Primary source analysis
Europeans called the Americas “the New World.” But for the millions of Native Americans they encountered, it was anything but. Humans have lived in the Americas for over ten thousand years. Dynamic and diverse, they spoke hundreds of languages and created thousands of distinct cultures. Native Americans built settled communities and followed seasonal migration patterns, maintained peace through alliances and warred with their neighbors, and developed self-sufficient economies and maintained vast trade networks.
They cultivated distinct art forms and spiritual values. Kinship ties knit their communities together. But the arrival of Europeans and the resulting global exchange of people, animals, plants, and microbes—what scholars benignly call the Columbian Exchange—bridged more than ten thousand years of geographic separation, inaugurated centuries of violence, unleashed the greatest biological terror the world had ever seen, and revolutionized the history of the world. It began one of the most consequential developments in all of human history and our first chapter.
Primary and Secondary Sources
Special thanks to Bard Queens History Faculty
Historians use a wide variety of sources to answer questions about the past. In their research, history scholars use both primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing. Secondary sources are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened.
For example, your history textbook is a secondary source. Someone wrote most of your textbook long after historical events took place. Your textbook may also include some primary sources, such as direct quotes from people living in the past or excerpts from historical documents.
People living in the past left many clues about their lives. These clues include both primary and secondary sources in the form of books, personal papers, government documents, letters, oral accounts, diaries, maps, photographs, reports, novels and short stories, artifacts, coins, stamps, and many other things. Historians call all of these clues together the historical record.
Analysis of Primary Sources
OCPVL
ORIGIN:
What kind of source is this?
Who created the source and when?
How, when, and where was it published? By whom?
CONTEXT:
What was going on when this source was produced?
PURPOSE:
Why did the author create this text? To inform? Persuade?
Who is the intended audience?
What argument does the source make? Mark/note the main arguments/points it makes. How does it make these? Look for tone as well as substance
VALUE:
What does this source teach us…
about its subject?
about its author?
about the time when it was created?
Does the source take a particular “side” or position on a controversy? Is that position valid?
LIMITS:
How does what the author is saying square with what you know about this event or issue?
Is what the author says here true? Is the evidence valid and sufficient? Accurate or Misleading? Is it missing anything important?
Do other folks represent the events shown or described here differently? Why?
Might the circumstances under which this source was created limit its reliability?
What do you see?
FFW (3 min; 6 sentences minimum): What ideas do you have about the people who built the city represented by this map? Which structures stand out immediately? What is less obvious? What educated guesses can we make about what is important to these people based on this map? Use evidence to back up your analysis.
FFW (3 min; 6 sentences minimum): What ideas do you have about the climate and environment represented by this map? What educated guesses can we make about who these people are based on this drawing? Use evidence to back up your analysis.
FFW (2 min; 4 sentences minimum): What is your immediate reaction when you see this image? What is most interesting or surprising about it? When and where do you think this is? Use evidence to back up your analysis.
Bracket & Share
Reflection: 6 words -- how did this primary source analysis exercise feel?
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