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One way to develop a good historical research question for a paper or project is through a close reading of a primary source. Primary sources include any material that was produced during the time under study. A primary source can be a newspaper article, a photo, a cartoon, a song, a radio address, a law, a poll, an object, or just about anything else that was produced during the era you are studying, or in this case, during the period of the Great Debate, from 1939-1941. The content and exercise for this page will help you develop your skills in analyzing primary sources and will demonstrate how a close analysis of a source can lead you to a good question for further historical research. Expect to spend about 10 minutes on this section and the first activity.
New to analyzing primary sources? Click the arrow for a brief introduction.
In history, you will often be asked to undertake primary source analyses. A primary source
is a source created during the period being studied by people who lived during that period.
Secondary sources are accounts or interpretations of the past created by people writing
about events after they have happened. Historians use primary sources as evidence for
their interpretations of the past.
Primary sources can be textual (government documents, legislation, memoirs, diaries,
letters, novels, etc.) or non‐textual (artwork, films, music, cartoons, material objects). In a
primary source analysis, your aim is to analyze the source, not just to summarize it. You
want to “read” the source as thoroughly as you can to make a case about what it illustrates about a particular moment in history. To do that, you need to start with by acknowledging that all sources emerge out of a particular perspective. All sources are “biased” in some way; in other words, no source presents an unmediated, “objective” view of the past. Every source must be analyzed carefully and read critically to consider the creator’s position and point of view, as well as the intended goals of the document.
Primary sources must be read in their historical context. To truly understand a source, you
must understand the world from whence it came. The historian’s goal is not to judge
primary sources. You may consider a source from another era racist or sexist, for example,
but your goal should be to understand what that source reveals about racial and sexual
ideologies of its day.
Basic questions to ask of any primary source include:
• Who wrote or produced this?
• What do you know about the author (their racial, gender, class, ethnic, regional,
political identities)? Does any of that matter in this case?
• When was the source produced, written, or passed?
• What perspective does it represent? Can you determine what the point of view or
bias of the author/producer is?
• Why was this document produced or created? Was it created in response to a
problem? Was it designed to be public or to remain private?
• Who was the intended audience? What methods does the author/creator use to
convey his or her message?
• What can this document tell us about the time in which it was produced?
• What does this source—through its language or images, its framing, its argument—
suggest to you about the social mores, political views, or expectations of the period?
What about the silences in the source—what does the author choose not to talk
about?
• Does this source tell you about the ideas and values of the elite? Or ordinary people?
Of a particular group? Or just of an individual?
• What are the limitations of using this source as a way to understand the past?
• In what ways does this document contradict or confirm the interpretations
presented in secondary sources on related topics?
Go through the slide show to learn how you can use a photo to develop historical research questions from a photograph.
Now It's time to try It yourself! Click the button to go to the activity form for Close Analysis
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