Sourcing is one of the most important skills that helps historians evaluate evidence and know how it might help answer a question. Historians understand that most historical evidence is made by people. Before looking at what the evidence says, they think about who produced evidence, and how that person’s perspective might influence what they say. They think about questions like these:
- How did this person know about the event? Were they an eye-witness? If not, how did they find about it?
- How involved was this person in the event? Did they have a personal interest in the way the event is remembered?
- What is this person’s level of expertise? Are they writing about something that they know a great deal about or something they lack expertise in?
- How soon after the event did this person create a record of it? Does this account of the event include the advantages and disadvantages that come when writing right after an event, or those that come after some time?
- How did this person create a record? What is the genre of this account? Is it personal writing or something produced for others?
- Who was this person’s audience? Was the record made for friend or foe, for a private or public audience?
- What was the person’s motivation for writing? How motivated were they to produce an accurate and detailed account? Or would they be motivated to exaggerate, embellish, or lie about what happened?
- What might this person have included or left out of their account, based on their interest in how the event was remembered?
The first step in sourcing is finding the source information before starting to analyze the evidence. Once the student has found the source information, they can think through the questions listed above. They might anticipate what the person will say about the event before looking at the evidence. They can think about how accurate and reliable the person might be in their account. Rather than thinking about whether a source is biased or not (because all sources have some sort of bias), a student might think about what they will be able to trust in an account and what they might be more skeptical about. Of course they won’t be able to answer these questions completely until they have read the evidence, but engaging in sourcing before reading is a great way to start to think critically about evidence.
Sourcing Example
In the inquiry about the impact of Joe Hill on the labor union movement, one of the pieces of evidence in the archive is a YouTube video of Bruce Springsteen singing the song “Joe Hill” at a concert in Tampa Florida on May 1, 2014. To engage in sourcing the student might do a google search of Bruce Springsteen, look at Springsteen’s Wikipedia page and read that “Springsteen is a pioneer of heartland rock, a genre combining mainstream rock music with poetic and socially conscious lyrics that feature narratives primarily concerning working-class American life. From this, the student can anticipate that Springsteen would be sympathetic toward the labor activist, Joe Hill. Knowing this about Springsteen helps the student be more informed as they think about the song Springsteen sings.