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What is a Primary Source? 43690 Views
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Description:
This video defines a primary source and what makes it different from a secondary source. What counts as original material? And where can we find these primary sources now?
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak in primary sources Allah shmoop you
- 00:07
can't create a historical drama are historical fiction without historical
- 00:11
research and you can't do historical research without digging up
- 00:14
some primary sources These guys captain phillips saving private ryan
- 00:20
twelve years a slave zero dark thirty people actually had
Full Transcript
- 00:23
to do research when they were writing those awesome scripts
- 00:27
Primary sources are original materials that were created during the
- 00:30
time being studied or by someone with firsthand knowledge of
- 00:34
the event So let's break it down Original means the
- 00:38
source was created by someone actually living in the period
- 00:42
we're studying So if we're studying world war two and
- 00:45
original material could be the diary of a soldier he
- 00:49
wrote it himself and he was actually in the war
- 00:52
It originated in that time period Materials means that primary
- 00:57
sources take different forms It could be a letter of
- 01:00
painting even a toy then there's the created during the
- 01:05
time being studied part well a newspaper article about world
- 01:08
war two that was written yesterday would not be a
- 01:11
primary source because it was written seventy plus years after
- 01:14
the event Little hindsight but just to make it confusing
- 01:19
Primary sources can be written after the event as long
- 01:23
as it was created by somebody with first hand knowledge
- 01:27
which means primary sources could include memoirs letters or interviews
- 01:31
that were made after the event If the person making
- 01:34
them was actually there at the time like our ww
- 01:36
two vet Okay what isn't a primary source Well anything
- 01:42
written about the past that wasn't written at that time
- 01:45
or wasn't written by someone with firsthand knowledge of the
- 01:49
event secondary source were usually text that used a bunch
- 01:53
of primary sources to make an argument or to interpret
- 01:56
the past But let's say you're writing a paper and
- 01:59
need you primary and secondary sources You collect interviews from
- 02:03
ww two bets documents from government officials describing their decisions
- 02:08
and actions film footage from the front and a book
- 02:11
published by a history professor in two thousand fourteen about
- 02:15
world war two Well the interview's documents and film footage
- 02:19
would all be primary sources The book published in two
- 02:22
thousand fourteen would be a secondary source Okay we're going
- 02:26
to hit you with some types of primary sources Pecs
- 02:30
not the o m g l a welcome anything that's
- 02:32
Written down like diary's personal letters were published works like
- 02:36
books or newspapers images anything visual painting doodles photographs poster
- 02:43
tapestry never recordings Other recordings only go back two hundred
- 02:47
fifty years or so You've got recordings of music aural
- 02:50
histories interviews tv shows radio programs and films that literally
- 02:54
speak to us about the past Object is pretty much
- 02:58
covers everything else clothes toys goings tools pottery and anything
- 03:03
else you think if it was made in the past
- 03:06
All right well so according to this definition couldn't anything
- 03:08
that ever existed be a primary source Well sort of
- 03:11
but keep in mind the further back in history go
- 03:14
the less likely our fine primary sources that have survived
- 03:18
ex deteriorate writing didn't always exist We're more likely to
- 03:21
have old images or object but they also deteriorate So
- 03:25
while we might have a ton of stuff from the
- 03:27
recent past our primary sources get more and more rare
- 03:30
as we move further back in history and our ability
- 03:33
to construct a picture of the past It's a little
- 03:36
fuzzy okay but we're in the world are all these
- 03:38
things kept there's some sort of secret warehouse in area
- 03:41
fifty one Where we find them is the nsa have
- 03:44
a massive database of every sound ever made in the
- 03:47
past hundred fifty years but no objects can be found
- 03:52
in archives museums or personal collection Unfortunately you don't have
- 03:56
to travel the world visiting all these places They're breaking
- 03:58
into private residence There's Very convenient way of finding primary
- 04:02
sources The internet There are millions and millions of primary
- 04:06
sources that have been digitized and put on the internet
- 04:09
Primary sources are the key to uncovering an accurate picture
- 04:13
of the past without you could make up any story
- 04:16
you wanted about History knows Maybe lincoln would have looked
- 04:19
better as a blonde or score and seven blondes ago
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