Historical Thinking
What can cause two people to describe the same event differently?
Point of view
Different perspective
What is a limitation of a source?
Something that prevents a source from being reliable or useful for a given purpose
What type of source was created by someone who experienced, witnessed, or participation in the event being studied?
Primary source
Bias / point of view
How many continents are there?
7
What do historians use to learn about the past?
Sources/evidence
What is information from a source that can be used for a specific purpose?
Evidence
A historian writes a book in 1956 analyzing letters written by soldiers during World War I. What type of source is the historian's book?
Secondary source
What is something that can make a source less useful for a particular purpose?
A limitation
How many oceans are there?
5
A historian finds two sources that give different accounts of the same event. What should the historian do?
Compare the sources and examine their evidence and perspectives
What is a strong, one-sided opinion based more on emotion than evidence?
Bias
A newspaper reports on an event the day after it happened. Is the newspaper automatically a secondary source? Explain.
No. It can be a primary source because it was created during the time of the event.
A source is useful for learning about one person's experience but not everyone's. What is one limitation?
It only represents one person's perspectives
What are the four cardinal directions?
North, South, East and West
Why is there no single version of history?
Because historians construct accounts of the past from evidence, and different historians may interpret evidence differently.
What practice do historians use to determine who created a document, when and where it was created, and why it was created?
Sourcing
A photograph was taken in 1910, but a historian publishes it in a textbook in 2006. Which is the primary source: the photograph or the textbook?
The photograph
A source was created by someone who strongly supports one side of an issue. What should a historian consider when deciding how useful the source is?
The author's bias/point of view and how it may affect the source's reliability
An issue or challenge that has been experiences across time and place.
Yes. Its usefulness depends on the historian's purpose (what they are trying to learn)
A source may contain accurate information but still not be useful for a historian's specific research question. What concept explains this?
Reliability
A documentary made in 2026 includes an interview with someone describing what they personally experienced in 1960. Is the documentary a primary or secondary source?
The documentary is a secondary source, but the person's interview can provide primary-source (firsthand) evidence about their experience.
What should a historian consider when deciding whether a source is reliable? (4)
It's purpose, point of view, bias, and limitation
An enduring issue is a long lasting problem or challenge humans have faced discussed, and tried to solve across different time periods and cultures.
Name one enduring issues than can be found across different societies and time periods
- Conflict
-Inequality
-Power
-Environmental impact