Tutorial 1: Evaluating Secondary Sources

Use of primary sources

Unless it is a general history (synthesizing the research of other historians), or historiography (analyzing the thinking of previous historians), a well-researched, reliable work of history will rely extensively on primary sources (first hand, eyewitness accounts, or evidence).

Move your mouse over the primary sources in the footnote below.

Footnote from Deirdre M. Moloney, "A Transatlantic Reform: Boston's Port Protection Program and Irish Women Immigrants," Journal of American Ethnic History 19, no. 1 (Fall 1999): 50-67.