LESSON 2: MEANING AND RELEVANCE OF HISTORY;
DISTINCTION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
SOURCES; EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CRITICISM;
REPOSITORIES OF PRIMARY SOURCES, AND
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRIMARY SOURCES.
“WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT, CONTROLS THE PAST
WHO CONTROLS THE PAST, CONTROLS THE FUTURE”
GEORGE ORWELL
WHAT IS HISTORY?
Etymology
- History is derived from the Greek word
“historia” which means learning by inquiry.
- Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher, looked upon
history as systematic accounting of a set of
natural phenomena, that is, taking into
consideration the chronological arrangement
of the account.
Other Definitions of History:
• History is defined as a documented record of
man and his society. (Gray, 1956, pp.1-3).
• As a field of study, history is a study of man
and his achievements from the beginning of
written records to the present.
• As a literary form of history is an effective
presentation of the unfolding events. But as a
type of literature history falls under non-fiction
work.
• History comes from social history which
defines it as a record of events showing the
evolution of man and his society from the
earliest and from the age of barbarism to what
he is today.
IMPORTANCE AND USES OF HISTORY
Given are the uses of history as summarized by
Foray and Salevouris (1988). Some of these are
interestingly explained by B.H. Lidedell Hart (1971).
A. History provides a source of personal and social
identity.
B. History helps us understand the problems of the
present.
C. History – good history – corrects misleading
analogies and “lessons” of the past.
D. History can help one develop tolerance and open-
mindedness.
E. History helps us better understand all human
behaviors and all aspects of the human condition.
F. History provides the basic background for many
disciplines.
G. History can be a source of entertainment.
H. History, when studied, can teach many critical skills.
THE DISTINCTION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
SOURCES
HISTORICAL SOURCES
 Sources – an object from the past or testimony
concerning the past on which historians
depend in order to create their own depiction
of that past.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Primary sources are those sources produced at
the same time as the event, period, or subject being
studied.
SECONDARY SOURCES
Secondary sources are those sources, which
were produced by an author who used primary
sources to produce the material.
Advantages of Primary Sources
✣ Primary sources provide a window into the
past—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 these unique, often
profoundly personal, documents and objects can give a
very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a
long-past era.
PRIMARY SOURCE DISADVANTAGES
✣ Primary sources are often incomplete and
have little context. Students must use prior knowledge
and work with multiple primary sources to find
patterns
✣ In analyzing primary sources, students move
from concrete observations and facts to questioning
and making inferences about the materials.
SECONDARY SOURCE ADVANTAGES
✣ Secondary sources can provide analysis,
synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original
information.
✣ Secondary sources are best for uncovering
background or historical information about a topic and
broadening your understanding of a topic by exposing
you to others’ perspectives, interpretations, and
conclusions
✣ Allows the reader to get expert views of
events and often bring together multiple primary
sources relevant to the subject matter
SECONDARY SOURCE ADVANTAGES
✣ Their reliability and validity are open to
question, and often they do not provide exact
information
✣ They do not represent firsthand knowledge
of a subject or event.
✣ There are countless books, journals,
magazine articles and web pages that attempt to
interpret the past and finding good secondary sources
can be an issue.
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CRITICISM
HISTORICAL CRITICISMS
Historical Criticism – examines the origins of
the earliest text to appreciate the underlying
circumstances upon which the text came to be (Soulen
& Soulen, 2001)
It has two important goals:
1. To discover the original meaning of the text in its
primitive or historical context and its literal sense or
literalis sensus historicus
2. To establish a reconstruction of the historical
situation of the author and recipients of the text.
NOTE: Historical criticism has its roots in the
17th century during the Protestant Reformation and
gained popular recognition in the 19th and 20th
centuries (Ebeling, 1963). The absence of historical
investigation paved the way for historical criticism to
rest on philosophical and theological interpretation
EXTERNAL CRITICISM
INTERNAL CRITICISM
Historical criticism has two types:
• External criticism – determines the
authenticity of the source. The material must
beinvestigated based on the time and place it
is written. The critic must determine whether
the material under investigation is raw,
meaning unaltered, and it exists exactly as the
author left it.
• Internal criticism, on the other hand, –
determines the historicity of the facts
contained in the document. It is not necessary
to prove the authenticity of the material or
document. However, the facts contained in the
document must first be tested before any
conclusion pertaining to it can be admitted. In
determining the value of the facts, the
character of the sources, the knowledge of the
author, and the influences prevalent at the
time of writing must be carefully investigated.
REPOSITORIES OF PRIMARY SOURCES, AND
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRIMARY
SOURCESREPOSITORIES OF PRIMARY SOURCES
• LIBRARIES • How were people’s lives affected?
• MUSEUMS Do people like to make analogies with
• ARCHIVES it?
• ONLINE OR DIGITAL SOURCES
• MARKERS AND MONUMENTS REMARKABLE
• National Archives of the Philippines. • Was the event remarked on by people
• National Library of the Philippines. at the time or since?
• National Historical Commission of the REMEMBERED
Philippines. • Was the event/development
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRIMARY SOURCES important at some stage within the
- Diaries, Correspondence, journals, speeches, collective memory of a group or
interviews, letters, memos, photographs, groups?
videos, public opinion polls, and government REVEALING
records, Manuscript, Pamphlets, Broadsides, • Does it reveal some aspects of the
Posters, Newspaper Articles Photographs and past?
Illustrations, Autobiographical Materials, RESULTING CHANGE
Interview or Speech Transcripts, Oral Histories, • Does it have consequences for the
Government Documents (Laws, Bills, future?
Proceedings, Acts, Census Records, etc. DURABILITY
• For how long have people’s lives been
LESSON 3- CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF affected? A day, a week, a year, or all
SELECTED PRIMARY SOURCES; IDENTIFICATION OF their lives?
THE HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE TEXT; AND REVEALING
EXAMINATION OF THE AUTHOR'S MAIN ARGUMENT • How many people were affected? Did
AND POINT OF VIEW. the event affect many, everyone, or
just a few? A whole barrio, a town, a
Criteria on Assessing the Historical Importance of province, a country, or the entire
Sources race?
RELEVANCE PROFUNDITY
• Is it important/relevant to people • Was the event superficial or deeply
living at the time? affecting? How deeply people’s lives
• Is something still relevant to our were affected? How were people’s
present lives even if it had only a lives affected.
passing importance? CONTENT & CONTEXT
RESONANCE CONTENT - refers to the topics, facts and information
• Who were/have been affected by treated, scrutinized and analyzed in a particular written
the event? work or historical data.
• Why was it important to them?
- is what is contained in the work
CONTEXT - refers to circumstances that shape the
setting for an event, idea or statement and in terms of
which it can be fully understood.
- It can also refer to the surrounding events and
existing situations whereby historical facts are
written.
- is the circumstances that help us to
understand the text.