Template:Secondary source

In historiography and other areas of scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed. Secondary sources are generally created for the purpose of generalization, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information.

The classifications of primary and secondary are relative classifications, and any given work may be classified differently depending upon the topic being discussed and the author's closeness to the facts of the issue. Because publication usually requires the presentation of new ideas or information, most published secondary sources can be considered primary to the extent they are the original source for the new ideas or information. For example, if a historical text discusses old documents to derive a new historical conclusion, it is considered to be a secondary source of information found in the old documents, but a primary source for the new conclusion. Likewise, a scientific article may review prior research in the field (for which the article is a secondary source), and at the same time present new results and theories based on the prior research, for which the article may be considered a primary source.

Definition of secondary sources

In historical scholarship, a secondary source is a study written by a scholar about a topic, and using primary sources and other secondary sources.

An example of a secondary source is the biography of a historical figure in which the author constructs a narrative out of a variety of primary source documents, such as letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, photographs, and official records. A scholarly secondary source is familiar with the existing secondary literature and seeks to engage it in terms of arguments and evidence. Most, but not all, secondary sources utilize extensive citation. Scholarly secondary sources are peer-reviewed by scholars before publication in book or article form, and books are reviewed and evaluated in the scholarly journals.

When a historian is writing about the historiography of topic ABC, the primary sources used are secondary sources written by scholars about ABC, with the goal of understanding the scholars.

Authorship

Secondary sources are often peer reviewed, and produced by institutions where methodological accuracy is important to the author's and publishing house's, or research institute's, reputation. Historians subject both primary and secondary sources to a high level of scrutiny.

Many scholars have commented on the difficulty in producing secondary source narratives from the "raw data" which makes up the past. Historian/philosopher Hayden White has written extensively on the ways in which the rhetorical strategies by which historians construct narratives about the past, and what sorts of assumptions about time, history, and events are embedded in the very structure of the historical narrative. In any case, the question of the exact relation between "historical facts" and the content of "written history" has been a topic of discussion among historians since at least the nineteenth century, when much of the modern profession of history came into being.

As a general rule, modern historians prefer to go back to primary sources, if available, as well as seeking new ones, because primary sources, whether accurate or not, offer new input into historical questions, and most modern history revolves around heavy use of archives for the purpose of finding useful primary sources. On the other hand, most undergraduate research projects are limited to secondary source material.

Secondary sources in family history

"A secondary source is a record or statement of an event or circumstance made by a non-eyewitness or by someone not closely connected with the event or circumstances, recorded or stated verbally either at or sometime after the event, or by an eye-witness at a time after the event when the fallibility of memory is an important factor." Consequently, an autobiography written after the event is a secondary source, even though it may be the first published description of an event. For example, many first hand accounts of events in the 1st world war that were written in the post war years were influenced by the then prevailing perception of the war which was significantly different from contemporary opinion.

Secondary sources in law

Secondary sources are often used in common law, to allow judges to determine what is actually meant by the language of a particular statute. See legislative intent.

See also

• Source text
• Primary source
• Tertiary source

References

• Jules R. Benjamin. A Student's Guide to History (2003)
• Edward H. Carr, What is History? (New York: Vintage Books, 1961).
• Wood Gray, Historian's handbook, a key to the study and writing of history (Houghton Mifflin, 1964).
• Derek Harland, A Basic Course in Genealogy: Volume two, Research Procedure and Evaluation of Evidence, (Bookcraft Inc, 1958)
• Richard Holmes. Tommy (HarperCollins, 2004)
• Martha C. Howell and Walter Prevenier. From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods (2001)
• Richard A. Marius and Melvin E. Page. A Short Guide to Writing About History (5th Edition) (2004)
• Hayden White, Metahistory: the historical imagination in nineteenth-century Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973).

Further reading

• Primary and secondary sources