Historical Sources for the International Baccalaureate (By: John L. Tomkinson)

Historical Sources for the International Baccalaureate (By: John L. Tomkinson)

Academic History, History as studied at universities, is based upon evidence. Historians:

• Seek out the evidence for what happened in the past. This consists of locating relevant printed and documentary sources in archives, libraries, and in private possession. It may also involve collecting and employing data in the form of non-documentary evidence from other researchers, such as archeologists;
• Select from the sources the evidence relevant for a particular investigation;
• Evaluate the authenticity, the reliability and the usefulness of those sources.

This is in order to:

• Construct an account of what happened in the past (description and narrative) on the basis of the evidence. This entails making judgements about, and inferences from, the evidence.
• Provide explanations for what happened. This involves using the evidence to place the topic studied in a wider context in order to understand it better, relating the topic studied to other events and developments (analysis).

You will be concerned primarily with evidence in the form of written sources. Two levels of sources may be distinguished – primary (or first level) and secondary (or second level).

Even at university level, most students deal, most of the time, with secondary sources. Secondary sources are usually written by people who were not directly involved in the events they write about. They may not have been born when the events they write about occurred. Their view of what happened and, why it happened, relies upon evidence of various kinds, not upon direct experience. However, the detachment of the authors of secondary sources from the events written about actually brings with it some advantages. The author of a secondary source can:

• Take a balances and unemotional attitude towards the events they are studying;
• Use many primary (or original) sources in constructing their viewpoint;
• Consider the topic from different points of view;
• View the events in the light of their historical context

Primary sources are our first-hand evidence for what happened in the past. Historians rely on such materials to provide them with data, or evidence, to arrive at knowledge of, and an understanding or interpretation of, past events. The more advanced your study of history becomes, the more you will need to consider primary students. Although primary sources often seem to speak for themselves, they very often need interpretation, and they may be very deceptive if taken at face value. Thus primary sources should be evaluated carefully. We especially need to consider their genuineness (has it been tampered with? Is it authentic or a forgery?) andreliability.

Discussion questions:

• What could Stern have done differently?

• What mistakes may occur if you accept sources at face value?

• As students of history, what could you do to prevent the use of sources that are disingenuous or unreliable?
  

• How might an “unreliable” source actually be useful evidence for a historian? Examples??

In order to succeed in IB history, you need to assess and evaluate all sources used. In order to analyze the usefulness or reliability of a source, it is always necessary to ask what its purpose was, what is the origin of the document, what is the content or message of the document, how could the document be valuable in increasing understanding of an event, and finally, what limitations does the document have that may make it invaluable. Therefore, within IB history, when reading any document, you will always need to consider:

• Origin (Who wrote it? When? What was going on at the time?)
• Purpose (Why was it written? Who is the intended audience? What is the “tone?”)
• Content (What does the source say? Why?)
• Value (How/why/what makes the source valuable, helpful, reliable in understanding?)
• Limitations (How/why/what makes the source unreliable, biased, etc?)