reproduced in art history books in libraries
--in photographs preserved in library collections
SECONDARY SOURCES
These are sources written by scholars recently (or in any period later than the one being studied). These are based on reading of primary sources and other secondary sources and represent interpretations of the past by their authors.
Examples: articles in journals, essays in collections of essays[4], monographs (scholarly books treating a single subject), textbooks, encyclopedias, book reviews and review essays published in journals.
WHEN SECONDARY SOURCES BECOME
PRIMARY SOURCES
Secondary sources of time period A can become primary sources for historians in time period B (A+X) who are looking back and studying time period A.
Example 1: you write a research paper on Josephus for a Jewish studies course. You will read Josephus (your primary source) and recent historians on Josephus (your secondary sources). Your paper is published in the Journal of Josephus Studies. It is now a secondary source in its own right.
In the year, 2102, a historian of
higher education becomes interested in the work of students at the
But: another historian in 2102 writing on Josephus may find your paper helpful in pointing him to a primary source or suggesting an interpretation. In this case, your paper is still a secondary source.
Example 2: you decide to write a
history of Jewish scholars in 19th-century
SOMETIMES SOURCES FROM A LATER
PERIOD ARE USED AS PRIMARY SOURCES FOR AN EARLIER PERIOD-- WITH CAUTION!
For example, we do not have many primary sources on the nature of Second Temple Judaism--that is, texts, from the period prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE (AD). However, we have some sources from shortly afterward, e.g. Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities and Jewish War; parts of the New Testament; and some rabbinic writings, contain material that reports on Second Temple Judaism. To use this material to shed light on the earlier period, we have to tread carefully, making sure to discount later interpretations and additions, and being modest in our conclusions. In some cases, it is clear that earlier material was transmitted orally and is preserved in later written texts. We still have to be careful (since it is hard to reconstruct the process of textual transmission or to know what was added and what was original), but we can use the later material to gain some access of and knowledge of the earlier period.
2) HOW TO READ SOURCES:
The crucial thing to do with all reading assignments is to
a) identify what sort of source you are dealing with;
b) understand the context from which the source emerged
c) understand why you are reading it
d) identify what the author(s) of the source wants (want) to communicate to his/her (their) readers
e) assess the argument being made and the evidence being used.
f) extract useful details and “facts” but not get bogged down in the details and miss the big picture
What does “useful” mean in this context? It means information that will help you for the specific purpose you have in mind in reading the work (see c). In the case of secondary sources, here are some examples:
--are you doing an assigned reading for a survey class? here, you want a working knowledge of the key events, people, and places that define the historical context(s) you are studying
--are you doing assigned reading for a class discussion that will take up a conceptual, theoretical, or methodological issue? here, you are probably most interested in the details of the work in terms of the way that they support the larger argument being made
--are you doing research for a paper? here, you want information that supports the argument you want to make; if you find information that casts doubt on your thesis, you have an obligation to grapple with this as well-- to modify or qualify your argument accordingly.
USEFUL WEB SITES:
“How to read a difficult book”
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/readbook.html
“How to read an essay you must analyze”
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/essays.html
“critical reading”
http://www.critical-reading.com/criticalreadingthinkingtoc.htm
“critical reading strategies”
http://mind.phil.vt.edu/www/1204crs.html
“how do I sharpen my critical reading strategies?”
http://ess.cwru.edu/onepg/critical.htm
Bruce Venarde, my colleague at Pitt,
has a compiled some useful tips on reading primary sources:
HOW TO READ HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
by Bruce Venarde, University of
Pittsburgh
(Adapted from M.E. Perry and E. Strenski,
"A Student Guide to Reading Historical Documents," Social
Education [Jan. 1984]: 58‑59.)
Reading historical documents is a more demanding and complex
activity than reading the packaged information in a textbook. You need to put the selections in the context
of what other things you know about the period of time in which they were
produced. In order to relate each
document to its particular historical context and to the general problems with
which we deal in this course, you should read through the entire document and
then attempt to answer the following questions where they are appropriate to
the assignment.
1. Author(s): Who were they? What was their authority (personal?
institutional?) What was their
specialized knowledge or experience? How
would you describe authorial tone (formal, angry, respectful, humorous,
anxious, cheerful or something else?)
2. Audience(s): Who were the intended
reader(s) or listener(s)? Were there
other readers or listeners beyond those originally intended? Who? How did the audience affect the ways the
author(s) presented ideas?
3. Purpose(s): What was the explicit
intent behind this document -- to do what? Or cause what to happen? What was the relation between this intent and
other policy or practice? Was there an
implicit purpose, or hidden agenda, behind this document? Who benefited, directly or indirectly, from
ideas or actions suggested or reflected in the document? Who suffered?
Who was ignored?
4. Context: What were the date and place of the
document? What was the interval between
the initial problem or event and this document which responded to it? What
medium or form was the document communicated through? (government record,
letter, newspaper, personal account,
other?) Where was the document written and read? What were other events or conditions at the
same time that could have affected the reading or writing of the document?
5. Meanings: Is there any ambiguity in the literal meaning
of the document? Which words? Are there striking omissions in the document? How does this affect its meaning? Does the organization of ideas or the
repetition of themes in the document suggest those that the writer(s) believed
most important? Are there any confusing
terms in this document? Which words? Can
you detect bias in the choice of any words or terms? What? Can you detect any underlying
assumptions, something about values or attitudes, revealed in any loaded
remarks or passing remarks? What? Can
you sense any contradictory or conflicting attitudes or issues expressed in the
document? What? How does the form or
medium affect the meaning of this document?
6. Corroboration: Do other sources support
this document? How do other documents from this period illuminate or contradict
this document?
[Addendum by Adam Shear:
7. Your access: Think about your access to this document. You are most likely reading a translation and possibly an excerpt of a larger document. Although it will not be possible for you to read original sources in every case and you will have to trust the good judgment of translators and editors, you should be aware that you are not gaining unmediated access to the document.
[1]
e.g. Samuel Usque, Consolations for the Tribulations of Israel, trans.
and ed. Martin Cohen (
[2] e.g. Leon Nemoy, “Al-Qirqisani’s Account of the Jewish Sects and Christianity,” Hebrew Union College Annual 7 (1930): 317-397. contains the original text (primary source) and Nemoy’s discussion (secondary source).
[3]
e.g. the sources collected in Michael Meyer, ed. Ideas of Jewish History (
[4] Different
types of collected essays:
1. a collection of essays around a given theme by a group of
scholars: usually the result of a conference where various lectures were
delivered and then written up as articles and published by an editor.
e.g. The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish
Historians, ed. David Myers and David Ruderman (New Haven, 1998).
2. a collection of previously published (and/or unpublished)
essays by an individual author around a given theme or set of themes.
e.g. Arnaldo Momigliano, Essays on Ancient and Modern
Judaism, ed. Silvia Berti (
3. a collection of previously published essays, journal
articles, and even book chapters by different authors on a single topic or
theme and collected by an editor into a new publication, usually to serve as a
course book.
e.g. Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict, ed. Jeremy Cohen. (New York, 1991).