Analyzing Historical Sources

Assessment (Fact-based judgement)

• Assess a text by formulating a factual statement that is thoroughly justified
• Refer to the author's statements, considering the historical context
• Helpful questions to guide your assessment includes the following.
  • Are the author's statements critical, exaggerated, or positive?
  • How relevant was the source at the time?
  • What relevance does this source have from today's perspective?

Evaluation (Value Judgement)

• Evaluate a text by giving a personal opinion about the historical text
• Demonstrate a historically conscious evaluation

Introduction - Source Analysis Structure

• The introduction of a historical analysis presents the topic.
• Key facts to mention in your introduction include:
  • Type of text (e.g., diary entry, newspaper article, political speech)
  • Author
  • Title
  • Date and place of publication
  • Theme
  • Addressee
  • Author's intention
  • Type of source

Analyzing Sources - Types of Sources

• Types of sources include:
  • Source type
  • Written sources: letters, diary entries, etc.
  • Non-written sources: paintings, posters, maps, caricatures, etc.
  • Oral traditions: stories, contemporary witness reports, etc.
  • Primary (e.g., original source) or secondary source
  • Private (e.g., letters) or public sources (e.g., political speeches)
  • Self-testimony or external testimony
  • Tradition (written for posterity) or remains (discovered by chance)
  • Normative (evaluative) or descriptive sources

Analysis of the Historical Document

• After the summary, start with the actual historical analysis
• First, examine the argumentation structure of the text
  • Consider following guiding questions for a perfect source analysis:
  • What type of argumentation style is used? (e.g., factual argument, argument from authority)
  • Does the author start with the weakest or strongest argument?
  • Are there good examples to support arguments?
• Then examine the language of the historical source
  • Following questions help to analyze a source:
  • Does the author use linguistic devices? What effect do they have?
  • How is the choice of words and sentence structure?
  • Are there any striking word fields used?
  • Are there any technical terms?

Contextualization

• Identify events that can explain the origin of the source
• Establish connections between these events and the source
• Examine what happened during the individual events and their consequences
• Place the text in its historical context by explaining the historical, political, and social changes triggered by the source

Source Analysis History - Example

• Hitler's political speech can be understood in connection with World War II
• Since the founding of the Hitler Youth, the youth in Germany has developed positively
• The changing attitude of men in recent years also reflects a positive development
• This prompted Hitler to give a public address to the youth
• The intent was to praise the youth and further promote this positive development

Summarizing the Text

• Simply summarize the text
• For structured work, divide the historical text into sections before writing.
• Simplifies identifying connections and formulating the summary more quickly and in a more structured way.
• Remember to write the summary in the present tense and the author's statements in the subjunctive I, and to reproduce the content in own words
• Tip: For transition from the introduction to the main part, briefly discuss the author's intention and the addressees. Also, create a paragraph between the introduction and main part to indicate where the main part or the summary begins

Summary - Source Analysis Example

• The author begins their speech with...
• A historical source addresses...
• After introducing the thesis, the...