A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

THE TOOLS OF A HISTORIAN

How do we learn about past events?

Is it: • Stories• Pictures• Legal Documents • Physical Artifacts• Political Cartoons• Statistics • Teachers• Text Books ?

Yep, we learn from it all.

But before we can take a piece of historical evidence at face value we have to ask a few questions.

• Decide whether a source is a PRIMARY or SECONDARY source of information.

PRIMARY SOURCES • Material produced by people directly involved in the event or topic

under consideration• Examples- Eyewitness accounts, decrees, letters, diaries, newspapers

and magazines, speeches autobiographies

• maps• old school attendance records• treaties• immigration/citizenship papers• laws, legal documents• yearbooks• military service records• award certificates, diplomas, birth and death records• minutes of meetings• tax records• report cards• wills • blueprints• letters• driver’s license

• SECONDARY SOURCES• Material that comment on and interpret the primary sources • Examples- Books and articles in scholarly journals, history written

after the fact

EVALUATING SOURCES 

AUTHENTICITY AND OBJECTIVITY: you must look at the following criteria in order to determine the validity and objectivity of historical information. You must examine your sources for bias, inference, fact and judgement.

BIAS

•this is the process by which ideas of a specific group are expressed most directly. For example; political, economic, religious, military, ethnic or social class point of view is given most importance.

• Bias through selection and omission: • For example, if people boo during one of Prime Minister Harper's

speeches, the booing can be described as "remarks greeted by jeers" or the boos can be ignored as "a handful of people who disagree".

• Bias through placement:

• Bias by headline: •

•Bias by photos:

Bias through use of names and titles:• For example, a person can be called an "ex-con" or be

referred to as someone who"served time twenty years ago for a minor offense."

Bias by choice of words: People can be influenced by the use of positive or negative words with a certain connotation. People can also be influenced by the tone that a newscaster uses when saying certain words.

• This example appeared in TIME magazine, August 14, 2000, page 37: FISHING FOR DONATIONSHouse Speaker Denny Hastert led 35 donors last Monday on a predawn flyfishing excursion in Valley Forge, Pa. Each donor got a personal guidefrom the local Trout Unlimited. Minimum dontation: $5,000; number of fish caught: 1.

Policeman• Positive Bias• • • • • •

• Negative Bias: • • • •

Muscular

Positive Bias • • •

Negative Bias• • •

Small

• Positive • • • • Negative • • • •

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE:

• emotive language appeals to and expresses emotions or an over simplification that attempts to sway the reader to support or reject a point of view and cause the reader to feel anger, fear, patriotism, love or hate. Examples: loyal, perfect, impossible, unfair, truth, anti, pro.

• SOURCE- is this source reflecting a bias of a specific group, cause or point of view. Example: (business, labor, political, national or economic groups)• EMPLOYER- who benefits, who does the source speak for or lobbies

for.• AUDIENCE- who is this source addressing (labor, political group or

social class)• REPUTATION- what is the reputation of the author, is he or she

respected historian or are they unknown.

• JUDGEMENT- This is an expression of value about the subject where one approves or disapproves of the subject by supporting its position by using historical evidence. OPINION: This is used when a secondary author provides a judgment about an event. Eg. Hitler was the worst dictator of the 20th Century.• CORROBORATION- This is used when comparing two or more

documents and finding how they support each other. • CONTRADICT-This is used when comparing two or more documents

and finding out how they disprove each other. • RELIABILITY-This is used when you assess or evaluate a document.

Look at the document and say how it is reliable and how it is not.

FACT:• A fact is something that really happened or is known to be true.• Facts can be verified.• A factual account stresses denotive (specific)not connotive meaning and does not

use emotive language.INFERENCE:• An inference is a conclusion drawn from certain factual evidence.• It is an opinion, conclusion, or statement about the unknown based on the

known.• In order to judge the validity of the inference one must test the reality to which

the inference refers. This is not always possible and the best way of determining the validity of an inference is to refer to the evidence that supports it. Generally, the more evidence the stronger the inference.• One can test an inference by asking whether it is a reasonable or logical

assumption based on the evidence.