Estimated time to complete this section: 90 minutes
Answering questions about the contexts of your primary sources requires drawing on secondary sources, material that contains the research of other historians.
4.2 Readings
- Rotenstein, David, “Public art and history: Silver Spring’s Memory Wall.” History Sidebar, May 25, 2017. (Estimated Read Time = 5 minutes)
- Rotenstein, David, “Silver Spring’s History is Racially Biased. Let’s Fix It.” History Sidebar, November 28, 2017. (Estimated Read Time = 5 minutes)
- Jake Orlowitz, “You’re a Researcher Without a Library: What do you do?” (Estimated Read Time = 15 minutes)
As the reading from Rotenstein demonstrates, thinking about history involves more than documenting the features of a particular geographic space. In order to make sense of local historical events, it is necessary to assess the broader social, cultural, economic, and political contexts in which they occurred. In this module, we turn to secondary sources to enhance our understanding of local history.
Scholarly secondary sources draw on primary sources and the work of other scholars to offer an interpretation of history. These works evaluate, analyze, synthesize, summarize, and interpret primary sources and construct narratives about the past.
Examples include:
- Reference books
- Journal articles
- Historical monographs
- Biographies of historical figures
- Critical studies
- Exhibitions
- Audio projects (such as podcasts)
- Documentary films
A key task of studying local history is identifying which secondary sources will be useful for your project. Much like primary source research, there are a number of local repositories with secondary source material. Depending on your status as a researcher, there may be barriers in accessing some types of material. As Jake Orlowitz described in his article, some institutions, like libraries and universities, may provide limited access to online databases and other resources.
Activity 4.2: Survey your own Secondary Resources
- Using your research question as a starting point, create a survey of secondary resources available to you that considers the following:
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- What types of secondary resources are available at your local institutions that can help to answer your question?
- Are there library guides on your subjects or time periods?
- Which subjects have not been covered?
2. Create a bibliography of 5-10 secondary sources for your project. Annotate each source with the context questions from your list for which it could provide answers.
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- If you are finding it a challenge to organize the secondary sources you collect for a project, we suggest that you use Zotero, a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. Working through the Zotero tutorial provides an opportunity to consider how it might be useful for this project or for your patrons.