100 topics · Read, check sources and follow your curiosity.

A little room to wonder

History

Investigate the past through surviving evidence, careful questions and more than one perspective.

How can we know something about a time we did not experience?

An open Gutenberg Bible displayed behind glass in a library.
A surviving book can be examined as evidence about printing, materials and the people who preserved it.NYC Wanderer (Kevin Eng), 2009, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0. · Source · CC BY-SA 2.0

Start with a question

History is an investigation, not just a list of dates. A question such as “How did people send messages before mobile phones?” gives an inquiry a direction. Narrowing the place and period makes it possible to examine evidence in useful detail.

Sources can include objects, buildings, letters, photographs, newspapers and recorded accounts. A source made during the period can offer direct evidence, but it cannot automatically answer every question about that period.

Ask where a source came from

For each source, ask who made it, when, for whom and for what purpose. An advertisement may reveal what a company wanted people to believe. It is weaker evidence for whether every customer actually had that experience.

A later explanation can bring many sources together. Check which evidence supports its claims. “Primary” and “secondary” describe a source’s relationship to an inquiry; they are not simple labels for trustworthy and untrustworthy.

Compare, then explain

Imagine two fictional photographs of the same street, taken thirty years apart. One shows a tram and the other a bus. You can describe that difference, but you would need further dated evidence to explain when and why the transport changed.

Surviving records are incomplete. Some people had more opportunity to create records or have them preserved. A careful account states what the evidence supports, whose perspectives are missing and where uncertainty remains. New evidence can justify a revised explanation.

Only if you feel like trying

Make a tiny source investigation

  1. Choose an ordinary object you already have permission to examine, or use the book photograph here.
  2. Write three observations, then two questions about its maker, use or history.
  3. Separate what the object itself shows from what would need another source.

Optional. A fictional object is fine. No family history, private documents or contact with strangers is needed.