Secondary Sources are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. A statement of the law itself from a governmental entity, such as a court, legislature, executive agency, President or Governor.
Materials that discuss, explain, interpret, and analyze what the law is or what it should be. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you are interested in a topic from a more distant historical time period, such as the status of Jews during the Renaissance, you may have to look harder, but you can still find documents such as:.
Were they created at the time of the events they recount, or were they written many years later? Some sources might make this point of view obvious, whereas others might pretend to be authoritative. You might be able to find:. Was it an internal document, created to gather information, or was it intended to persuade others inside or outside the group to take a certain course of action? Visual material can also provide a powerful window onto the time period you are studying.
For instance, maps not only reveal contemporary political boundaries, but also how people thought of them. Other visual sources include:. Keep in mind that primary sources can have multiple meanings. For example, this map provides evidence about the London cholera outbreak, but it also reflects a new understanding of how disease spreads and a concern with illness as a social problem.
The History Library maintains a list of these collections on its website. You can also find primary sources by consulting published bibliographies, and by looking at the secondary literature on your topic to see what sources other scholars have used in their research. Any sort of artifact from the period in question that conveys information can qualify as a source. A primary source is something that originates from the past.
It can be a chronicle, a piece of pottery, or even a piece of glacial ice that gives us climate data about the levels of atmospheric carbon one thousand years ago.
Historians, to the best of their abilities, work with primary sources to understand the past on its own terms, not through the modern-day lenses. Secondary sources analyze a scholarly question and often use primary sources as evidence.
Secondary sources include books and articles about a topic. They may include lists of sources, i. Ask a Librarian chat email phone. What is a Primary Source Primary sources include documents or artifacts created by a witness to or participant in an event. Using primary sources on the Web.
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