Know the primary and secondary SOURCES of HISTORY

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All sciences have a raw material, that is, a key element from which all the information it contains emanates and history is no exception. Everything the history data they are born from historical sources, and without them it would be impossible for us to know or speculate about the events that have occurred throughout the centuries. To know the divisions of the historical sources in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to talk about the primary and secondary sources of history.

Index

1. What are historical sources?
2. What are primary sources
3. What are secondary sources

Historical sources are the raw material of history, all those being written, oral, physical and electronic documents that transmit certain information to us about events that happened in the past, and that allow us to make theories and hypotheses about historical events.

The sources are the basic support of the story, being essential for a science that must search at all times for the most contrasted data to find the most truthful information possible. History admits hypotheses and theories, but always based on a series of data arising from sources that can prove to be true.

For the use of historical sources methodology is essentialIt is essential that the historian uses it to analyze and assess the data received from the sources. The study of the sources must be objective, to see their veracity, and build a story that does not sin from any type of subjectivity.

Types of historical sources

Regarding its division, there are generally two kinds of sources, although on some occasions a third is mentioned. In the following sections we will explain the two most important ones, but first we must briefly mention the three types of sources:

• Primary: Sources elaborated contemporaneously to the facts that count.
• high schools: Sources made from primary sources.
• Tertiary: It is the least common, and many people do not even include it in the types of historical sources. They are the guides that allow access to secondary sources.

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The primary historical sources are all those that we can consider first hand, that is, they are those documents that have been published for the first time and that count the facts in a contemporary way, being written shortly after the events.

The great importance of primary sources is that have not been modified by anyone, so they are the most objective way of knowing and studying the information that happened in the past. It also gives us information from within the fact itself, offering a very interesting point of view.

Although they are more objective forms, we must bear in mind that they are not perfect forms, since there may be hidden interests in the information that the author gives us.

Examples of primary historical sources

To better understand the primary sources we must comment on some examples of them, to understand what we mean when we talk about contemporary sources. Some examples of primary historical sources are as follows:

• Books: The books that we can include among the primary sources are all those that are a first edition.
• Human remains: Whether they are remains of human actions such as those that we can find in the archaeological sites of the prehistory, or remains of infrastructures created by humans such as monuments or buildings of relevance.
• Oral: All oral sources of people who have experienced a series of events can be considered primary sources. It could be both recordings of these people, and transcripts of interviews made with people who lived an event.
• Publications: Different types of publications such as research or theses that were published at the time, that is, first editions of these publications.
• Audiovisual material: A very modern type of source, being all that audio or visual recording that shows the events as they were through the images of the historical moment.

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To conclude with this lesson on the primary and secondary sources of history, we must talk about the sources secondary schools, to understand their differences with the primary schools and to understand the great importance that these have for the study of the story.

Secondary sources are all those that have as objective of collecting, reviewing or organizing historical facts happened in a certain event. As a general rule, the secondary sources come from the primary sources, since generally the author of the secondary sources has carried out an investigation based on the primary sources.

As a general rule, there is a tendency to think that secondary sources are less reliable than primary sources, since they can become much more inaccurate by not being written by someone who has lived the facts. Although it should also be borne in mind that when viewing events from a more distant point of view, it is usually have hidden interests in the information told, and one might think that for this reason the information is more objective.

Secondary sources have gained much importance in recent years, since their analysis of the different primary sources is very useful for research and academic papers.

Examples of the secondary sources of the story

Finally we must talk about some of the major examples of secondary sources, some examples being the following:

• Biographies: Biographies are summaries of the lives of a certain person, therefore being a work based on a large number of primary sources.
• Encyclopedia: Encyclopedias are reference texts that contain a large amount of information from primary sources.
• Literary criticism: The literary analysis or review of a work can be considered as a secondary source, since it makes a study of a primary source such as a book or a novel.
• Art treatises: Some works that include a compendium of various works of art, analyzing and listing them.
• Research articles: All the investigations and theories carried out from the primary sources, and whose intention is to collect information or search for new data, are considered secondary sources.

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