HOW HISTORY IS MADE?

• Historians attempt to understand the past.

• Historians attempt to understand the past based on evidence
• Historical evidence that comes directly from society is called
primary source.
• Historians interpret the primary source to decide what they
actually tell us about the past
 HOW HISTORY IS MADE?

 Interpretation: The process of deciding on the meaning of a

historical source.
 Based on these interpretations, historians attempt to create
a narrative (a story)about what happened in the past.
 Historical narratives and interpretations are known as
secondary sources.
 HISTORICAL CRITICISM

 In order for a source to be used as evidence in history,

basic matters about its form and content must be
settled
1. External Criticism
2. Internal Criticism
    
    
 EXTERNAL CRITICISM

 The problem of authenticity

 To spot fabricated, forged, faked documents

 To distinguish a hoax or misrepresentation

 TEST OF AUTHENTICITY (Louis Gottschalk)

1.Determine the date of the document to see whether they are

anachronistic
e.g. pencils did not exist before the 16th Century
2.Determine the author
e.g. handwriting, signature, seal
3. Anachronistic style
e.g. idiom, orthography, punctuation
TEST OF AUTHENTICITY (Louis Gottschalk)

4. Anachronistic reference to events

e.g. too early, too late, too remote
5.Provenance or custody
e.g. determines its genuineness
6. Semantics – determining the meaning of a text or word
7. Hermeneutics –determining ambiguities
 INTERNAL CRITICISM

The Problem of Credibility

• Relevant particulars in the document – is it credible?

• Verisimilar – as close as what really happened from a
critical examination of best available sources
 TEST OF CREDIBILITY

1.Identification of the author

e.g. to determine his reliability; mental processes, personal attitudes
2.Determination of the approximate date
e.g. handwriting, signature, seal
3. Ability to tell the truth
e.g. nearness to the event, competence of witness, degree of
attention
 TEST OF CREDIBILITY

4. Willingness to tell the truth

e.g. to determine if the author consciously or unconsciously
tells falsehoods
5. Corroboration
I.e. historical facts – particulars which rest upon the
independent testimony of two or more reliable witnesses
 Historians

External Criticism
Primary Sources

Internal Criticism

Secondary Sources
Historiography
 BRING IT ON!

1.What are the benefits of using primary sources?

2.Why do you think most history textbooks are secondary sources?
3.What are the advantages and disadvantages of accessing online
primary sources?
4.What are the challenges of understanding our country’s past
mindful of the problems that characterize the writing of our national
history?
Thank you!