GAS/HISB74 Asian Foods & Global Cities

Primary sources

• first-hand accounts of events
• materials created by participants or witnesses of the event/s under study
• original records created at the time that events occurred
• raw data
• can be anything, including written texts, statistics, objects, buildings, films, paintings, cartoons, etc.

Secondary sources:

• works that discuss a subject, but which are written after the time that the event/s occurred (by someone other than an eyewitness)
• works that contain explanations/interpretations/analysis/judgments/discussions of past events

In case of confusion:

• Historians' introductions to and editorial comments on collections of primary documents are secondary sources because they're twice removed from the actual event or process that you're going to be writing about. While Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle (1906) is a primary source, a historian's introduction to it is a secondary source.

Adapted from Memorial University Libraries  and  "Writing about History" by Elspeth Brown

... Primary Sources?

• They provide 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.

• Primary sources provide the opportunity to witness a piece of history up close, and to see it through the eyes of those who lived it.

• First-hand accounts of an historic event allow you to form reasoned conclusions based on evidence, and connect primary sources to the context in which they were created, synthesizing information from multiple sources.

... Secondary Sources?

• Secondary sources complement primary sources: a secondary source can bring clarification and deeper understanding to a primary source.

• A historian who has expertise in a specific time period can provide contextual information through a secondary source that allows a student to maximize his/her appreciation of the primary source's value.

• If you are researching a subject that you do not know a lot about, doing background reading in a secondary source can introduce you to some of the primary sources that are relevant to the subject area.

Adapted from the Library of Congress, "Using Primary Sources"

Adapted from Memorial University Libraries