Learning History and Understanding Historical sources

There is a continuous need to study what we went through in the past because it can help us to
understand the things that our past have made and it can tells us a lot of lesson from.

What is history?

A. Series of important events

B. Lessons from the past
C. Gives knowledge and information to everyone

“Historians do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. In a society
that quite correctly expects education to serve useful purposes, the functions of history can seem more
difficult to define than those of engineering or medicine. History is in fact very useful, actually
indispensable, but the product of historical study are less tangible, sometime less immediate, than those
that stem from some other disciplines” (Stearns, 1998)

Why do we need to study history?

1. History helps us understand people and societies

- History becomes an active factor in the study of Philippine society
2. History helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be
- It includes a look into the development of Philippine culture through time especially with the
influences of the colonial period that would eventually shape the present Philippine identity

TYPES OF SOURCES
PRIMARY SOURCES
- Primary sources feature first-hand accounts from actual observations and/or experiences that the
author themselves went through. Other sources that interpret such accounts are classified as secondary
sources.
 SECONDARY SOURCES

- Defines as the testimony of anyone who is not an eyewitness

- Those who interpreted a certain primary text and used it in a certain subject in history

Module 2: content and contextual analysis of selected historical sources

Content and contextual analysis

CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS – is the interpretation of a text or document that helps assess the text

CONTENT ANALYSIS – this is done in 2 ways:

- within the context of its historical/cultural setting
- In terms of textuality or visual assessment

1. What does the text reveal about itself as a text?

2. What does the text tell us about its apparent intended audience(s)?
3. What seems to have been the author’s intention?
4. what is the occasion for this text?
5. Is the text intended as some sort of call to – or for – action?
6. Is the text intended rather as some sort of call to – or for – reflection or consideration rather than
direct action?
7. Can we identify any non-textual circumstances that affected the creation and reception of the text?

CONTENT ANALYSIS – Is a more objective evaluation of the contents of an article (i.e. documents and
multimedia). This can be done in either of two approaches: quantitative and qualitative

THE QUALITATIVE – approach analyzes the meanings behind the content. This may involve comparing
between sources or trying to amalgamate different relevant sources to establish an argument.

THE QUANTITATIVE – approach to content analysis involves the use of number and data. This approach
attempts to quantify the source material.
MEDIA CONTENT AND AUDIENCE CONTENT
Audience content can be either private or public. Private audience content includes:
- Open-ended questions in surveys
- Interview transcripts
- Group discussion

Public audience content comes from communication between all the audience members, such as:
- Letters to the editor
- Posting to an online discussion forum
- Listeners’’ responses in talkback radio

Who wrote the document?

- It is important to ask the right questions and to make the right assumptions. Rather than simply reading
the document, examine it closely to find the clues that are contained within it.
- Documents were created by individuals in a specific historical setting for a particular purpose

Who was the document’s intended audience?

- The relationship between author and audience will tell you much about the purpose of the document.
Knowing the intended audience determines your view of what to expect from the document. It will tell
you what expect in the author’s use of language, the amount of knowledge that the writer assumes the
audience has, and the form that the document takes.

WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE DOCUMENT? WHY WAS IT WRITTEN?

- Everything is written for a reason; every author has some sort of agenda that shapes the document’s
content and tone. Is the document’s purpose to convince the audience to act a certain way or believe a
certain idea? To spur conversation? To motivate? To persuade? To entertain? Etc.

What strategies does the author employ to achieve his or her purpose?
What type of document is this?
What are the basic assumptions made in this document?
What does this document mean to you?
TYPE OF SOURCES: PRIMARY SOURCES
- Firsthand evidence
- Immediate
-Contemporary accounts
- Contain raw information

HOW TO USE PRIMARY SOURCES

- Primary sources do not speak for themselves, they have to be interpreted. That is, we can’t always
immediately understand what a primary source means, especially if it is form a culture significantly
different from our own. It is, therefore, necessary to try to understand what it means and to figure our
what the source can tell us about the past.

A. Place the source in its historical context.

1. Who wrote it? What do you know about the author?
2. Where and when was it written?
3. Why was it written?
4. To what audience is it addressed? What do you know about this audience?

B. Classify the source

1. What kind of work is it?
2. Wat was its purpose?
3. What are the important conventions and traditions governing this kind of source? Of what, legal,
political, religious, or philosophical traditions is it apart?

C. Understand the source.

1. What are the keywords in the source and what do they mean?
2. What point is the author trying to make? Summarize the thesis
3. What evidence does the author give to support the thesis?
4. What assumptions underlay the argument?
5. What values does the source reflect?
6. What problems does it address? Can you relate these problems to the historical situation?
7. What action does the author expect as a result of this work? Who is to take this action? How does the
source motivate that action?

D. Evaluate the sources as a source of historical information.

1. How typical is this source for this period?
2. How widely was this source circulated?
3. What problems, assumptions, arguments, ideas, and values, if any, does it share with other sources
from this period?
4. What other evidence can you find to corroborate you conclusions?
E. Be your own interpreter

SECONDARY SOURCES
- Are works that analyze, assess or interpret a historical event, era, or phenomenon; generally utilizing
primary sources to do so. Secondary sources can include books, journal articles, speeches, reviews,
research reports, and more.
HOW TO USE SECONDARY SOUCES?
1. As collection of facts
2. As a source of background materials
3. As an interpretation

ON USING INTERPRETATIONS
- One of the most important task in reading a secondary source is found and understanding that
particular author’s interpretaion. How does that particular author put the facts together so that they
make sense?

1. Finding the interpretation

- Good authors want to communicate their interpretation. Because the reason for writing a book or
article is to communicate something to another person, a good author will make the interpretation easy
to find.

2. The importance of the interpretation.

- an interpretation is how a historian makes sense of some part of the past. Like a good story, well-done
history reveals not only the past but something about the present as well. Great historians help us to see
aspects of the past and about the human condition which we would not be able to find on our own.

3. Historians often disagree on interpretations

- Some facts are ambiguous. Historians ask different questions about the past. Historians have different
values and come to material with different beliefs about the world. For these and other reasons,
historians often arrive at different interpretations of the same event.

WAYS TO EVALUATE AN INTERPRETATION:

A. THE ARGUMENT
1. What historical problem is the author addressing?
2. What is the thesis?
3. How is the thesis arrived at?
a. What type of history book is it?
b. What historical methods or techniques does the author use?
c. What evidence is presented?
d. Can you identify a school of interpretation?
e. What source are used?

B. EVALUATION
1. Did the author present a convincing argument?
a. Does the evidence support the thesis?
b. Does the evidence in fact prove what the author claims it proves
c. Has the author made any error of fact?
2. Does the author use questionable methods or techniques?
3. What questions remain unanswered?
4. Does the author have a polemical purpose?
a. If so, does it interfere with the argument?
b. If not, might there be a hidden agenda?
C. THE DEBATE
1. How does this book compare to others written on this or similar topics?
2. How do the theses differ?
3. Why do the theses differ?
a. do they use the same or different sources?
b. do they use theses sources in the same way?
c. do they use the same methods or techniques?
d. do they begin from the same or similar point of view?
e. are these works directed at the same or similar audience?
4. When were the works written?
5. Do the authors have different backgrounds?
6. Do they differ in their political, philosophical, ethical, cultural, or religious assumptions?

HISTORICAL TEXT OR DOCUMENTS

- The historical text informs the reader about key events and important people from the past
- The historical text gives the reader an understanding of what led up to the important events in history
There are a number of criteria that historians use that can be applied to establish the significance of
events.

1. Relevance to people living at the time

2. Resonance to people’s experience, beliefs, or situations at the time
3. Relevance to an increased understanding to the present day

Step one: Identify the document’s basic components

Who wrote the documents?

- Documents were created by individuals in a specific historical setting for a particular purpose. Until you
know who created the document, you cannot know why it was created or what meanings its author
intended by creating it. Sometimes you can figure out who the author was by the document itself.

When and where was the document written?

- When documents are updated, there are a variety of clues that allow an approximate date to be
determined. These clues include names and events mentioned (and not mentioned), the form of the
document, the style of the handwriting, and the language/phraseology used. Sometimes it is possible to
say that a test must have been written after a certain date (terminus ante quem). Often it is possible only
to say that the date is approximately or around such and such a date (circa written as)

Who was the document’s intended audience?

- The relationship between author and audience will tell you much about the purpose of the document.
Knowing the intended audience determines your view of what to expect from the document. It will tell
you what to expect in the author’s use of language, the amount of knowledge that the writer assumes
the audience has, and the form that the document takes.

What is the storyline?

- In other words, what is this document about? Remember that the “story” might be simple, but its
meaning might be complicated.
Step two: