{"id":4723,"date":"2023-01-17T00:23:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T00:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/?page_id=4723"},"modified":"2023-01-17T00:38:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T00:38:45","slug":"politics-of-evidence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/course-syllabus\/politics-of-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics of Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;Every historian, regardless of specialty, must regard sources as windows, remembering to look at the window as well as through the window.\u00a0 No window is wholly transparent, and without understanding the way a source frames the view and distorts the light, we cannot trust our eyes.&#8221; &#8211;Zachary Schrag, Princeton Guide, p. 107<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Essential Question<\/h2>\n<p>How might economic and political power shape our understanding of historical sources?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories of Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Primary<\/li>\n<li>Secondary<\/li>\n<li>Tertiary<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do sources ever cross or overlap into various categories?<\/li>\n<li>Why are some sources better than others?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Research Playing Field<\/h2>\n<p>Aspiring historians learn to distinguish primary and secondary sources along a kind of baseball diamond.<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/files\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-05-at-12.46.56-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1696\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/files\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-05-at-12.46.56-PM-1024x762.png\" alt=\"Research Field\" width=\"940\" height=\"699\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This field illustrates a key insight. \u00a0Primary sources are almost always most reliable the closer they are to the point of creation, but secondary sources tend to become more useful the further they are away from events. \u00a0In both cases, it is a question of distance. \u00a0Proximity correlates with truth in first-hand evidence, but the passage of time helps encourage broader perspective in the development of secondary sources.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Tertiary Sources<\/h2>\n<p>Tertiary means third in order.\u00a0 Tertiary sources (also called reference sources) generally compile or summarize other sources, typically secondary sources.\u00a0 Wikipedia is the world&#8217;s most accessible and popular tertiary source.\u00a0 Almanacs, databases (like JSTOR), and dictionaries are types of reference or tertiary sources.\u00a0 These sources have great utility for historical researchers but they can be abused and can suffer from faulty design.\u00a0 Check out the link below for an argument among leading historians over Wikipedia&#8217;s approach to presenting historical information.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/2015\/08\/28\/historians-for-and-against-wikipedia\/\">Historians For and Against Wikipedia<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Every historian, regardless of specialty, must regard sources as windows, remembering to look at the window as well as through the window.\u00a0 No window is wholly transparent, and without understanding the way a source frames the view and distorts the light, we cannot trust our eyes.&#8221; &#8211;Zachary Schrag, Princeton Guide, p. 107 Essential Question How [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4723","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4723\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}