History is the study of past events through records and accounts of those events. Primary sources are first-hand accounts created during the time under study, like diaries, letters, artifacts, and oral histories. Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources and are written after the fact, including textbooks, biographies, and news articles. Both primary and secondary sources are useful for learning about history, with primary sources providing direct insights and secondary sources providing context and analysis to help understand events.

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WHAT IS HISTORY
E. Kent Rogers
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2. WHAT
DEFINITION
IS HISTORY?
OFFER A FOR THE SUBJECT WE CALL
"HISTORY".

3. WHAT DO OTHERS SAY?
a branch of knowledge that records
and explains past events -Merriam•
Webster
•
the study of or a record of past
events considered together,
especially events of a partic ular
period, country, or subject •
Cambridge Dictionaries Online
•

4. WHY DO WE STUDY HISTORY.
• To know more about the roots
important?
of our current culture.
Why is this
those who have gone
• To learn about
before us.
Why is this
To learn about
the mistakes of
important?
human nature in general by
• looking at
trends that repeat through history.
Why is this important?
To learn historical facts.
Why is this important?
To learn about how dif ferent fac tors sha pe society e.g
religion, greed , the intersec tion of dif ferent cult ures,
tec hno
l ogy, etc .
Why is this important?
•
•

5. WHY IS HISTORY IMPORTANT?
In sum, we study history
to learn about who w e
are both our pa st and
our present.

6. WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY
Archaeologists

7. WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY?
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Anthropologists

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Oral Historians
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9. WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY?
Chemists

10. WHO INVESTIGATES HISTORY?
Linguists

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HISTORY ISA MYSTERY TO BE
SOLVED
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• Finding out about history is a lot like
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You
You
You
must
must
must
look for clues.
interpret those clues
bring all the clues together to
shed light on each other.
- · You
you
You
must reinterpret each clue every time
find a new clue.
• must then try fill in the gaps and
4. come to an educated conclusion.
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12. • · .. ~ ·~
SOURCES
•Scholars call anything that gives us a clue about
history "Sources."
•Sources fall into two major categories
Sources, and, you guessed it,
• Primary
• Secondary Sources.

13. meant by
·Can you guess what is
prrimarysource- + ?

14. • · .. ~
PRIMARY SOURCES
A primary source is a document or
physical
created
object which was written or
during the time under study.
These sources were present during an
experience or
of
time period and offer an
inside view a particular event.

15. • · .. ~ .,....
PRIMARY SOURCES
What are some
so
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examples
urce:S?.
of primary

16. PRIMARY SOURCES
·First-hand accounts of events
A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT of at
r topic ie based or an
event d
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Example:

18. Primary sources
• A primary source is an original
object or document; first-hand
information.
• Primary source is material
written or produced in the
time period that you may be
investigating.
• Primary sources enable the
researcher to get as close as
possible to what actually
happened during an historical
event or time period.

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PRIMARY SOURCES
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•Artifacts
an object made by a
human being, typically an
item of cultural or
historical interest.
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20. PRIMARY SOURCES
•Historical documents

21. PRIMARY SOURCES
•Memoirs
Historical Memoirs
of the
IRISHBARDS
by
JosephCWalker

22. PRIMARY SOURCES
• Oral histories

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·Diaries
• Poetry
·Personal
MORE EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY
SOURCES
Interviews
•
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•
Government Documents
Autobiographies
Peer-reviewed
articles of new
Photographs
Video
Etc.
journal
findings
•
•
•

25. • · .. ~ .,....
WHICH KIND OF SOURCE DO YOU
AT?
THINK WE'LL BE LOOKING
e c o n d a r !

26. WHAT ARE INCLUDED AS
SECONDARY SOURCES2
•
•
•
Textbooks
Encyclopedias
Magazine or
news articles
dealing with
issues from the
past

27. SECONDARY SOURCES
What do you think is meant by
Secondary Source?
A secondary source interprets and
analyzes primary sources. These
sources are one or more steps
removed from the event.

28. Secondary Source
• Biography
▫ Example: A biography is
when you write about
another person’s life.
Alice Fleming wrote a
biography on the life of
Martin Luther King Jr.
This is a secondary
document. It was written
about him after he died.

29. What is a Secondary Source?
• A secondary source is something
written about a primary source.
• Secondary sources are written "after
the fact" - that is, at a later date.
• Usually the author of a secondary
source will have studied the primary
sources of an historical period or
event and will then interpret the
"evidence" found in these sources.
• You can think of secondary sources as
second-hand information.

30. Why Use Primary Sources?
Advantages
• Primary sources provide a window into the past—unfiltered access
to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and
achievement during the specific period under study, produced by
people who lived during that period
• these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects
can give a very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a
long-past era.

31. Primary Source Disadvantages
• Questions of creator bias, purpose, and point of view may
challenge students’ assumptions.
• Primary sources are often incomplete and have little context.
Students must use prior knowledge and work with multiple
primary sources to find patterns
• In analyzing primary sources, students move from concrete
observations and facts to questioning and making inferences
about the materials.

32. Why Use Secondary Sources?
Advantages
• Secondary sources can provide analysis, synthesis,
interpretation, or evaluation of the original
information.
• Secondary sources are best for uncovering
background or historical information about a topic
and broadening your understanding of a topic by
exposing you to others’ perspectives,
interpretations, and conclusions
• Allows the reader to get expert views of events and
often bring together multiple primary sources
relevant to the subject matter

33. Secondary Source Disadvantages
• Their reliability and validity are open to question, and often they
do not provide exact information
• They do not represent first hand knowledge of a subject or event
• There are countless books, journals, magazine articles and web
pages that attempt to interpret the past and finding good
secondary sources can be an issue