piatra . institutepathwaysFinding the next step…
Learn source criticism, contextualisation, archives and historical argument by making a small dossier.
No history background required. Start with a short document you can identify by creator, date and archive; the lectures provide an early-modern case.
A source-based historical argument with provenance, corroboration and acknowledged gaps.
US National Archives · reference
Named section and worked examples
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Open the readingNational Archives: document analysis. Assess authorship, audience and purpose before using a document.
Library of Congress · reference
Named section and worked examples
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Open the readingKeith Wrightson · lecture
Named section and worked examples
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Open the readingLibrary of Congress: primary source analysis. Separate observation, inference and questions.
Early Modern England: Lecture 3 - Households: Structures, Priorities, Strategies, Roles. Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.
In an invented 1910 factory newsletter, its owner says wages have improved. What does the document directly establish, and what would you need to assess the wage claim?
Distinguish evidence that someone made a claim from evidence that the claimed event occurred.
It establishes that the owner presented that account in that document, subject to checking its authenticity and date. Assessing wages requires evidence such as comparable payroll records, workers’ accounts and the meaning of “improved”: nominal pay, purchasing power or pay relative to hours. Note the newsletter’s audience and purpose.
What to look for
Common mistake: Treating a primary source as automatically reliable about everything it describes.
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Library of Congress · reference
Named section and worked examples
Check reading access
Open the readingLibrary of Congress · reference
Named section and worked examples
Check reading access
Open the readingUS National Archives · reference
Named section and worked examples
Check reading access
Open the readingLibrary of Congress: newspapers. Compare reporting with later accounts.
Library of Congress: maps. Ask who drew a map and what its categories imply.
National Archives: beginning archival research. Define a research question and follow finding aids.
Two later accounts agree about an event, but both copy the same earlier memoir. How much independent corroboration have you gained?
Trace the sources of the agreement before counting the accounts.
You have two repetitions of one underlying account, rather than two independent lines of evidence. The agreement may help trace how the story circulated, but it does not independently confirm the memoir’s description. Look for a separately created record and compare its timing, purpose and access to the event.
What to look for
Common mistake: Counting matching accounts without checking whether they depend on one another.
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US National Archives · reference
Named section and worked examples
Check reading access
Open the readingKeith Wrightson · lecture
Named section and worked examples
Check reading access
Open the readingNational Archives: citation guidance. Make a source traceable for another researcher.
Early Modern England: Lecture 2 - "The Tree of Commonwealth": The Social Order in the Sixteenth Century. Compare this account’s mechanism with the preceding reading; note where their predictions differ.
An archive preserves letters from wealthy householders but few records from poorer residents. How should that shape an argument about life in the whole town?
Absence from an archive is different from absence from the historical population.
Limit direct conclusions to what the surviving letters can support and acknowledge whose perspectives are missing. Seek other records such as registers, objects, petitions or court documents, assessing their own selection effects. Do not turn either silence or an elite viewpoint into a claim that all residents shared the same experience.
What to look for
Common mistake: Assuming that voices not preserved in a collection had nothing to say or the same experience as its writers.
Start this pathway to keep your answers in My learning.
Editorial perspectives based on selected works, rather than author-endorsed reading lists.
An editorial comparison of the core argument, alternative explanations and practical evidence.
A curated synthesis cannot be neutral or exhaustive. Follow the primary sources when an interpretation matters.
An editorial route that starts with working examples.
The order supports a particular study method; it does not establish which account is true.
An editorial route that starts with competing explanations.
The order supports a particular study method; it does not establish which account is true.
Background, different viewpoints, and further reading.
Assess authorship, audience and purpose before using a document.
Named section and worked examples
Separate observation, inference and questions.
Named section and worked examples
Define a research question and follow finding aids.
Named section and worked examples
Inspect what a census records and what it omits.
Named section and worked examples
Trace a migration claim while respecting gaps in records.
Named section and worked examples
Compare reporting with later accounts.
Named section and worked examples
Ask who drew a map and what its categories imply.
Named section and worked examples
Make a source traceable for another researcher.
Named section and worked examples
Reconstruct the main argument and identify the assumptions linking it to the route’s question.
Named section and worked examples
Compare this account’s mechanism with the preceding reading; note where their predictions differ.
Named section and worked examples
Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.
Named section and worked examples
Use this account to revise your initial explanation and identify an unresolved question.
Named section and worked examples
Reconstruct the main argument and identify the assumptions linking it to the route’s question.
Named section and worked examples
Compare this account’s mechanism with the preceding reading; note where their predictions differ.
Named section and worked examples
Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.
Named section and worked examples
Use this account to revise your initial explanation and identify an unresolved question.
Named section and worked examples
Reconstruct the main argument and identify the assumptions linking it to the route’s question.
Named section and worked examples
Compare this account’s mechanism with the preceding reading; note where their predictions differ.
Named section and worked examples
Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.
Named section and worked examples
Use this account to revise your initial explanation and identify an unresolved question.
Named section and worked examples
Use provenance, corroboration and historical context to trace a scientific change.
Check creators, dates and coverage before comparing industrialisation sources and data.
Keep provenance and attribution visible when turning a source log into a historical argument.