Key question
How do we know what happened?
Check your understanding
Find an example, an application and a limit. Explain the concept without using its name, then compare your explanation with a primary source.
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Claims to examine
A historical source becomes evidence through questions about provenance, purpose, context and corroboration.
Follow a learning route
How do we know what happened?
Learn source criticism, contextualisation, archives and historical argument by making a small dossier.
Reading connections
Library of Congress: primary source analysis
Early Modern England: Lecture 3 - Households: Structures, Priorities, Strategies, Roles
Library of Congress: newspapers
Library of Congress: maps
National Archives: beginning archival research
National Archives: citation guidance
Early Modern England: Lecture 2 - "The Tree of Commonwealth": The Social Order in the Sixteenth Century