Welcome to the History of the Americas
History is constantly happening all around us, not something just found in the past. Because of this, it's important to understand how history not only shapes us but how it's created. This course will cover the histories of the Americas from the earliest Indigenous groups to the present day, highlighting throughout how history serves as a roadmap, that it is a series of choices, and that it is constantly changing.
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textbook may also include some primary sources, such as direct quotes from people living in the past or excerpts from historical documents.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
What do you see?
FFW (5 min; 10 sentences): What does this symbol represent? When you see this statue, what stories come to your mind? For whom was it made?
Bracket & Share
Scribe: writes out keywords and phrases on the board
FFW (5 min; 10 sentences): Why are her feet shackled? How do shackles being broken change the more well-known story about this statue? Connecting to your first FFW, how does the inclusion of shackled feet breaking free change the narrative about what the statue represents?
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?
FFW Reflection: 6 words -- how did this primary source analysis exercise feel?
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