Reading Primary Sources in History

History: A Dynamic Discipline

The past doesn’t change, but our questions do.

Reading Actively in History

Literal level:Inferential level: Applicative

level:EXAMPLE:

7.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of China in the Middle Ages.

5. Trace the historic influence of such discoveries as tea, the manufacture of paper, wood block printing, the compass, and gunpowder.

When were the earliest compasses used? How did the manufacture of

paper influence economic growth? Draw a connection to a

modern day import/export relationship.

Asking Historical QuestionsSimple v. Complex W’s

WHAT did Johann Gutenberg invent?

WHEN was Black Tuesday?

WHERE was the Roanoke colony?

WHO was the emperor of Japan during WWII?

WHO were the victims of WWII?

WHAT was the significance of the printing press?

WHEN did the Great Depression start?

WHERE did the settlers of Roanoke go?

WHY do empires fall?WHY did the civilization of the ancient Maya collapse?

The Challenge of Context

Considering the impact of larger social, political and intellectual movements

Understanding no event happens in isolation

Actively engaging with primary & secondary sources

Evaluating Primary Sources• Who is the author?• When was the source created?• Who was the intended audience?• What is the purpose of the source?• What is the historical context in which the source was

written and read?• How do the author’s gender and socioeconomic class

compare to those of the people about whom s/he is writing?

• What biases are detectable in the source?• What unspoken assumptions does the text contain?• How does this source compare with other contemporary

sources?

Surveying the Source• Purpose for reading• Determining how long

it will take to complete reading – Subject matter

familiarity– Pages

• Audience of the text • Format• Thesis/theme

Annotating• Intratextual marking• Margin notes

UnderliningAnnotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Annotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Highlighting

CirclingAnnotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Annotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Numbering

1 2

Marking DefinitionsAnnotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Annotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Marking Examples

DEF. of “annotate”

EX. of “text”

Using Signs and SymbolsAnnotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

Annotation is the process of marking a piece of text (whether it be a book, essay or chapter) while reading. A good annotation process includes two basic elements: intratextual marking and margin notes.

*

?

Commenting/Paraphrasing:Annotation: process with 2 aspects. Mark text as I read. What is purpose?

For artifacts:

• Who might have used these and for what?• What do they tell us about the related people/period?

Below: Two wooden spindles, and a wooden netting needle from Lahun, probably late Middle Kingdom, 1850-1750 BC.

Above: A rare example of a laundry bat, a flat wooden implement used to beat the linen during washing.

6.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush. 2. Trace the development of agricultural techniques that permitted the production of economic surplus and the emergence of cities as centers of culture and power.

For artwork:

• What is the message of the work?• Why was this piece made?• Was the work part of a larger artistic/intellectual movement?

7.8 Students analyze the origins, accomplishments, and geographic diffusion of the Renaissance. 1. Describe the way in which the revival of classical learning and the arts fostered a new interest in humanism (i.e., a balance between intellect and religious faith).

10.3 Students analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. 2. Examine how scientific and technological changes and new forms of energy brought about massive social, economic, and cultural change.

Above: John Gast’s American Progress, 1872

Above: Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, 1508-1512

For maps:

• What was the map’s purpose?• Does the map contain any extraneous text or images that adds to our understanding?

Above: Map of Africa, 1644. This map includes European names for parts of the West African coast where people were captured and held for the slave trade.

The map above shows Sir Francis Drake's attack on Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1586.

7.11 Students analyze political and economic change in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries (the Age of Exploration, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason). 1. Know the great voyages of discovery, the locations of the routes, and the influence of cartography in the development of a new European worldview.

For cartoons:

• What is the cartoonist’s purpose?• How is the message conveyed?• What stereotypes does this cartoon draw on?

10.2 Students compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.

10.6 Students analyze the effects of the First World War. 1. Analyze the aims and negotiating roles of world leaders, the terms and influence of the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the causes and effects of the United States’s rejection of the League of Nations on world politics.

For photographs:

• Why did the photographer take this picture?• What impact did the photographer hope to have on the viewer?

10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II. 2. Understand the role of appeasement, nonintervention (isolationism), and the domes- tic distractions in Europe and the United States prior to the outbreak of World War II. 6. Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.

On August 10, 1945, the day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Yosuke Yamahata began to photograph the devastation. (Above)

(Left) Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, 1936

The Reciprocity of History

“The historian and the facts of history are necessary to one another. The historian without his facts is rootless and futile; the facts without their historian are dead and meaningless…history…is an unending dialogue between the present and the past.”

-- E.H. Carr