HNRS 2030: Civil War Memory

Types of Sources

Not sure how to tell the difference between primary and secondary sources? The simple definition is that primary sources provide direct, eyewitness evidence of an event, while secondary sources provide a summary, analysis, or interpretation of events or someone's else's research. Most scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles and books written by scholars will be considered secondary sources, while most statistical data and news reporting from the time period will be considered primary sources. Here are some examples of what are considered primary and secondary sources.

Primary Sources	Secondary Sources
Diaries, personal journals, and letters	Histories, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and bibliographies
Factual newspaper and magazine articles written at the time	Newspaper and magazine articles that interpret an event
Government records, announcements, and publications	Criticisms, commentaries, and editorials
Speeches, radio broadcasts, and video recordings from that time	Scholarly journal articles (other than original research)
Interviews with and autobiographies by people who lived during that time/witnessed that event	Books that provide commentary or context on a topic
Original research articles	Textbooks