Chapter 4-Using the Sources

Not to be confused with the "sweetces" Sour, sweet,...and you can not believe I publish and emote comedy. This was probably the worst on-line joke in the history of on-line jokes. And this is what makes it a gem.

Here we go!

Using the Sources. Again, critical in this course. Historical construction means that we use the sources to make a case for what happened in the past. The last chapter profiled what historians use to accomplish this. This chapter looks at how historians "use" the sources. Sounds simple, but let's grapple with these questions as we read.

Key Words:
1. External Criticism
2. Internal Criticism
3. Cooroborate

1. Explain the 2 main methods by which new research is composed. Are these methods completed in isolation from one another, explain.


2. What are historical forgeries? What value can they be to the historian? Use the Donation of Constantine for your example. If you don't know too much about this, look this event up.

3. What kinds of questions are historians asking ( come up with 3) when they employ internal criticism to a document? (Great connection to the DBQ or Document Based Question--a type of essay for AP Euro).

4. Given the nature of using primary sources to construct the past, what does it mean to say the historian looks to corroborate them in a meaningful and deliberate manner?