Primary sources fascinate students because they are real and they are personal; history is humanized through them. Using original sources, students touch the lives of the people about whom history is written. They participate in human emotions and in the values and attitudes of the past. By reading a series of public opinion surveys from World War II, for example, students confront the language of the person interviewed and his or her fears about shortages, as well as the interviewer's reactions recorded after the interview. These human expressions provide history with color and excitement and link students directly to its cast of characters.
Interpreting historical sources helps students to analyze and evaluate contemporary sources--newspaper reports, television and radio programs, and advertising. By using primary sources, students learn to recognize how a point of view and a bias affect evidence, what contradictions and other limitations exist within a given source, and to what extent sources are reliable. Essential among these skills is the ability to understand and make appropriate use of many sources of information. Development of these skills is important not only to historical research but also to a citizenship where people are able to evaluate the information needed to maintain a free society.
emilysarah03 on 27 Sep 11This is a collection of the 100 most influential documents according to the U.S. government. It would be interesting to have students read these throughout the year, and rank them on their own list of most influential. It also helps students understand how great of an impact a document can have on a country's history.
Ann Maass on 04 Oct 11A site that would be great for any American History class. It has digital copies of the 100 most important documents in US History. I think that it would be used with high school students in an American History or Government class. Students are able to click on the list of documents they'd like to see and an image of the actual document appears. It can be enlarged so it's a little easier to see. Due to their age, some of these documents are difficult to read, but there an option for students to read the document transcript.
Deborah Nichols on 09 Oct 11This is a list of the top 100 primary source documents as chossen by this website. One of the great features of this is it is easily manageable. It has documents from 1776 to 1965. The links take you to both a printer friendly version of the document and a digital image of the primary document. You can see George Washington and President Kennedy's handwriting also.
