Primary Sources Kenneth Walbert Summary

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Upon reviewing the article Reading Primary Sources, there are several themes in which I, as the reader, have discovered present throughout. First and foremost, Kathryn Walbert consistently supports the theme: analyzing the past is an essential step to understanding why humanity is where it is today. History, by Google definition, is both "the study of past events, particularly in human affairs," and "the whole series of past events connected with someone or something." In essence, history is a connected stream of events that leads up to now. It is through primary sources that historians have been able to create factual records of the past. The question is, why? As a species, mankind is defined by where they come from; this is history. Walbert discusses the importance of primary sources, stating that "historians must rely on records left behind" to understand the people …show more content…

Opinions, ideas, and beliefs arise due to differences in various aspects including, but not limited to, one's culture, location, and environment. At one point within the article, the author asks the audience "how [he/she] would fee if [they] were in the author's shoes?" Walbert intends for her audience to realize that different time periods express different ideas, often ones that contradict today's. Furthermore, she goes as far to ask how others during a given time period would react to a source. Here she encourages readers to question how one's status would affect their outlook on an event. "Individual perspectives [give individuals] different views and therefore different accounts." It is completely about perspective, hence the importance of trying to gain a view similar to the author of a source. As a historian this skill allows one to dig deeper into meanings behind sources and connect what the author says to the bigger historical

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